Russia appears to be targeting military infrastructure in early strikes with explosions reported at airfields, military headquarters and military warehouses

• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live updates

Russian forces have unleashed an attack of Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin, who announced a “special military operation” at dawn, amid warnings from world leaders that it could spark the biggest war in Europe since 1945.

Within minutes of Putin’s short televised address, at about 5am Ukrainian time, explosions were heard near major Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv.

Ukraine crisis has thrust Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik into centre of events, amid claim they are puppets of Putin

• Ukraine crisis: live updates

For many Russians, it was an unfamiliar sight to see the faces of the two leaders of the pro-Kremlin proxy states in eastern Ukraine pop up on their television screens last Friday, announcing the mass evacuation of Donbas citizens to Russia.

Since then, however, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, heads of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk, have seen their political profiles rocket, culminating on Monday with the two leaders asking the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to recognise their “republics”.

Kyiv mobilises reserves and advises estimated 3 million people to depart in latest sign it believes Putin plans to invade

• Ukraine crisis: live updates

Ukraine has declared a state of emergency, mobilised reserves and told nearly 3 million of its citizens to leave Russia, as the US warned that Vladimir Putin had assembled almost 100% of the forces needed to launch a large-scale invasion of the country.

As Russian diplomats evacuated their embassy in the capital, the Ukrainian government said a massive cyber-attack had targeted ministries and banks on Wednesday. Officials have warned that Russia could use elements of hybrid warfare to sow confusion before launching an all-out military assault.

Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is ready to look for 'diplomatic solutions' over Ukraine, but stressed that Russia’s interests were non-negotiable.

In a video address on Wednesday morning, the Russian president said his country would continue to develop state-of-the-art weapons.

His speech follows Russia’s unanimous approval to deploy 'peacekeepers' to two self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk now recognised by Moscow as independent

• Ukraine crisis: live updates

Analysis: advance forces’ battle readiness will quickly degrade, giving Putin only days to choose invasion or retreat

• Ukraine crisis: live updates

Russian forces massing near Ukraine’s borders can only remain in position for a few days before they have to be sent back to nearby bases or risk their capability being significantly degraded, western officials and experts believe.

That means that President Vladimir Putin will come under increasing pressure to use them in a full invasion of Ukraine – or send them back to staging areas, still in Russia’s south or west, but tens or even hundreds of kilometres back.

A day after Vladimir Putin recognised the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent, protesters gathered in front of the Russian embassy in Kyiv in a show of defiance against the Russian president's actions in their country. The Guardian's Luke Harding spoke to them about why they were protesting and what they thought of the recent escalating tension between Ukraine and Russia

• ‘We’re not afraid of Putin’: defiance on the streets of Kyiv
  

As protesters condemn Russian president, city’s defence chief says it is ready for ‘any situation’

• Ukraine crisis – live updates

The doors to the Russian embassy in Kyiv were shut on Tuesday. Seemingly nobody was at home. Outside on the street a small, noisy crowd of demonstrators waved blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. “We are not afraid of Vladimir Putin. Or his army,” said one activist, Roman Tyschenko.

Behind him protesters banged kettle drums and broke into a rhythmic chant of “Putin huiylo”, to blaring music from a loudspeaker. “It means Putin is a motherfucker,” Tyschenko explained. “It’s our anthem. Football fans in Kharkiv invented the song in 2014, when Russia stole Crimea.”

The head of Russia's spy service has a tense exchange with Vladimir Putin during a security meeting about the Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine. Sergei Naryshkin, chief of the foreign intelligence service, is interrupted repeatedly  by the president and told to 'speak plainly!' Putin on Monday ordered his military to enter south-east Ukraine for the 'implementation of peacekeeping' in the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, which Ukraine and most of the world view as Ukraine's sovereign territory

• Putin’s absurd, angry spectacle will be a turning point in his long reign
• Kyiv calls for ‘urgent’ EU sanctions against Russia
• Ukraine-Russia crisis latest news – live updates

Many in Russia’s capital are worried about the political and economic consequences of the Ukraine crisis

• Ukraine crisis – live updates

Like many of her friends, Tatyana, a barista at the fashionable Moscow coffee-shop chain Skuratov, was glued to the screen of her mobile phone as Vladimir Putin addressed the nation.

“Usually, I don’t watch television, especially when our president speaks. But I felt like I had to tune in this time. I was witnessing history in the making,” she said, smoking an e-cigarette. “But I am not sure yet if history is going in the right direction.”

Analysis: Russian president is toying with matches but has not yet lit the fuse, hence the west’s caution

• Ukraine-Russia crisis – latest updates

Vladimir Putin’s angry and rambling hour-long potted history of Ukraine’s failings on Monday night, culminating in a commitment to recognise the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk, left western diplomats scratching their heads and wondering whether they had been made redundant.

The Russian president not only said he would recognise Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, rendering eight years of negotiations over their future pointless, but he also signalled that Russia could not tolerate an independent Ukraine on its borders. Nato was hardly mentioned. His target at one point seemed to be the Bolsheviks, for relinquishing land to the nationalists.