Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized "a special military operation" in Donbas, and Ukraine confirmed that military targets across the country were under attack.
A total of 11 airfields, three command posts, a Ukrainian naval base, and 18 radar stations of the S-300 and Buk-M1 air defence missile systems were among the facilities destroyed, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday.
Panic was seen among the people in all the areas. Lakhs of people spent day and night in subways, metro stations, and underground shelters. In many places, people saw a shortage of essential goods. The pictures from Ukraine are widely circulating on social media.
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Meanwhile, the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) have both denied the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday in a press briefing that "we have made it clear that we do not have any plans and intentional deploying NATO troops to Ukraine".
The White House on Wednesday said the US would not be in a war with Russia or put troops on the ground in Ukraine.