The Russian assaults on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, have been met with fierce resistance from the Ukrainian military. The military said in a Facebook post this morning that an army unit had held off Russian forces near its base on a major Kyiv highstreet. In a self-recorded video posted to social media yesterday, Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "We won't lay down our arms. We will defend our state."

According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, city officials have asked people to stay in shelters and if at home, to keep away from windows.

Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been met with widespread condemnation from the West, with the US, UK and EU having already imposed a string of sanctions against Russia.

The Russian leader's tense relationship with the western world has existed since he first became Russian President 23 years ago.

Despite having been an imposing figure on the world stage, the former KGB spy's personal life is shrouded with mystery.

According to his ex-wife, Ms Putina, the President was a difficult partner who wanted the women in his life to "know their place".

Ms Putina, who was a flight attendant, met Putin via a mutual friend in the early Eighties and the pair married soon after in 1983.

Yet according to journalist Mr Blotsky, who wrote a biography on Ms Putina, the couple's move to the KGB station in Dresden, East Germany, was the first time Ms Putina began to question whether she made the right choice of husband.

The journalist claimed that Putin thought a wife "should know her place and do all the housework herself."

According to Irene Pietsch, who was a friend of the couple, Ms Putina had described the Russian leader as "a vampire who has sucked the juices out of me."

Ms Pietsch, who has written an account of her conversation with Ms Putina, added that the President's ex-wife believed Putin only redeeming qualities were that "he doesn't drink or beat me up."

As Putin rose through the ranks of Russian bureaucracy, Ms Putina reportedly felt increasingly uneasy.

In 'Fragile Friendships' Ms Pietsch described Ms Putina venting over the phone after her then-husband accepted a position running the Federal Security Service in 1998.

In doing so Putin broke a promise with his wife to stay away from the world of spying, according to the German writer.

Allegedly Ms Putina said: "It's terrible. We won't be allowed to contact each other again.

"This awful isolation. No more travelling wherever we want to go; no longer able to say whatever we want.

Putin allegedly responded by saying: "Anyone who could put up with [Ms Putina] for three weeks [is] heroic and deserve[s] a monument."

After Putin was inaugurated for his third term in office in 2012 Ms Putina withdrew from public life, and a year later the couple announced their "civil" divorce.

At the time Ms Putina declared: "Our marriage is over due to the fact we barely see each other.

"Vladimir is completely submerged in his work. Our children have grown up, each of them is living her own life.

"I truly don't like publicity".

Putin added that his ex-wife had "done her shift" as Russia's first lady.

"I had only just begun to live."