Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Thursday with missile strikes and quickly developed into attacks on three fronts that included airstrikes, tanks, and infantry attacking key targets, leaving over 130 Ukrainians dead. Ukrainian casualties included ten military officers and an additional 316 people wounded. Russian troops entered the capital of Kyiv and reportedly took control of the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Russia’s losses were reported at over 30 tanks, about 130 armoured vehicles, 7 aircraft and 6 helicopters.

The United Nations confirmed that more than 100,000 people have been internally displaced in Ukraine.

Ukraine responded with a general mobilization of the population. The country is also prohibiting Ukrainian males aged 18–60 from leaving the country.

Ukraine’s army says that Russia fired on civilian areas of Kyiv.

Horrific Russian rocket strikes on Kyiv. Last time our capital experienced anything like this was in 1941 when it was attacked by Nazi Germany. Ukraine defeated that evil and will defeat this one. Stop Putin. Isolate Russia. Severe all ties. Kick Russia out of everywhete.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 25, 2022

On Sunday, three U.S. officials told Newsweek they expect Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to fall to incoming Russian forces within days, and the country’s resistance to be effectively neutralized soon thereafter.

Thousands of residents are crowding the subways to take shelter from the attacks.

“After the air and artillery end and the ground war really starts, I think Kyiv falls in just a few days,” the former senior U.S. intelligence officer told Newsweek on the condition of anonymity. “The military may last slightly longer,” the former intelligence officer added, “but this isn’t going to last long.”

“Then it either becomes a robust insurgency or it doesn’t, depending largely on Biden,” the former senior U.S. intelligence officer said.

The Ukrainian president sent out pleas for help.

“We have been left alone to defend our state,”  Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said in an emotional video address to the nation after midnight.  “Who is ready to fight alongside us? I don’t see anyone. Who is ready to give Ukraine a guarantee of NATO membership? Everyone is afraid.”

Earlier, he tweeted that “Russia has embarked on a path of evil, but Ukraine is defending itself and won’t give up its freedom.”

He added that  “the enemy has designated me as the target number one, and my family as the target number two”.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi released a statement on Thursday claiming that Ukrainian forces destroyed at least four Russian tanks and dozens of armored vehicles and downed up to six Russian planes and two helicopters. They reported that approximately 50 Russian troops were killed. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also reported that Ukraine was targeted by four ballistic missiles from the direction of Belarus. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Crisis Center, for its part, reported more than 30 strikes with Kaliber cruise missiles, multiple-launch rocket systems, aircraft and artillery against Ukrainian civil and military infrastructure. The Russian army claimed to have destroyed 74 military facilities, including 11 airfields in Ukraine.

President Biden responded with more sanctions but refrained from initiating more severe economic measures which would include cutting Russia off from the SWIFT system, a key financial network that connects thousands of banks around the world. The Pentagon is set to deploy 7,000 additional troops to Germany.

Putin warned off foreign intervention with a veiled threat of a nuclear response, saying, “No one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to the destruction and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.”

Ukraine requested from Turkey, a NATO ally, that they block Russian warships from passing through the Dardanelles or Bosphorus straits, which link the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. The Turkish government refused.