right now on "america this morning," breaking news, russia attacks ukraine. a large-scale invasion under way at this hour. air raid sirens blaring in several cities, missiles targeting ukrainian air bases. ukraine's president declaring martial law. our correspondents are there across the country with the very latest. plus, how president biden is responding. what the white house is saying this morning and the impact here at home. cyberthreats, higher food and gas prices and stocks plunging overnight. also this morning, winter storm alert from snow, sleet and ice to flooding rain, treacherous travel as far south as texas. we time out the worst conditions. bracing for gridlock. truck drivers protesting covid restrictions hit the road

heading to washington, d.c. security preparations right now. and on this historic day with the new war breaking out in europe, a closer look at russian president vladimir putin, the history that brought him here and his strategy going forward. our experts weigh in. good thursday morning, everyone. we begin with a military invasion that many experts fear could lead to the worst conflict in europe since war world ii. just hours ago, russian president vladimir putin announced he was attacking ukraine. and already the russian military claims it has knocked out ukrainian air defense systems. explosions have been heard in several cities including the capital kyiv, home to nearly 3 million people, and there are reports of ground forces attacking from neighboring belarus not far from kyiv. >> president biden spoke overnight to ukraine's president

who has declared martial law. president biden says the invasion is unprovoked and unjustified and says this war will bring a catastrophic loss of life. here at home, stocks plunging, dow futures quickly dropping nearly 800 points overnight and oil prices hitting $100 a barrel. >> abc's faith abubey begins our coverage from washington. faith, good morning. >> reporter: a good morning to you, mona and andrew. the attack on ukraine is beginning exactly how the white house predicted, and it appears to be the worst case scenario, a full-scale invasion. overnight in the capital of ukraine, the sound of missile strikes and air sirens. explosions rocking several cities including the capital of kyiv targeting military installations including air bases housing fighter jets. >> the initial strikes that we think we're hearing right now right out of the russian playbook would be cruise missiles to take out things like surface-to-air missile systems, air defense systems that the ukrainians would have.

that would clear the path for waves of bombers and attack aircraft to continue to hit things like power plants, command and control, internet command centers. >> reporter: russian president vladimir putin warning that any foreign attempts to interfere with russian action will lead to, quote, consequences they have never seen. >> talking about the denazification and demilitarization of ukraine. i mean, judging by those words, this appears to be the worst case scenario potentially. we have to wait and see, not just forces moving into the east to these rebel held areas but potentially moving on other parts of the country. this seems to be a much larger ambition. >> reporter: ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy issuing a video statement overnight declaring martial law urging ukrainians to stay home and not panic adding, quote, we are strong. earlier at the exact moment putin announced the russian military operation was under way, the u.n. security council was gathering for an emergency session. their pleas for peace coming after the first explosions were

heard. >> i have only one thing to say from the bottom of my heart, president putin, stop your troops from attacking ukraine. give peace a chance. too many people have already died. >> reporter: then at the end of the session, a stunning moment, the ukrainian ambassador directly addressed his russian counterpart. >> there is no purgatory for war criminals. they go straight to hell, ambassador. >> reporter: the escalation appeared to begin earlier wednesday when cyberattacks targeted ukrainian government websites and banks. civilian flights were restricted, and one senior pentagon official told abc's martha raddatz, quote, you are likely in the last few hours of peace on the european continent for a long time to come. 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. >> reporter: and president biden will address the nation later on today announcing what he says will be severe sanctions to punish russia. they could involve cutting off russia from all western financial institutions, mona. >> faith, thank you. we spoke overnight to william taylor, the former u.s. ambassador to ukraine. he said putin's decision to invade is criminal, and he said ukraine is ready to fight back. >> the ukrainian government will now have to decide how it responds. it's clearly going to fight. the ukrainian military is prepared for this. it's not a match. it is clearly not a match for the russian military, but the ukrainian military will exact a very high price. if they follow those up with attacks across the border inr tillery or tanks, they will pay the price, so the

