Russia Invades Ukraine, Aims to Oust Zelensky Government

KYIV, Ukraine—Russian armored columns pushed into Ukraine, airstrikes hit dozens of cities and airborne troops landed at a navy airfield on the outskirts of the capital on Thursday after President Vladimir Putin requested an offensive that he reported was aimed at toppling the governing administration in Kyiv, drawing condemnation and new sanctions from the U.S. and its allies.

“They are killing people and reworking peaceful cities into armed forces targets,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, reported in a television tackle in Kyiv after midnight. “That’s villainous and will never be forgiven.”