The attacks on Ukraine that the world has witnessed overnight are part of an “initial phase” of a Russian invasion into the country, a senior defense official said Thursday.
“It is likely you will see this unfold in multiple phases, how many, how long, we don’t know, but what we’re seeing are initial phases of a large-scale invasion,” the senior defense official said.
“They’re making a move on Kyiv,” the official said.
The attack, which began with missiles being launched at Ukraine around 9:30 p.m. ET last night, includes “three main axes of assault,” the official said.
There is one assault from the south to the north “basically from Crimea to a city named Kherson,” there’s another assault from north central Ukraine to the south “from Belarus to Kyiv,” and there’s a third assault “just to the northwest of Kyiv and just to the northeast of Kyiv,” from Belarus toward Kyiv, the official said.
“We still believe it’s our assessment, that they have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own method of governance, which would explain these early moves towards Kyiv,” the official added.