Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr Zelenskyy, are putting up "stiff resistance," according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24 as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation."
Russians moving from Belarus towards Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, don't appear to have advanced closer towards the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the U.S., Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting Russia's economy and Putin himself.
Here's how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Feb 24, 2022, 2:18 PM EST
7,000 more US troops deploying to Europe to reassure NATO allies
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the direction of the president, has ordered 7,000 more U.S. troops to Germany "to reassure NATO Allies, deter Russian aggression and be prepared to support a range of requirements," a senior defense official said.
The troops are expected to deploy in the coming days, the official said.
-ABC News' Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 2022, 2:08 PM EST
US official says this is 'initial phases of a large-scale invasion'
There are movements of Russian military and special forces coming into Ukraine from many directions, according to the officials: from the northeast via Russia; from the south via Moscow-annexed Crimea; and from the north via both Belarus and Russia.
U.S. intelligence believe these three axes were "designed to take key population centers" and that the early moves from the north toward Kyiv indicate an intention to remove the Ukrainian government, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters at the Pentagon.
"What we're seeing are initial phases of a large-scale invasion," the official said.
A Russian Ka-52 helicopter gunship is seen in the field after a forced landing outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022. Russia on Thursday unleashed a barrage of air and missile strikes on Ukrainian facilities across the country.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
The initial attack included an estimate of more than 100 Russian-launched missiles -- mostly short-range ballistic missiles but also some medium-range ones -- and about 75 fixed-wing heavy and medium bombers. So far, the targets are mostly Ukrainian military infrastructure and air defense systems, the official said, adding that U.S. intelligence does not yet have a good sense of total damages or casualties.
The official could not give an exact estimate of how many Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine thus far but said that, at this early stage, it is certainly a minority of the 150,000 troops that were massed near the borders.
People wait in a traffic jam as they leave the city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation against the country, Feb. 24, 2022.
Antonio Bronic/Reuters
U.S. intelligence have seen indications that Ukrainian troops "are resisting and fighting back," the official said. Some fighting has been seen around the airport in Kyiv. But the heaviest fighting is currently occurring in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, some 300 miles east of Kyiv, according to the official.
"We have not seen the Russians thus far move into the western part of Ukraine," the official said. "We don't know exactly where things are going to unfold."
The U.S. official said Russia has conducted "ground incursion from Belarus to the northwest of Kyiv, and we have seen at least some indications of air assault incursions into Kharkiv."
"So missile, long range fires, and then there has been some insertion of troops both from the air and on the ground in the north," the official summarized.
"We haven't seen a conventional move like this, nation state to nation state [in Europe], since World War II," the official said, "It has every potential to be very bloody, very costly and very impactful on European security writ large."
The official said he did not have a number on casualties.
-ABC News' Matt Seyler
Feb 24, 2022, 1:13 PM EST
Ukraine loses control of key airport on edge of Kyiv: Ukraine official
Ukraine has lost control of a key military airport that is located less than 20 miles from the center of the capital Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s deputy interior minister.
Russian special forces landed at the Hostomel airport just on the edge of Kyiv earlier Thursday and after fierce fighting the base remains in Russian hands, deputy minister Anton Gerashchenko said.
This photograph taken on Feb. 24, 2022, shows smoke rising near the town of Hostomel and the Antonov Airport, in northwest Kyiv, Ukraine.
Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images
-ABC News' Patrick Reevell
Feb 24, 2022, 1:00 PM EST
UK announces new package of sanctions
The United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced a new package of sanctions in the House of Commons targeting over 100 Russian entities and individuals.
In this screen grab from video, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a statement to MPs on the situation in Ukraine following Russia's invasion on the early morning, in the House of Commons, in London, on Feb. 24, 2022.
PRU via AFP via Getty Images
Johnson said this would totally exclude Russian banks from the U.K. financial system, adding, "oligarchs in London will have nowhere to hide."
He vowed, "We will continue on a relentless mission to squeeze Russia from the global economy” as Putin seeks to “redraw the map of Europe in blood.”
Police officers detain a woman during a protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Moscow on Feb. 24, 2022.