WATCH: View of Kyiv as Russia launches military assault against Ukraine

Russia on Thursday launched a multipronged attack against Ukraine, with explosions audible in some of the country’s largest cities, including Kyiv, the capital, in what President Biden called “a premeditated war.” The assault came shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on state television that Russia was beginning a military operation for the “demilitarization and denazification” of eastern Ukraine. He said that Russia did not intend to occupy the country. But explosions were occurring across a wide swath of Ukraine’s territory, not just near separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, suggesting that at least for now, Russia intended a far wider operation. Flashes could be seen and explosions could be heard in Kyiv, a city of 3 million people, as a senior Ukrainian official said the city’s main airport was under assault. Explosions could also be heard in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, which lies about 25 miles from the border with Russia. A Ukrainian official also said the city of