Sergei Goryashko, BBC Russian, Moscow

Shock, horror and bewilderment - three words which could describe the mood of many in the Russian capital Moscow this morning.

As soon as the news of the military assault against Ukraine emerged, Muscovites began exchanging messages, asking each other what they should be doing - stock up on food or on US dollars?

Others question what will happen to the rouble after the Moscow Stock Exchange paused trading.

There are queues at banks and currency exchange points and the police presence in the streets has also increased.

Those opposed to the war against Ukraine are discussing the possibility of holding a rally in Moscow this evening.

Permission for such a rally is unlikely to be granted. Individual protesters who had been picketing in the past few days were quickly detained by police.

Opinion polls conducted before the military action began indicated around half of all Russians did not believe a war with Ukraine was possible.

A vast majority of those questioned blamed the current escalation of tensions with the West on Nato.

Paul Adams
BBC News in Kyiv

There are reports, seemingly confirmed by a Ukrainian official, that Russian tanks are already in Kharkhiv, Ukraine's second largest city.

This is all happening so fast.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine "is a catastrophe for our continent", Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tweeted.

He confirmed he would make a statement to the nation this morning, as we reported earlier, and speak to fellow G7 leaders later today.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has also said that he will issue weapons to everyone who wants them, according to state media.

You might recall having seen lots of images of Ukrainian civilians undergoing basic military training in recent weeks as tensions ramped up with Russia.

Ukraine has officially severed diplomatic ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukrainian territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky has told a press briefing.

Image source, Getty Images

A crescendo of condemnation is building as the world wakes up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"These are among the darkest hours for Europe since World War Two" - those were the words of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

He says a major nuclear power attacking a neighbouring country and threatening reprisals on any state that could come to its rescue is "the greatest violation of international law" and a "violation of the basic principles of human co-existence".

The EU will impose the harshest sanctions it has ever enacted, he says.

The UK's Boris Johnson said he was "appalled by the horrific events in Ukraine" and that Vladimir Putin "has chosen a path of bloodshed and destruction by launching this unprovoked attack".

The UK would respond decisively, he said.

France's Emmanuel Macron - who spent hours in a one-to-one meeting with Putin and also spoke to him several times by phone - said Russia must halt its military action.

Germany's economy minister Robert Habeck said Europe was seeing a land war "that we thought was only to find in history books".

Earlier US President Joe Biden said Putin had "chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering". The world would hold Russia accountable, he said.

He said he would address Americans on Thursday about consequences Russia would face.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make a televised statement about the Russian military assault on Ukraine and the UK’s response, the BBC has been told.

This will be followed by a statement to MPs in the House of Commons at 17:00 GMT.

The prime minister is expected to announce the next round of UK sanctions against Russia after chairing Cobra emergency talks with ministers this morning.

In a tweet, external, Johnson said Putin had "chosen a path of bloodshed” and vowed to “respond decisively” in concert with allies.

The first round of sanctions, announced on Monday, targeted five Russian banks and three Russian billionaires, whose assets were frozen.

Earlier, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly warned of "the largest and most severe economic sanctions" package Russia had ever seen in response to the attack on Ukraine.

Traffic jams formed in the capital Kyiv early on Thursday as residents tried to leave the city after Russian forces launched its military assault on Ukraine.

Elsewhere, residents sought shelter in stations - and queues formed for buses, cashpoints and petrol.

Despite the obvious concern, Ukraine's government is appealing for calm, and has urged both the media and Ukrainian citizens to check all information they receive before sharing it - warning that fake news is one of the greatest threats to the country.

Serhiy Nykyforov, Ukraine's presidential spokesman, says Russia is counting on major panic in Ukraine and asks people "to stay strong".

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian journalist Lyubov Velychko lives near a military base near the capital Kyiv.

She says she woke up at 4.30am and “heard very loud sounds” and didn’t know what was going on. She says she went outside and saw “something that looked like fire”.

Velychko says her neighbours are shocked and she saw some of them in tears, adding “we were hiding our children at 5am in cellars”.

Later she went to the military base and says it was “bombed by the rockets from the air” and two people died.

“I counted seven rockets,” she says.

She is now leaving the city with her family and says she “doesn’t feel safe” because she heard Russian tanks are near the border with Belarus, which is 80km from her home.

Orla Guerin
BBC News in eastern Ukraine

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainians awoke to war on their country, and to the reality of a Russian attack that was long forecast and long feared.

Here in eastern Ukraine there is tension, uncertainty, and fear. Shock is written on some faces.

We saw queues at cash machines, and at petrol stations in the town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.

As he waiting to fill his Lada, Sergei Barleez told us he wanted to be ready to leave with his family just in case. His wife sat in the backseat with their infant son.

A young mother called Natalia - with her two-year-old daughter in a stroller - visibly shook as she told us she had heard the explosions in the night.

“It’s very frightening,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen next. I was told to collect my daughter from kindergarten and take her home. All the parents were told. Now we have to stay indoors.”

Image source, Reuters

Ukrainian state air traffic services has closed the country's airspace as the country comes under attack.

It suspended all flights at 02:45 Kyiv time (00.45 GMT) "due to the high risk of aviation safety for civil aviation".

