Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine
At a Shell station on the outskirts of Warrenton, Virginia, Jim Hoovler fills three jerry cans with petrol. The 56-year-old is convinced prices, which are already high, will skyrocket now that Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved into Ukraine.
Mr Hoovler, like many in Warrenton, blames President Joe Biden for failing to deter Mr Putin.
“There were other measures we could have done that could have persuaded Putin not to do this,” he tells The National. “I think it’s just weak leadership on the US side.”
Warrenton is in Fauquier County, which voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
It's an hour’s drive from the nation’s capital, but a world away from the liberal enclave.
Entering the county from Washington along route 15, the first house you pass has a flag denouncing Mr Biden, while a few hundred metres down the road, another house proudly displays the Gadsden flag, a revolutionary war symbol that has become associated with the country's far right.
“This shouldn’t even have got to this point; all the signs were there,” said Dan Riley, a Warrenton resident who spent 22 years in the US Army.
Mr Riley worries that war in Europe will have major consequences for the US.
“I'm worried about our country,” he said. “I’m worried about inflation, I’m worried about our military.”
The veteran's concerns stem from a belief that Mr Biden is not up to the task of navigating the US and its allies through what is the most significant military escalation in Europe since the Second World War.
A recent poll by Politico suggested that about half of Americans blame Mr Biden to some extent for the situation in Ukraine.
The poll, which was published before the Russian invasion, showed 58 per cent of Americans would blame Mr Biden if the conflict causes petrol prices to climb.
A popular Warrenton diner was buzzing on Thursday morning over the situation in Ukraine. Even though the town is almost 8,000 kilometres away from Kiev, the Russian invasion was still a major topic of conversation among the diner's regulars.
Jim Armstrong told The National over breakfast that the Biden administration is a “bunch of amateurs” who were “playing checkers” while Mr Putin “played chess".
Mr Armstrong, who last voted Democrat in 1976 for Jimmy Carter, said this would not have happened if Mr Trump were still in office.
“Putin would never have done this under Trump,” Mr Armstrong told The National. “Putin has known Biden for a long time and he knows he’s been feckless and weak.”
He added that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan likely served as a green light for Mr Putin to begin planning his invasion of Ukraine.
And that sentiment is shared by many Republican leaders.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed the Afghanistan withdrawal as well as Mr Putin's imperial ambitions for the current situation. But he also made it clear in comments on Thursday that “we’re all together at this point and we need to be together about what should be done".
He called for sanctions on Russia to be “ratcheted all the way up".
While some Republican leaders have shown support for Mr Biden, Mr Trump has openly complimented the Russian president's moves, describing them as “smart”.
“[Mr Putin] has taken over a country for $2 worth of sanctions. I'd say that's pretty smart,” Mr Trump said at a Take Back Congress Candidate Forum hosted at the resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday.
“Putin is playing Biden like a drum. It is not a pretty thing to watch,” Mr Trump said in another statement.
In Warrenton, though many residents express disdain for Mr Putin, they seem to side with Mr Trump when it comes to Mr Biden's actions — or lack thereof.
“I think [Mr Putin] took advantage of the situation,” said Mr Hoovler as he finished filling up his last jerry can.
“When [former president Barack] Obama was there, he knew Obama wouldn’t do anything and then when Trump came into power, he knew Trump wouldn't stand for it.
“But now you have got Biden who is even weaker than Obama.”
Mr Biden, whose wavering political fortunes will take centre stage in November's congressional midterm elections, addressed the cost of the Ukraine crisis, saying he would authorise releases from the strategic oil reserve "as conditions warrant".
"I know this is hard and that Americans are already hurting. I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people are feeling the gas pump," he said on Thursday as he announced new sanctions on Russia.
"This is critical to me. But this aggression cannot go unanswered."
