condemn the aggression that you launch on my people.

There is no purgatory for war criminals.

They go straight to hell, ambassador.

That was Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations with that message to Russia's leadership.

Good morning. I'm Hallie Jackson, working today as part of MSNBC's special coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.

This is way too early on February 24th, of course. I'm in for Jonathan Lemire. It is noon in Kiev, Ukraine.

It's 1 o'clock in Moscow, 5 a.m. Eastern here in Washington, and it's happened. Russia has attacked Ukraine after months of military

buildup near the country's borders. Resed how we got here. If you've been sleeping overnight,

if you've been watching our coverage, the attack started, as you know, early in the morning,

about 5 a.m. local time from neighboring Belarus, this of course, ally of Moscow, with explosions

in several cities across Ukraine, including the capital

Kiev.

You heard air raid sirens across that city, Ukrainian officials reporting crews or ballistic

missiles.

You hear it there targeted military control centers.

The office of Ukraine's national police said at least six people have been killed, seven

people heard in the area near Odessa. Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky declared martial law.

He's closed schools.

He's put hospitals on high alert.

We've just heard from him in the last 45 minutes or so.

There was a huge exodus.

You can see it as thousands of people tried to get out.

...