Last updated 9.56pm - The United States and the European Union on Thursday announced sanctions to punish Russia after it launched an invasion of Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden said "severe" economic sanctions would make President Vladimir Putin a "pariah" for invading Ukraine, but he conceded a lack of Western unity for enacting even tougher measures.

In a speech from the White House, Biden said four major banks would be hit with sanctions by Western powers and that export controls on sensitive components would "cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports."

"This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time," Biden said.

The measures, on top of a raft of other sanctions already announced this week, will make Putin "a pariah on the international stage," Biden said.

"Any nation that countenances Russia's naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association," he said.

Biden confirmed that for now there was no attempt to put sanctions directly on Putin, who is widely reported to have amassed a huge, secret fortune during his two decades in power.

He also said that a much-talked-about move to cut Russia from the SWIFT international payments system -- essentially crippling its banking sector -- was not happening.

Ukraine pleaded for removing Russia from SWIFT on Thursday, but Biden revealed that the Western coalition could not come to an agreement.

"It is always an option but right now that's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take," he said.

In Brussels, European leaders reached swift agreement on a series of sanctions during an emergency meeting in Brussels.

The sanctions cover the financial sector, the energy and transport sectors, dual-use goods as well as export and export financing and visa policy, as well as adding more Russian individuals to an EU travel ban and asset freeze list.

No details were immediately available. 

The sanctions -- which come on the heels of a smaller packet of measures adopted by the EU late Wednesday, just before the Russian invasion -- will come into effect once legal texts are drawn up and formally approved by member states' envoys and published in the EU's official journal.  

In London, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was freezing the UK assets of Russian titans in banking and arms manufacturing, sanctioning five more oligarchs, and banning Aeroflot. 

Russian troops capture Chernobyl power station 

Ukraine announced Thursday afternoon that Russian forces had captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after a "fierce" battle on the first day of the Kremlin's invasion of its ex-Soviet neighbour.

"After the absolutely senseless attack of the Russians in this direction, it is impossible to say that the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is safe. This is one of the most serious threats to Europe today," said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the chief of the presidential administration.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv's forces were fighting  Russian troops for control of the Chernobyl plant.

"Our soldiers are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 does not happen again," he wrote on Twitter, referring to the date of the disaster.

He called the attack "a declaration of war on all of Europe".

Russia destroys over 70 military targets in Ukraine

Russia said that its military had destroyed more than 70 military targets, including 11 airfields in Ukraine.

"As a result of strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces, 74 Ukrainian military ground facilities were destroyed," said Igor Konashenkov, a defence ministry spokesman.

Destroyed facilities included 11 airfields, three command posts and 18 radar stations of the S-300 and Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems, he said.

He added that a Ukrainian military helicopter and four drones had also been shot down.

Konashenkov said separatist forces continued an offensive backed by air support of the Russian armed forces. 

Currently "armed groups of nationalists" are putting up resistance, he said, claiming that Ukrainian troops wanted to leave the area of hostilities.

He said that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had ordered Russian troops to "treat Ukrainian servicemen with respect".

Putin launched an offensive on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday after a national address aired at around 5:40 am local time (0240 GMT). 

Airbase near Kyiv falls to the Russians

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to retake an airfield close to the capital Kyiv captured by Russian forces. 

"Enemy paratroopers have been blocked in Gostomel -- our troops have been given the order to destroy them," Zelensky said in a video address.

Earlier, a senior Ukrainian officer said dozens of attack helicopters swooped on the area.

The Gostomel airfield, which is alongside the Antonov airport, is immediately on the northern edge of Kiev, and the fighting there is the closest that Russian forces had got to the capital on the first day of their invasion.

Alexander Kovtonenko, a 30-year-old civilian living nearby, said that two fighter jets had fired missiles at Ukrainian ground units as the assault got underway.

"Then there was shooting, it lasted three hours," he told AFP. "Then three more jets flew in and they started shooting again."

Smoke was rising from the scene and social media images appeared to show an assault by helicopter-borne troops. CNN showed footage of Russian troops at the airport and a reporter said he had spoken to them.

Earlier, Ukrainian border guards had confirmed that Russian ground forces equipped with tanks had also crossed south over the Belarus-Ukraine border into the Kyiv administrative region, headed towards the capital.

EU to announce sanctions late on Thursday

Western allies will unleash sanctions that will drastically restrict Russia's access to the European and American markets, Germany's vice chancellor said Thursday, after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The "strong sanctions package" will "cut off the Russian economy from industrial progress, will attack and freeze assets and financial holdings, and will dramatically limit access to the European and American markets," said Robert Habeck. EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Thursday evening  

Russian police arrest 1,400 anti-war protesters

Russian police have detained more than 1,400 people at anti-war protests across dozens of cities after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine, an independent monitor said Thursday.

Around 2,000 people gathered near Pushkin Square in central Moscow, while up to 1,000 people gathered in the former imperial capital Saint Petersburg, according to AFP correspondents at the scene.

The invasion of Ukraine is taking place during an unprecedented crackdown on the Russian opposition, with most protest leaders assassinated, jailed or forced out of the country.

In Moscow, protesters were seen massing around Pushkin Square chanting "No to war!"

In Saint Petersburg, many struck a similar note.

Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said earlier on Thursday that he was against the invasion in a speech during his trial, held behind bars. 

