Russian ground forces invade Ukraine after strikes overnight
Russia launched strikes across Ukraine overnight with an apparent focus on the country's military infrastructure as a precursor to land incursions that were now under way.
In response, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to "weaken Russia's economic base and its capacity to modernise" after what she said had been a "barbaric attack" against Ukraine.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to announce tougher sanctions against Russia later on Thursday and to give a televised statement.
In a message posted to his Twitter account, Johnson said that he would speak to "fellow G7 leaders and I am calling for an urgent meeting of all NATO leaders as soon as possible."
Russian armoured vehicles had now reportedly crossed into Ukraine from Crimea and there were reports that tank units had reached the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city which is located in the country's north east and near the border with Russia.
Other reports indicated that Russian tank columns had entered Ukraine from Belarus.
Explosions were reportedly still being heard in several Ukrainian cities, including in the capital Kiev, with footage showing long lines of cars jamming roads as residents fleed.
Strikes in the centre and west of Ukraine had reportedly focused on airfields.
Western governments and perhaps farther afield were expected to respond with massive sanctions which, apart from isolating Russia, might even have global implications.
Strikingly, recent polls conducted in Russia appeared to show quite limited support for a military intervention, something that seemed to be mirrored in accounts from western correspondents in Moscow.
According to polls conducted by Russia's Levada Center in mid-December 2021, half of respondents believed that the US and NATO initiated the aggravation of the situation in eastern Ukraine.
On 17 February, Mary Chesnut an associate research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses’ (CNA) Russia Studies Program, said that result might reflect "vastly different cultural and historical perspectives, or to the success of Russian propagandistic tools to control the narrative at home."
Nonetheless, Chesnut pointed to another poll from April 2021 showing that Russians were apparently split right down the middle when it came to Russia engaging in armed conflict to help Ukraine's breakaway republics in case of an outbreak in hostilities.
Many in the same poll also believed a full-scale war would in fact hurt Russian President, Vladimir Putin's, popularity.
On Thursday, Bloomberg's Clara Ferreira Marques labelled the scale of Putin's actions remarkable and not just "given his scant regard for repercussions, an effort to destroy a neighbour and destabilise the region.
"It's also the scale of the delusion, when it comes to the threat posed by NATO and - crucially - his country's long-term ability to bear the human and financial costs of isolation."