It added: "The provision of air traffic services to civilian users of the airspace of Ukraine is suspended."

Ryanair says it has cancelled all flights to and from Ukraine for at least the next 14 days.

People in Kyiv don’t quite realise what’s happening to thempublished at 09:04 Greenwich Mean Time 24 February 2022

09:04 GMT 24 February 2022

Paul Adams
BBC diplomatic correspondent

A gentle soul just brought me my breakfast here in Kyiv. She said she thought everything would be ok. But everything so far is working out the way Western officials warned it might. They also said Russian forces would arrive in Kyiv “within days” of the start of an attack.

Even now, it seems, a lot of people here don’t quite realise what’s happening to them. But judging by the roads jammed with cars, heading out of the city, a lot of other people do.

This is a monumental shock in a country which doesn’t believe it poses a threat to anyone. Unfortunately, for the man in the Kremlin, it poses a threat simply by existing.

For everything liberal, open-minded Ukrainians here have tried so hard to achieve in the past decade, this is a profound tragedy.

Weapons are to be distributed to military veterans in Ukraine as a response to Russia's action, Reuters news agency is reporting, quoting police.

It comes amid reports that Ukrainians are being encouraged to join the country's territorial defence units.

Image source, Reuters

If you're just joining us this morning and waking up to the news of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, here's where things stand:

• In a TV address at 05:55 Moscow time (02:55 GMT), Russia's Vladimir Putin announced a "military operation" in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region
• Putin said Russia was acting in self-defence. He urged Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons. Any intervention by outside powers against Russia would get an "instant" response, he said
• Russia has hit Ukrainian infrastructure with missiles, Ukraine says. It also says it has shot down Russian aircraft - which Moscow denies
• Convoys of troops and tanks have entered Ukraine from all directions. One convoy has crossed from Belarus at a point to the north of the capital Kyiv. Another has entered from Crimea in the south, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014
• At least eight people are reported to have been killed
• There are long traffic jams as residents try to flee the capital Kyiv. Other residents have sought shelter in metro stations. BBC correspondents say that although people expected an attack, the scale of the invasion has taken them by surprise
• Ukraine has declared martial law. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has urged devastating sanctions, including banning Russia from the international Swift bank transfer system
• Oil prices have jumped to more than $100 a barrel for the first time in seven years. The Russian currency, the rouble, has plunged to an all-time low against the dollar and euro; UK markets have plunged
• There has been a chorus of condemnation from world leaders: US President Joe Biden said the war would bring "catastrophic loss of life"; UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "appalled" by the "unprovoked attack"

Read more - What we know about the invasion

Image source, Reuters

Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has described the scenes of people leaving their homes in Ukraine as "a human tragedy".

He's told BBC Breakfast that "to see these columns of people forced out by naked aggression by Russia and by Vladimir Putin is horrific and extremely painful".

Tugendhat says: "We should be thinking very clearly about the families torn apart, the lives separated" and he's repeated calls for tougher economic sanctions on Russia.

PM Boris Johnson - who is chairing Cobra emergency talks - is set to unveil more sanctions against Russia to MPs later.

Missile strikes and explosions have been reported in several parts of Ukraine, including Kyiv and Kharkiv.

In a pre-dawn TV statement, Putin said Russia did not plan to occupy Ukraine and demanded that its military lay down their arms.

Moments later, attacks were reported on Ukrainian military targets.

Ukraine said that Russia had launched a "full-scale invasion".

Ukraine's border guard service, the DPSU, has released photos of what it says is a Russian military convoy crossing into southern Ukraine from the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Moscow in 2014.

The DPSU says Russian troops fired artillery shells before sending their military vehicles across.

Ukraine says Russian military columns have also crossed in the north from Belarus and from Russia in the east.

Image source, DPSU via Reuters

This was the moment Russia's President Vladimir Putin declared a "special military operation" in Ukraine's Donbas region, which was followed by what appears to be a large-scale assault from several sides of the country.

Speaking in the early hours Moscow time, the Russian president said his country did not plan to occupy Ukraine - but added Moscow's response would be "instant" if anyone tried to stop its action.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that martial law was being imposed across Ukraine.

Ukraine's former president and current lawmaker Petro Poroshenko has said "today is a tragic day" but that Ukraine will prevail.

He was speaking outside parliament as MPs hold crisis talks in Kyiv.

Poroshenko, who was in office from 2014-19, also compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to a modern-day Hitler.

The situation in Ukraine's parliament is tense, and there are many armed people inside, a Ukrainian journalist in the building tells the BBC.

Steve Rosenberg
BBC Moscow Correspondent

Despite weeks of diplomatic efforts with world leaders visiting the Russian president, it appears the full invasion of Ukraine was the plan all along.

Vladimir Putin made it clear that he sees Ukraine as threat to Russian security.

Russia's president has made it clear that he does not view modern Ukraine as a sovereign nation.

He looks at it as a construct, something that was built by Russia, as a territory that should belong in Russia’s orbit.

He’s taken the decision to move with this action to force Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

What happens after, we simply don’t know. But what is happening today really is a watershed, it's a sign that Putin has decided to ignore the West and move on with his plans.