Russia launched a multipronged attack against Ukraine on Thursday, with explosions audible in some of the country's largest cities, including Kyiv, the capital, in what President Joe Biden called "a premeditated war."
The assault came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on state television that Russia was beginning a military operation for the "demilitarization and denazification" of eastern Ukraine. He said that Russia did not intend to occupy the country. But explosions were occurring across a wide swath of Ukraine's territory, not just near separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, suggesting that at least for now, Russia intended a far wider operation.