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A Ukrainian soldier walks past the shell of a burnt military vehicle, on a street in Kiev. AP -
A screengrab from CCTV footage shows a missile hitting a residential building in Kiev. Reuters -
A man inspects a broken window, after shelling carried out by Russian troops in the Ukrainian capital. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers take positions outside a military centre as two cars burn on a street in Kiev. AP -
Medical specialists transport a woman, who was wounded in the shelling of an apartment building, to an ambulance, as her husband looks on. Reuters -
A woman outside her apartment building after it was damaged by a rocket, in Kiev. AP -
A Ukrainian police officer detains a driver on a street in Kiev. AP -
A soldier's helmet with a bullet hole on a street in the Ukrainian capital. AP -
Ukrainian soldiers walk by a damaged vehicle, at the site of fighting with Russian troops, in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian policemen move parrots to safety after a high-rise apartment block was damaged by shelling in Kiev. EPA -
A screengrab from a video shows rescue workers carrying a person at the site of a damaged multi-storey residential building, south-west of the Ukrainian capital. Reuters -
A building damaged by shelling carried out by Russian troops in Kiev. EPA -
Helga Tarasova comforts her daughter Kira Shapovalova as they wait in an underground shelter during a bombing alert in Kiev. AFP -
A man walks past a building damaged by a rocket attack in the Ukrainian capital. AP -
Emergency services workers near an apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers collect unexploded shells in the capital. AFP -
An apartment building damaged by shelling in Kiev. Reuters -
Debris of a burnt military truck on a street in Kiev. AP -
Natali Sevriukova stands next to her home after a rocket attack in Kiev, Ukraine. AP -
People on foot and in cars move to cross from Ukraine to Poland at the Korczowa-Krakovets border crossing following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP -
Servicemen from the Ukrainian National Guard in central Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian soldiers in downtown Kiev after Russian troops reached the outskirts of the capital. AP Photo -
Police officers detain demonstrators in St. Petersburg, Russia. Hundreds of people gathered in Moscow and St. Petersburg on Thursday, protesting against Russia's attack on Ukraine. Similar protests took place in other Russian cities, and activists were also arrested. AP Photo -
Hungarian troops in Vasarosnameny, close to the border with Ukraine, prepare to help refugees. AP Photo -
Wrecked Russian army rocket launchers in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Reuters -
The aftermath of a rocket attack in Kiev. AP Photo -
A US Air Force jet refuels over Poland. Reuters -
Devastation after shelling in Ukraine's Luhansk enclave. Reuters -
The Royal Welsh Battlegroup from the UK makes its way to Estonia. Reuters -
Firefighters tackle a blaze in a building in Kiev. AFP -
The wreckage of an unidentified aircraft in a residential area in Kiev. Reuters -
Smoke rises near the Ukrainian Defence Ministry in Kiev. Reuters -
Russian military helicopters fly over the Ukrainian capital. AP -
An anxious wait to board a train to leave Kiev as the attack loomed. AP Photo -
Ukrainian servicemen on tanks in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo -
Ukraine troops said this destroyed armoured vehicle outside Kharkiv belonged to the Russian army. Reuters -
Rescuers at the crash site after a Ukraine armed forces Antonov aircraft was shot down in Kiev, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Reuters -
Ukrainian tanks that aim to repel an attack by the Russian military in the Luhansk enclave of Ukraine. AFP -
A Ukrainian State Border Guard Service base is ablaze after heavy shelling near Kiev. Reuters -
Damaged radar at a Ukrainian military plant outside Mariupol. Officials in Kiev say Russian troops have rolled into the country from the north, east and south. AP Photo -
Firefighters attend a blaze after bombing in the eastern Ukrainian town of Chuguiv, as Russian armed forces appeared to be bombarding Ukraine from several directions. AFP -
A traffic jam in Kiev, with many Ukrainians leaving their capital after Russian troops entered. EPA -
The Border Service of Ukraine released CCTV footage purporting to show Russian military vehicles passing a checkpoint to drive into Crimea. AP -
A man picks up fragments of military materiel on the street after an apparent Russian strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP -
Workers load the debris of a rocket on to a lorry in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kiev. AP -
Emergency staff treat an injured man after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
An American woman in distress after crossing the border to flee the violence in Ukraine, in Medyka, Poland. Reuters -
People take shelter in a Kiev subway station, after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine. Reuters -
People in a rush near Kiev-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in the Ukrainian capital. AFP -
A Flightradar24.com screengrab shows a dearth of civilian aircraft in Ukrainian airspace after the Russian invasion. AP -
The aftermath of bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
A Ukrainian rocket launcher vehicle prepares for action. Reuters -
Cars are driven across a field to leave the city of Kharkiv. Reuters -
People chant, carry placards and wave Ukrainian flags as they gather in Sydney, to demonstrate against Russian attacks on its neighbour. AP -
People with many of their belongings packed take shelter in a Metro station in Kiev. AFP -
Emergency services at the scene of an explosion at a military unit building in Kiev. EPA -
A Kiev resident sweeps up debris after Russian shelling. AP -
The first 40 soldiers of the 173rd US Army Airborne Brigade step off a military plane in Latvia. EPA -
More damage from shelling in Kiev. AP -
People wait at a bus station to travel to western parts of Ukraine, after violence in the east. Reuters -
A woman carries her cats in a quest for a safe haven. AFP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holds an urgent government meeting in Kiev to discuss the next step. AFP -
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell give a joint statement in Brussels, updating the press about the situation in Ukraine. EPA -
People survey the damage after bombing in Chuguiv. AFP -
A building on fire in Chuguiv. AFP
