Russia Attacks Ukraine As Putin Defies World Leaders Not To Invade

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — A series of explosions rocked multiple cities across Ukraine early Thursday moments after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation against the country that he said was meant to force the central government and Ukrainian troops to surrender.

Ukraine’s Interior Ministry confirmed that “missiles have just struck at the center of the Military Administration, airfields, military depots, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro.” Artillery shelling was also reported at border areas.

In Kramatorsk, three or four explosions reverberated across the city of 150,000 residents in the Donetsk region that sits 30 miles west of the front line. It was not immediately clear what the explosions were, but Ukrainian officials told BuzzFeed News and other media that cruise missiles had been used on military installations around Ukraine.

Three residents of Kharkiv told BuzzFeed News in a series of text messages that they were awakened before dawn by a series of explosions that rocked the city of 1 million people near the Russian border.

“We will probably leave the city,” one woman said, asking that her name not be used for security reasons. “Don’t understand how this can happen in the 21st Century.”