Fear and defiance grip the citizens of Ukraine’s capital as Russia’s attack begins

UKRAINIANS WOKE up on February 24th to the worst news imaginable—if they had managed to sleep at all. Rumours had trickled out the night before that this time the long-predicted of all Ukraine would finally come to pass. At 4.30am came the announcement from Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, that his plan to “denazify” Ukraine was under way. Missiles almost immediately hit Boryspil airport on Kyiv’s outskirts, and air-raid sirens rang out at dawn. War has been a fixture of life for Ukrainians since Mr Putin’s first invasion, in 2014, but largely confined to its south-east. That old reality has vanished. Taking its place is a new kind of war: national and all-consuming.A blizzard of reports suggested that Russian troops have crossed from Ukraine’s south towards Kherson and from the northern border with Belarus, just 60km from Kyiv, though confirmation was hard to come by. The biggest incursion so far seems to be from the east, near Kharkiv, where there are already reports of civilian deaths and of Russian troops reaching the city outskirts. Viral images showed explosions and heavy fire elsewhere around the country, as well as several destroyed bridges. Ukraine’s defence ministry claims to have shot down six Russian planes and a helicopter near the frontline in Donbas; the Russians deny it. The government also claims to have destroyed a number of Russian tanks, and to have repulsed the initial attacks: again, this has not been confirmed.