ukrainian military will fight hard. >> taylor says tens of thousands of ukrainians could be killed. meanwhile, ukrainians are lining up for gas. this is the scene in odessa where we're also seeing heavy traffic heading west out of ukraine's capital as people flee the city. here in the u.s., growing concerns about russian cyberattacks, authorities most concerned about the electrical grid, communication networks, pipelines, water facilities and banks. national security officials have been warning business leaders and local governments. another concern for americans, rising prices at the supermarket. ukraine known as europe's breadbasket and russia account for nearly 30% of the global wheat market. the white house says americans should be prepared for rising food and gas prices. >> what we're seeing as the impact of not enough competition in the industry but the president has repeatedly expressed concern about costs for the american people. that's one of the reasons he continues to press for steps with congress that will lower significant costs on people's

budgets. >> and russia is also a key producer of copper and aluminum. the war could cause more supply chain disruptions. stay with abc news for the latest from ukraine. our team is reporting from across the region and later this half hour a closer look at vladimir putin. we turn now to the truckers protesting covid restrictions organizing convoys and traveling to washington, d.c. threatening to cause gridlock on the highways. abc's derricke dennis has the latest on the preparations. >> reporter: this morning the washington, d.c. area bracing for a convergence of big rig truckers, the so-called people's convoy, arriving to protest. government covid restrictions. >> are you planning to park when you get here? >> i haven't made that decision yet. >> reporter: trucker bob bolus leading a group from pennsylvania. he says thousands more truckers will be coming by next week. some from as far as california planning to be in place before

and after president biden's state of the union address on tuesday. >> this is peaceful. we're not looking for trouble, so let them not create trouble, okay, because no matter what it is, there's other convoys coming from all over the country. >> i call this the first wave. we're going to surf on in there. >> reporter: it follows a similar protest in canada that jammed the bridge crossing into michigan holding up trade and threatening the u.s. economy, many of the d.c. bound truckers say they want their freedom back pointing out that covid cases and hospitalizations are dropping nationwide. >> what we're looking for is to end the emergency declaration, to end the mandates on the vaccine, end the mask mandates. >> reporter: in response the pentagon has approved about 700 national guard troops to help with traffic control and security in and around d.c. and fencing may be reinstalled around the capitol. it's not just d.c. preparing for these protests. truckers are planning to cause

gridlock on the highways in nearby maryland and virginia. mona, andrew. >> derricke, thank you. seven students were injured in this bus crash in albuquerque. police say the driver of a white car was street racing and slammed into the bus. the students were treated at a local hospital. in vermont a terrifying crash. a minivan skidded off this highway flipping over several times. the driver was ejected but is recovering from his injuries. more than 60 million americans as far south as texas are bracing for more ice, snow and sleet. and with that, here's your thursday forecast. good morning. treacherous driving conditions across the southern and central plains on thursday from dallas to oklahoma city, wichita, st. louis. we're going to have snow. we're going to have ice. be careful on the roads, folks. speaking of ice, this ice storm will go from texas on thursday morning to kentucky on thursday

afternoon and eventually by friday southern new england, new york city going to see some icing out there to finish off the workweek. there's going to be a big snowstorm too. chicago, a few inches. 6 to 12 north and west of boston. i'm accuweather meteorologist kevin coskren. coming up, what tom brady, sally field and jane fonda now have in common. but first new details about bob saget's death and what happened in his hotel room. and next the plot to attack the u.s. power grid. the men now in custody.

welcome back. three suspected white supremacists face up to 15 years in prison for plotting an attack on the u.s. power grid. the men from ohio, indiana, and wisconsin have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. prosecutors say the men were

trying to ignite a race war and planned to use rifles to attack power stations, hoping it would lead to a financial crisis and civil war. we turn now to the breonna taylor case. the kentucky woman shot and killed during a botched police raid. the former officer who was executing a no-knock warrant at taylor's home is now on trial, and we're hearing from a neighbor who survived that terrifying night. >> i believe we are ready for opening statements. >> reporter: the trial of former louisville police officer brett hankson, the only officer involved in the raid on breonna taylor's apartment to face criminal charges now getting under way. he's charged with endangerment for firing ten shots during the raid that took breonna taylor's life nearly two years ago. he was dismissed months after the raid. the former chief of louisville police saying hankson fired, quote, blindly into taylor's apartment. >> debris started going past my head, my face, which i pretty much knew because i heard the

