tonight, breaking news. russia launching an attack into ukraine, showing off its military might. vladimir putin announcing the start of a military special operation, warning foreign countries not to intervene. ukraine declaring a national state of emergency, mobilizing thousands of military reservists. >> this most important and historical moment, ukrainians are ready. the unseen war. how russia's cyber arsenal could be their secret weapon. >> russia is pretty consistent in their not only capability, but intent to cause disruption. >> our team on the ground with the latest. this special edition of "nightline," "crisis in ukraine," will be right back.

♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. we begin tonight with major news. after days on the razor's edge, ukraine is now a nation at war. just hours ago, russian forces began their attack. president vladimir putin warning other countries any attempt to interfere with the russian action will lead to, quote, consequences they have never

seen. let's get right to abc's senior foreign correspondent ian pannell on the ground in kyiv. ian, thank you so much for joining us. we could hear when those explosions went off behind you there in the capital city. what's the latest there now? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, byron. i think within minutes of vladimir putin finishing this speech, essentially declaring war on ukraine, we heard the sound of explosions here in kyiv. first of all, three large, distinct explosions in the distance. not possible to say exactly what the target is. there are unconfirmed reports, potentially the airport being struck, of other sites. but we're still really working to find out. in the last hour or so, we've heard probably about five or six other explosions. i've seen a large flash in the distance over there. again, followed by a boom some minutes later, suggesting it's not inside the city. but certainly on the outskirts. and that's what people here in kyiv are waking up to this morning. and it's not just kyiv, the capital.

it's a number of eastern cities like dnipro, kharkiv, closest to the russian border, if you like, in the northeast corner of ukraine. just over the border there, there have been russian troops massing over the last week. also odessa in the south, a crucial port city, again, reports of explosions. nothing yet from the ukrainian president. if i can read you this, this comes from the ukrainian foreign minister who of course has been at the u.n. in new york. he's also been in washington holding meetings. saying putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of ukraine, peaceful ukrainian cities are under strikes, this is a war of aggression. ukraine will defend itself and will win. the world can and must stop putin. obviously we've heard other statements likely to echo those sentiments. the reality is after all those weeks, all those months of rising tensions, many people finding it difficult to find vladimir putin in the year 2022 would launch a war in europe. nevertheless, that is what

ukrainians are waking up to. state of emergency in the country, 36,000 military reservists called up in the last 24 hours. those with combat experience. but the ukrainian government can and is likely to go further, martial law declared, calling up more reservists. ukrainian military has a substantial size, around 250,000 troops. when you add in all other security services and volunteers, it will be larger than that. we remember that president zelenskyy, the ukrainian president, had been advised, strongly advised by the white house, to leave kyiv and for his own safety head to the west of the country to lviv or potentially near the polish border. he obviously hasn't done that, because of course it would send a signal to the ukrainian people. so he is staying here. and every person you speak to says, i'm ready to fight, i'm ready to defend my country. >> ian pannell in the capital city, my friend.

you are experienced in this kind of work. stay safe. we will talk to you soon. vladimir putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion comes after weeks of diplomatic efforts by the u.s. and nato allies to deter the russian president. putin never backed down. here's a look at how we got here. as explosions ring out in the capital city of kyiv -- ukraine's ambassador to the u.n. with this stirring message for russia. >> there is no purgatory for war criminals. they go straight to hell. >> reporter: until the moment russian president vladimir putin took military action, the ukrainians were pleading for peace. earlier tonight in a video address, ukrainian president zelenskyy saying he tried to call putin but was met with silence. putin's force anything but. more than 150,000 russian troops

surrounding the country on multiple sides. for days the u.s. and other nato allies have taken steps to try to deter putin from a full-scale invasion of ukraine. just today, president biden announcing sanctions on the nord stream 2 gas pipeline and the corporations behind its construction. the move came after previously announcing sweeping economic sanctions on russia. >> as russia contemplates its next move, we have our next move prepared as well. >> reporter: putin undeterred. >> they are ready to go. right now. it won't be bloodless. there will be suffering, there will be sacrifice. >> reporter: ukraine seeming to know how imminent full-scale invasion could be. declaring a state of emergency and president zelenskyy activating members of the military reserve. >> uniform. jacket. >> reporter: dmitryo belotov is one of those joining the fight. my colleague ian pannell spoke with him as he prepared to report for duty.

