Photos: Russian forces invade Ukraine

·3 min read

Russia invaded Ukraine, its neighbor to the west, early on Thursday morning local time, marking the outbreak of the largest land war in Europe since World War II. "The Russian military plunged into Ukraine by land, sea and air on Thursday, killing more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians," the New York Times reported on Friday morning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his goal is the "demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine," a reference to Russian state media propaganda that falsely portrays Ukraine as dominated by fascists and abusive toward its ethnic Russian minority.

A close-up shot of a wounded woman with a black eye and large bandages on her blood-stained face stands outside a large building.
A wounded Ukrainian woman stands outside a hospital after the bombing of the eastern town of Chuguiv on Feb. 24. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian cities were immediately bombed, including Kharkiv and the capital city, Kyiv. Newborn infants have been moved into makeshift bomb shelters. Many Ukrainians attempted to flee to the country's western neighbors, such as Poland, causing traffic jams and gasoline shortages. Meanwhile, a number of Ukrainian civilians have volunteered to take up arms to defend their country.

The United States and its European allies have imposed economic sanctions on Russia and condemned its aggression.

Ukrainians in civilian clothes take aim with wooden rifles during an open military training for civilians.
Ukrainians take part in a military training for civilians on Feb. 12 organized by the Lviv Region Defence HQ at a skeet shooting range as part of Ukraine's Don't Panic! Prepare! campaign. (Mykola Tys/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A score of Russian tanks in a series of parallel paths make their way across rough ground.
Russian tanks on the move during the Union Courage-2022 Russia-Belarus military drills in Belarus on Feb. 19. (Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr/AP Photo)
A group of residents of all ages, including a middle-aged woman pointing a gun into the air, assemble on a beach with twin towers in the background.
Residents of Kyiv attend an open training for civilians by war veterans and volunteers to teach basic weapons handling and first aid on Feb 20. (Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
A major explosion against a twilit sky, with trails of smoke.
View of an explosion near Dnipro, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine. (via Reuters)
Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a multistory, bombed-out building with many broken windows.
Firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a damaged residential building in a Kyiv suburb early on Feb. 25. (Ukraine Emergency Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A young man in a weatherproof jacket stands in front of a framelike structure from which a shredded screen is hanging.
A resident of Kyiv surveys a structure damaged by a rocket on Feb. 24. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Large numbers of Ukrainian in warm clothes and hats gather around buses in front of a shawarma restaurant and bar.
Prospective passengers wait to evacuate at the bus station in Kyiv on Feb. 24. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)
Residents of all ages, including a woman in a fur hood, lie huddled in the Kyiv subway.
People huddle in the Kyiv subway on Feb. 25, using it as a bomb shelter. (Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)
Ukrainian servicemen patrol a bombed-out scene of destruction, with a still-smoking house in the background.
Ukrainian servicemen walk past fragments of a downed aircraft in Kyiv on Feb. 25. (Oleksandr Ratushniak/AP Photo)
A child on a swing in front of a bombed-out building as residents mill around.
Ukrainian civilians gather outside a residential building hit by a missile in Kyiv on Feb. 25. (Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
A man with white hair surrounded by debris prostrates himself over a lifeless body lying face down on the ground.
A Ukrainian man in the eastern town of Chuguiv clutches the body of a relative outside a destroyed building on Feb. 24. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
A boy dimly lit in red light lies propped on a pillow on the ground looking at his electronic device.
A boy named Svyatoslav, 6, plays with his tablet in a public basement used as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, on Feb. 24. (Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)
Smoke surrounds two radar structures, with a row of truck tires laid out in the foreground.
Smoke rises from an air defense base in the aftermath of an apparent Russian strike in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Feb. 24. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)
A middle-aged woman in rainwear holds a gold cross painted with Orthodox icons to her forehead.
A Ukrainian woman prays on Independence Square in Kyiv on the morning of Feb. 24. (Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images)
Lithuanians in a large plaza hold flags, including blue-and gold Ukrainian flags, and banners reading
Lithuanians gather on Feb. 24 near Parliament in the capital, Vilnius, to protest the Russian attack on Ukraine. (Paulius Peleckis/Getty Images)

Where are Russian forces attacking Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out.

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