shots, pretty much knew that it was gunfire coming through the wall. >> reporter: none of those shots hit taylor, but several bullets entered a neighbor's apartment, endangering cody etherton, his pregnant girlfriend, and their 5-year-old child. >> one or two more inches, and i would have been shot, which kind of upsets me because i think about it all the time. i'm like, my son would have never even got to meet me. i would have never even got to meet my son. >> reporter: but hankson's attorney argued he was simply doing his job, defending his fellow officers conducting the raid. >> he returned fire in the direction of where he had seen the original shot come from within the apartment. he was attempting to defend and save the lives of his brother officers, who he thought were still caught in what they call the fatal funnel in that doorway. his actions were reasonable and justified given the chaotic situation he was in. >> reporter: breonna taylor's byfriend had opened fire believing police were an

intruder. if convicted, hankson could face five years in prison. investigators have come up with a theory on how bob saget died of head trauma. sources tell "people" magazine they believe saget passed out and hit his head on the marble floor in the bathroom of his hotel room. they believe he regain the consciousness before stumbling into bed. coming up, a very different kind of digital watch hitting the market. first, we'll return to our top story. a closer look at vladimir putin. his past, the present, and the future with a new war in europe.

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back now with global landmarks lit up in blue and yellow to show support for ukraine as russian forces invade the country. some of the areas hit with missiles today are far from ukraine's border or capital. >> military experts say it's a sign that vladimir putin is trying to economically strangle ukraine. >> the other thing we just heard was explosions in a town called nipro, which is right here. so if you draw a line here from kharkiv to nipro, that would be the only thing the russian army would have to take. then this waterway, the river forms a natural boundary. so now putin could carve off essentially one-third of eastern ukraine and be able to control the river and all of the exports that go down the river into the black sea, all of their domestic gas production is here. and this is one of the richest agricultural areas in the world. >> russia's military is nearly five times bigger than

ukraine's. many people are asking why is putin doing this now? >> to answer that question, you need to look at the history of the region and putin himself. this morning, ukrainians remaining defiant in the face of russian president vladimir putin as the crisis takes a turn toward war. abc's matt gutman speaking with one ukrainian along the border in poland wednesday, who says economic penalties from the west will suffocate putin. >> translator: he will be pushed into a corner by the sanctions and by the fact that his oligarchs will be deprived of their wealth and they themselves will push him into a corner. >> but i mean sometimes if you're pushed into a corner, you attack. >> reporter: the man tells matt it's not a problem, adding this is a more grown-up version of ukraine with a proper military as opposed to 2014 when putin's military seized crimea, a peninsula on ukraine's southern front. putin has been in power,

unopposed, since 1999. even altering constitutional term limits to hold his grip on the country. >> many russians actually like the fact that he kind of shows to the west that russia is not, you know, is not a rug under the western feet. >> reporter: nina is the great granddaughter of nikita khrushchev, a former strongman who led the soviet union. she believes putin is playing the long game. >> russia suffers from a tremendous superiority complex because of its size and its history and because it's never really accepted into being european country. >> reporter: in the 1970s, putin joined the kgb, becoming a mid-level spy, eventually the chief of russia's counterintelligence agency. although the kgb was technically disbanded when the soviet union fell, putin's experience as an intelligence officer watching the soviet union dissolve made its mark. earlier this week, he claimed the soviet union was robbed of land. >> we talk about the way that

the collapse of the soviet union is within living memory. it's important to remember that with putin, that is lived memory, not living memory, lived memory. so these are events that he remembers personally and is angry about. >> we'll have another update from ukraine in just a few minutes. still to come, a crocodile escapes custody in florida. also ahead, a news reporter gets a big surprise from ever wonder what everyone's doing on their phones? they're banking, with bank of america. the groom's parents? they just found out they can redeem rewards for a second honeymoon. romance is in the air. like these two. he's realizing he's in love. and that his dating app just went up. must be fate. and phil. he forgot a gift, so he's sending the happy couple some money. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop banking. what would you like the power to do? nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard.

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russia now attacking ukraine and , new overnight, we are learning about dozens of deaths and injuries. here is a live look at the capitaol. the emergency meeting asking putin to stand down. kumasi: and the russian invasion at home, tracking rising gas prices. will they keep -- will they keep going up? reggie: santa clara is close to changing its mask rules, reaching one very important metric. kumasi: it is thursday, february 24. reggie: we start with our meteorologist, greg tuma. >> cross freezing and a lot of spots. 24 feel thrilled -- 2 fairfield, even oakland is a cold morning at 35 degrees. freeze warnings and effect and frost advisory until 9:00 a.m. the freezer running encompasses a large portion of the bay