In pictures: Destruction and fear as war hits Ukraine
- Published
Russian forces have launched a military assault on neighbouring Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near big cities.

In a handout picture from the Ukrainian State Emergency Service, rescuers work at the crash site of a Ukrainian Armed Forces' Antonov aircraft, shot down in the Kyiv region.


A security booth knocked over at the Perekop checkpoint, connecting the Crimean peninsula to the Ukrainian mainland.


Ukrainian servicemen get ready to repel an attack in the Lugansk region.


A man shows the result of shelling by Russian troops in a residential area in Piatykhatky, Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine.


Bloodstains are seen on the stairs in a residential building following shelling in Piatykhatky.


Damage caused by shelling in Piatykhatky.


Civilians shelter in a metro station in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in a photo taken by Victoria Vota. "We are trying to stay strong," she said.


Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuhuiv, near the north-eastern city of Kharkiv.


A man sits outside a destroyed building in Chuhuiv, following bombings.


A rocket is embedded in a road after recent shelling on the outskirts of Kharkiv.


People wait in a traffic jam as they attempt to leave the city of Kharkiv.


Elsewhere in the country, another traffic jam forms as people try to leave the capital Kyiv.


Crowds attempt to evacuate the capital by bus.


Others queue at the border crossing between Ukraine and Poland, in an attempt to flee the country.


A CCTV image issued by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine reportedly shows Russian military vehicles moving across the border from Crimea into Ukraine.


Firefighters try to extinguish a fire after an airstrike hit an apartment complex in Chuhuiv.


The firefighters climbed through wreckage to rescue civilians.


A woman tends to her wounds after the airstrike.


Smoke is seen coming out of a military installation near the airport in the south-eastern city of Mariupol.


Ukrainian tanks move into Mariupol.


A handout photo from the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's press service shows the aftermath of an explosion at a military unit building in Kyiv.


Also in Kyiv, police and security personnel inspect the remains of a shell in a street.


People watch the police and security personnel work from behind a cordoned-off area.


Crowds gather at ATMs in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, as people try to withdraw money.


A Ukrainian military helicopter flies over a fuel station outside the city of Dnipro.
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