>> in morning i wake and up go to the military office and said, okay, i'm ready. tomorrow, i will be in army. >> reporter: his wife anxious about his deployment. but dmitryo's sense of duty stands resolute. this is a big moment for ukraine. >> yes. this most important and historical moment. that's why we are ukrainians, are ready to go to war. for our independence, for our families, for our future. >> to get further context and perspective, here's abc's chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz in western ukraine. >> reporter: there was a moment about 24 hours ago where the administration thought vladimir putin could be deterred. but that moment passed. the administration has been predicting this invasion for

weeks and weeks and laid out all the intelligence. they said they hoped they were wrong, but they are clearly right tonight. the invasion started exactly as the way they predicted, with cyber attacks, with electronic warfare. then we saw those blasts around kyiv. but several hours before this attack began, i got a message from a senior pentagon official who said, you are likely in the last few hours of peace on the european continent for a long time to come, adding, be careful. a very sobering message, but captures exactly what we are facing here in ukraine on the european continent. the most dangerous time, as they've said over and over at the pentagon, since world war ii. i am told by a senior u.s. official that vladimir putin is increasingly erratic, but he could not be deterred, that several of his senior aides were

concerned about what he was doing, but he would not hear it. so this is something we are going to be watching day after day, something that here could last months and months and months >> our thanks to martha. what happens next and what is america's role? joining me now, former deputy assistant secretary of state and retired marine corps colonel steve ganyard. elizabeth neumann, former homeland security official. steve, i'll start with you if i may. explosions have been heard in eastern ukraine, but also outside of kyiv. is this the worst case scenario? >> we'll have to wait till the sun comes up. we're hearing all sorts of reports from around the country. different cities being hit. we know that kyiv, that the airport is under attack and there's a fight going on right now with russian special forces. so it's going to take the sun coming up and some time to figure out what's going on on the ground. but it sure seems like the whole country is essentially under attack.

>> elizabeth, several ukrainian government and bank websites fell victim to cyber attacks today, likely launched by russia. what's the greater goal, to disrupt the country, or instill fear? >> the cyber attacks are just a -- one more element of the battle plan to bring chaos and cause confusion. the nature of the initial attacks were ddos attacks, they weren't that sophisticated, not that big of a deal. later this afternoon we learned they launched a malware attack, which basically renders computers inoperable, depending which computers they target. that could be disruptive to command and control. i expect we're likely to see more in the coming days. they do have the capability to take out infrastructure through cyber warfare. and that would, of course, cause a lot of confusion and chaos and disruption to the course of life. >> is there any expectation, elizabeth, that these attacks

might spread, cyber attacks might spread to the u.s. or any other place in europe? >> there is definitely strong concern in the united states and among our western allies that russia does have attacks in the works, that they have been planting and seeding the ground to be able to launch attacks if they decide to do so. they may be holding their fire to see what the west does in response to this full-fledged invasion. they may actually decide to preemptively launch something and pretty confusion and frustration and domestic pressure here in the united states, because the types of attacks that we're talking about could affect our energy supply, it could affect the power grid, it could affect our food supply, which of course not to the scale of causing life and safety concerns, but very disruptive to our daily lives. >> steve, a closing question to you.

can the ukrainian people stand up to this? we know they are tough and resilient people. but russia is a large and powerful country. >> yeah, byron, in the past, say, ten years or so, after being crushed by the russians in 2014, the ukrainian government and the ukrainian military have improved significantly. nato has helped with that. the russian military has come back as well in the past 15 years. mr. putin has had significant and large increases in the defense budget. so the russian military is really an overmatch for the ukrainians. it will probably quickly dissolve into sort of an insurgency like we saw in iraq and afghanistan, because once the russian military gets going, it would probably be just a matter of weeks before they roll over the ukrainian military. >> a matter of weeks. a sobering night. thank you both. up next, russia's other war, cyber attacks. the threat to ukraine and the u.s. g to get back in your type 2 diabetes zone? once-weekly ozempic® can help.

