Several explosions were reportedly heard outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Thursday, as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his forces were conducting a military operation to disarm the country but not take it over.

       Russian military vehicles move toward the border in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

       (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

       A Ukrainian serviceman speaks on a walkie-talkie at his position near rebel-held territory near Svitlodarsk, eastern Ukraine.

       (Evgeniy Maloletka / Associated Press)

       A wounded woman in an apartment complex damaged by an airstrike outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.

       (Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

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       A man mourns near a body after an airstrike at an apartment complex outside Kharkiv, Ukraine.

       (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

       Residents leave Kyiv after pre-offensive missile strikes by Russia.

       (Pierre Crom / Getty Images)

       Civilians are evacuated from the Donetsk region under the control of pro-Russian separatists.

       (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

       Girls hold their mobile phones as they take refuge in a Kyiv metro station.

       (Daniel Leal / AFP via Getty Images)

       People stand at the doorway to a basement they use as a bomb shelter in the town of Schastia, near the eastern Ukraine city of Lugansk.

       (Aris Messinis / AFP via Getty Images)

       Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day in Moscow on Wednesday.

       (Alexey Nikolsky / SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

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