Kyiv claims to have downed multiple Russian aircraft, Moscow denies

Ukraine's military has claimed to have downed five Russian planes and a helicopter in the east of the country near a rebel-held enclave.

"According to the Joint Forces Command, today, February 24, in the area of the Joint Forces operation, five planes and a helicopter of the aggressors were shot down," the army general staff said, reports the Agence France-Presse.

Moscow has released a statement denying reports that a Russian warplane was downed in Ukraine, insisting that it has taken out all the Eastern European nation's air defenses, after the Kremlin ordered a "special military operation" across the border.

In an official announcement, the ministry said: "The Ukrainian Border Service is providing no resistance to Russian divisions. The Ukrainian Armed Forces' anti-air capabilities have been suppressed. The military infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' air bases is out of commission."

The statement also claimed that reports in foreign media of a Russian plane brought down in Ukrainian territory are not true.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military operation in Ukraine on Thursday with explosions heard across the country and its foreign minister warning a "full-scale invasion" was underway.

Weeks of intense diplomacy and the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia failed to deter Putin, who had massed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along the borders of Ukraine.

"I have made the decision of a military operation," Putin said in a surprise television announcement that triggered immediate condemnation from US President Joe Biden and other Western leaders, and sent global financial markets into turmoil.

Shortly after the announcement, explosions were heard in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.

Ukrainian border guards reported being under attack along the Russian and Belarusian frontiers.