Ukraine-Russia Conflict: Ukraine claims to have prevented Russian soldiers from entering the capital

            Airborne assault soldiers blew up a bridge over the Teteriv River in Ivankiv, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Kyiv, to prevent a Russian column of forces from reaching the city, according to Ukraine’s Defence Ministry.

According to the Ukraine Ministry, the Russian advance has been halted. Meanwhile, in the early hours of Friday morning, US authorities determined that Russian soldiers had invaded Ukraine across the Belarus border and were only 32 kilometres (20 miles) away from the city.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin started a military operation in Ukraine early Thursday, with explosions heard across the nation and the country’s foreign minister warning of a “full-scale invasion”. Blasts were heard in numerous major cities throughout the eastern European country in the hours that followed, and the news agency Reuters reported missile attacks on Ukrainian military sites in the capital, Kyiv. In the Luhansk region, the military reported it shot down five Russian planes and one military helicopter. Russia eventually admitted that it had devastated Ukrainian airbases and air defences.