Satellite images show Russian troops are attacking Ukraine on multiple fronts and are advancing on the capital city of Kyiv. Today, a convoy consisting of hundreds of armored vehicles, tanks, artillery, and support vehicles stretched 17 miles long and was less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from the center of Kyiv. The city is home to nearly 3 million residents.

The images from Maxar Technologies also captured signs of fighting outside Kyiv, including destroyed vehicles and a damaged bridge.

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Russia has vetoed a resolution brought up in the U.N.'s Security Council that would have condemned its invasion of Ukraine. Russia cast the sole vote against the measure. The surprising vote was the abstention by China, which effectively cast Russia as alone among the world powers. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a dire warning Friday, telling his country that "this night will be harder than the day." 

"This night, the enemies uses on all fronts all their power to destroy our resistance," Zelensky said in a pre-recorded video, according to Reuters. "In a mean and brutal way, and not in a human way. This night, they are going to storm. All of us should understand what is awaiting us this night. We have to hold out. Ukraine's destiny is being decided right now."

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Russian troops bore down on Ukraine’s capital today, with explosions and gunfire sounding in the city as the invasion of a democratic country fueled fears of wider war in Europe and triggered new international efforts — including direct sanctions on President Vladimir Putin — to make Moscow stop.

Amid reports of hundreds of casualties from the warfare — including shelling that sliced through a Kyiv apartment building and pummeled bridges and schools — there also were growing signs that Russia may be seeking to overthrow Ukraine’s government, which U.S. officials have described as Putin’s ultimate objective.

Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy appealed for a cease-fire and warned in a bleak statement that multiple cities were under attack. “Tonight they will storm,” he said.

U.S. defense officials believe the Russian offensive has encountered considerable resistance and is proceeding slower than Moscow had envisioned. That’s something of a reversal from the run-up to the attack, when U.S. officials appeared more alarmed than their counterparts in Kyiv at the pace of Russian operations.

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 The sequel to John Stanley's "I Was a TV Horror Host" (2007) in which you will be exposed to nearly 800 photographs (many signed by movie and TV stars and in print for the first time) and around 80 monster-horror sketches, many taken from his "Creature Features Movie Guide" books. You will enter a unique realm of science-fiction, fantasy and horror . . . what Stanley considers his deepest (and sometimes funniest) one-on-one interviews. He enjoyed almost six years as "Creature Features" host in the San Francisco-Bay Area and 33 years as an entertainment writer at the San Francisco Chronicle. This blending of two careers is one unique and awesome mixture of gory joy.

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began early Thursday morning, with shelling and rocket attacks on several major cities including the capital, Kyiv, and dozens of deaths.

Explosions thundered in the dim light before dawn, minutes after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia cynically declared the start of a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” Ukraine but not occupy the country. His announcement came as the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting, stunning ambassadors who had to deliver impromptu reactions to the rapidly changing events.

Hours before the attacks began, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine made a dramatic televised plea to the people of Russia, saying he wanted to speak to them directly after Mr. Putin had rejected his phone call.

“Listen to the voice of reason,” Mr. Zelensky said. “The Ukrainian people want peace.”

They did not get it.

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Biden denounced Vladimir Putin’s decision to move forward with the invasion. In a speech at the White House this afternoon, Biden told the nation:“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences.”

Biden announced a new round of sanctions targeting Russian financial institutions and elite families. The sanctions call for Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, to be severed from the US financial system, restricting the bank’s access to transactions made in the American dollar. Full sanctions will also be imposed on four other financial institutions, including Russia’s second-largest bank of VTB, freezing all of their US-based assets.

Biden did not call for Russia to be banned from the Swift banking system, and he is not issuing direct sanctions on Putin, as some lawmakers have called for. Biden said some European leaders do not support cutting off Russia’s access to Swift, and he claimed direct sanctions on Putin were still possible, although he did not explain why he is not taking that step now.

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The convoys follow the recent Canadian truckers’ protest which shut down the busiest US-Canada border crossing and besieged the streets of the capital, Ottawa, for weeks to protest against government pandemic restrictions. The multiple blockades were broken up by police last week, with more than 100 arrests. The websites organizing the American trucker convoys directly reference the inspiration of the Canadian movement. A statement on the People’s Convoy website pays homage to “our brave and courageous neighbors to the north – our Canadian brothers and sisters who led the charge”. The US convoys seek an immediate lifting of what they say are heavy-handed government pandemic restrictions, like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. The American Truckers Freedom Fund website says the group is protesting against “the unscientific, unconstitutional overreach of the federal government”.

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Though it was billed as a grass-roots, nonpartisan event intended to oppose government Covid-19 mandates, a trucker demonstration that left California for Washington, D.C., on Wednesday appeared to be tightly aligned with far-right organizations and activists.

Many of those behind the demonstration, which was planned as an American version of the past month’s chaotic Canadian protest, have connections to the violent attack on the Capitol in January 2021, or supported the lie that fraud in the 2020 presidential election was to blame for Donald J. Trump’s loss.

“We’re just trying to show what the people who back us believe — and our own beliefs — of what our country needs to go back to,” said Jeff Sandberg, a Republican truck driver from Texas whose vehicle was hauling a massive banner covered in slogans such as “We Will Not Comply!!” and “Let’s Go Brandon,” a meme created to insult President Biden.

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Trump called the Russian president a “genius” for declaring a portion of Ukraine independent before ordering a “peacekeeping” force to roll in.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki meanwhile condemned Mr Trump – who has spoken fondly of Mr Putin before – and told reporters: “As a matter of policy, we try not to take advice from anyone who praises president Putin and his military strategy, which I believe is what happened there”.

The former US secretary of state, meanwhile, said he has “enormous respect” for the “savvy” and “shrewd” Russian president.

“I consider him an elegantly sophisticated counterpart, and one who is not reckless but has always done the math,” Mr Pompeo said during an interview with C-Span on 18 February.

“And we might disagree with his priorities, we may disagree with his math, we certainly disagree that the interests that he seeks are reasonable for his country, in many cases, but we should

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