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♪ ♪ ukraine is facing a two-pronged attack from russia. the first one is on full display tonight. tanks and thousands of troops amassed on the border. the other isn't visible, russia's cyber force. the scene is as familiar as it is harrowing. tanks, missiles, soldiers by the thousands. this is warfare as we've known it for nearly a century. but with the greatest threat to europe since world war ii, the battlefield is also expanding. >> we believe that the russian government is responsible for wide-scale cyber attacks on

ukrainian banks. >> reporter: since the beginning of this conflict, ukraine has repeatedly accused russia of launching coordinated cyber attacks hitting its government, military, banking system. >> we have provided some cyber resilience training and assistance to ukrainians, and i won't go beyond that in terms of these specific attacks. >> reporter: and many believe it's only just begun. with the threat of cyber attacks by russia looming large over the u.s. and the world, and further u.s. sanctions potentially putting the u.s. in the cyber crosshairs. >> in many ways, it's the canary in the coal mine. whatever the russians are unleashing on the ukrainians, you can be sure we may very well see on our soil in the future from them. >> reporter: the history of 21st century fighting is in many ways a history of cyber warfare. on this battlefield, there are no tanks, no missiles, no soldiers. not the kind you'd normally think of. hacking is an incredibly

powerful tool. a 21st century weapon. how have cyber attacks changed the landscape of modern warfare? >> cyber is now integrated into modern kinetic warfare in all aspects. one is intelligence collection. being able to break into sensitive communications, either military communications or government communications. but the other way is to use disruption and destruction to actually affect the degree of readiness. make it harder for the ukrainians to mobilize forces. >> reporter: one of the most potent weapons on russia's tool belt. used to devastating effect. what is in russia's cyber arsenal? >> the russians have a huge amount of malicious code, exploitation capability, to target not just i.t. systems, not just computers, phones, communication devices we all use on a daily basis. but to target what is known as industrial control systems. the systems that operate physical processes like power plants, chemical facilities, weapons systems. >> you're painting a scenario that if and when russia wants to, they could basically turn

the lights off in ukraine and then walk in? >> they actually could turn the lights off. in fact, they've done it on two occasions, in 2015 and 2016. >> reporter: it's not what they've done already, it's what they can do. >> russia is pretty consistent in their not only capability, but intent to cause disruption. if you look back to the 2015 cyber attack in ukraine that took down their electric power system, happened again in 2016, going after the transmission electric system. it's consistent that they're on the big stage for showing the intent to kind of cross that line and get to constructive destructive actions. >> reporter: just outside of baltimore, cybersecurity professionals from dragos, incorporated, work on protecting the most critical infrastructure we have, our water supply, our electrical grid, our transportation systems. >> every state actor out there is consistently trying to get into these industrial environments. the ability to still intimidate and cause confusion and cause pressure on your geopolitical adversaries through cyber and

industrial ends up being a pretty effective tool for them. >> reporter: this is high-level cyber warfare played out with lego, a toy city meant to represent the lives of millions of people around the world that need protection from cyber invaders. >> in any modern town, you've got everything from gas pipeline companies to power companies, renewable energy, rail. you use industrial environments and operations environments more than you could imagine, from the flip of the light switch to your morning cup of water to all the food and beverages that you have, all the pharmaceutical medicine. it's all based out of industrial environments. these environments are macha environments, it's hard to build a power grid in your basement. but emulate the attacks against this equipment, trying to disrupt rail, trying to cause effects. at the same time, our defenders use the technologies that we have, the insights, to model those attacks out, create new ways of detecting threats. >> reporter: the threat of cyber attacks for russia, so severe and wide-reaching, the.s. government is warning companies

here and abroad to shore up their digital defenses. >> they need to be, as we say, shields up. and to be really on the most heightened level of alert that they can be. taking all necessary precautions. >> reporter: it's a new age warfare rooted in age-old mentality, a major world power bent on dominating its neighbors by any means necessary. from a military standpoint, the narrative is, russia is goliath, ukraine is david. >> they're not a match for the russians. the russians really are world-class power even in cyberspace. they are some of the best of the best. they've been at it since the mid-'80s. this is going to be very much a david and goliath fight where i'm afraid the david does not have a good chance of winning. we will be right back with "the final thought." is now a good time for a flare-up? enough, crohn's!

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♪ ♪ finally this evening, the sounds of war from ukraine tonight in both weaponry and

rhetoric. russian president putin cautioning ukrainians to, quote, put down your weapons. earlier this evening, ukrainian president zelenskyy said in a speech to the russian people, while pleading for peace, he made clear his country will fight back, saying to the russians, quote, when you attack, you will see our faces and not our spines. tonight from the white house, president biden saying russia will face consequences. stay with abc news for the very latest on abcnews.com and "gma" in the morning. on this sobering evening, thanks for the company, america. good night.