"I am against this war," Navalny was heard saying in a video published by independent news outlet Dozhd.

"This war between Russia and Ukraine was unleashed to cover up the theft from Russian citizens and divert their attention from problems that exist inside the country," Navalny said. 

'Crime against humanity' 

The Polish chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe, which includes Russia, accused Moscow of a "crime against humanity" in invading Ukraine.

China 'understands' Russia

Beijing has told Russia's foreign minister it understands Moscow's "reasonable concerns on security issues" in Ukraine. 

In a phone call between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart, Wang said that although Beijing "has always respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries... we have also seen that the Ukrainian issue has its own complicated and unique history".

"We understand Russia's reasonable concerns on security issues," he added.

Beijing has been walking a diplomatic tightrope as the Ukraine-Russia crisis escalated, forced to balance its close Russia ties with major economic interests in Europe.

Belarus 'not taking part'

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko says his military is not taking part in the invasion, but he drew criticism for allowing his country to be the launchpad of the attack on Ukraine. 

Oil and wheat prices soar

Oil prices soared past $105 for the first time in more than seven years after Putin announced the invasion.

European wheat prices also hit a record high with Ukraine one of the world's biggest grain producers.

European stocks slumped after similar falls in Asia, with the London market falling three percent.              

Bloodshed, tears in eastern Ukraine as Russia attacks 

A son wept over the body of his father among the wreckage of a missile strike in a residential district in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv as the country reeled Thursday from Russia's invasion. 

"I told him to leave," the man in his 30s sobbed, next to the twisted ruins of a car.

Nearby a woman screamed curses into the wintry sky. 

A missile crater, some four to five metres wide, was scoured into the earth between two devastated five-storey apartment buildings. Firefighters battled to extinguish the remains of a blaze. 

Several other buildings on the street were seriously damaged, their windows shattered and doorframes hanging in the frigid morning air. 

It was among the first reported damage after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine early Thursday, with explosions heard in several locations across the country in the early morning hours.

Residents said a 13-year-old was among those killed in the town, but there was no definitive death toll from the authorities.  

Sergiy, 67, tried to use the leg of an Ikea table to block up his smashed window. He had received a few bruises but said he was fine. 

"I'm going to stay here, my daughter is in Kyiv and it's the same there," he told AFP.

Sergiy thought the target had been the nearby military airfield, close to Ukraine's second city Kharkiv and just 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Russian border. 

"It was one of the targets that Putin had cited, I'm not even surprised," he said, refusing to give his surname.  

"We will hang in there."

Thick black smoke could be seen billowing from the direction of the airfield -- one of a raft of strategic locations across the country pounded by Moscow's firepower in an opening barrage.

Teenager Anastasia clutched her grey cat as she watched her grandfather in a wheelchair being loaded onto a minibus waiting to rush them to a nearby village.

"We could never have expected this. We're going to the village, we hope the war will spare us there," she said.

A few hours later teacher Olena Kurilo, 52, emerged from the town's hospital with her faced swathed in bandages. A missile had blasted shards of glass from her windows into her face.

Doctors said 20 wounded people remained in hospital for treatment.  

"I only managed to think in that second 'My God, I'm not ready to die'," Kurilo said. 

"I was in shock, I felt no pain."

She said she "never thought" that such an attack would come, but now it has she was in no mood to surrender. 

"I will do everything for Ukraine, as much as I can," she said.

Never, under any conditions will I submit to Putin. It is better to die- Ukraine resident

"Never, under any conditions will I submit to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. It is better to die."

Ukrainian military personnel and trucks swarmed around the town as the government in Kyiv insisted its forces would do all they could to protect Ukraine.

Across Ukraine's vulnerable eastern front civilians and soldiers scrambled to react as one of the world's most powerful militaries began what authorities warned was a "full-scale invasion".  

Some 250 kilometres to the south -- along the frontline where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine -- authorities were rushing to evacuate civilians as fighting raged. 

Local administrations reported heavy missile bombardments as Russian forces sought to advance -- cutting gas and electricity, and making evacuations impossible in some areas.

Official Vladimir Vesyelkin said missiles had rained down on his village of Starognativka since the morning and power was out.

"They are trying to wipe the village off the face of the earth," he said. 

Yevgeny Kaplin, head of the humanitarian organisation Proliska, said attacks were going on across the entire frontline that had divided Ukrainian forces from an enclave held by Russian-backed rebels. 

But poor communications were hampering information coming about victims. 

"The offensive is underway along the entire demarcation line in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions," he said. 

"Fighting is happening everywhere. We cannot yet receive information about victims, because there is no communication in this area." 

Latvia bans Russian TV channels in wake of Ukraine invasion 

Latvia on Thursday banned the three Russian TV channels still broadcasting in the country, saying they posed a "threat to national security" in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

A formerly Soviet-ruled Baltic state of 1.9 million people, which joined NATO and the EU in 2004, Latvia has a sizable ethnic Russian community, accounting for around a quarter of its population.

Latvia's National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEMMC), slapped a five-year ban on Russian state broadcaster Rossiya RTR, a four-year ban on Rossiya 24, and a three-year ban on the TV Centre International(TVCI), according to a statement. 

The media regulator also urged "all EU countries to use the evidence gathered by the NEMMC and to follow Latvia's example by restricting the retransmission of these programmes".