New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine today with explosions heard soon after 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.
In a televised address, Putin said the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine. He added that Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy 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 sent global financial markets into turmoil.
Shorly after the announcement, explosions were heard in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and several other cities, according to AFP correspondents.
The Kremlin said rebels in eastern Ukraine asked Russia for military assistance on Wednesday to help fend off Ukrainian “aggression,” an announcement that immediately fueled fears that Moscow was offering up a pretext for war, just as the West had warned.
A short time later, the Ukrainian president rejected Moscow’s claims that his country poses a threat to Russia and said a Russian invasion would cost tens of thousands of lives.
‘The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,’ President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an emotional overnight address, speaking in Russian in a direct appeal to Russian citizens. ‘But if we come under attack, if we face an attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives, and lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. When you attack us, you will see our faces, not our backs.’
Zelenskyy said he asked to arrange a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin late Wednesday, but the Kremlin did not respond.
In an apparent reference to Putin’s move to authorize the deployment of the Russian military to ‘maintain peace’ in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky warned that ‘this step could mark the start of a big war on the European continent.’
Any provocation, any spark could trigger a blaze that will destroy everything, he said.
He challenged the Russian propaganda claims, saying that ‘you are told that this blaze will bring freedom to the people of Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people are free.’
The United Nations Security Council quickly scheduled an emergency meeting Wednesday night at Ukraine’s request. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the separatists’ request ‘a further escalation of the security situation.’
Anxiety about an imminent Russian offensive against its neighbor soared after Putin recognised the separatist regions’ independence on Monday, endorsed the deployment of troops to the rebel territories and received parliamentary approval to use military force outside the country. The West responded with sanctions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the rebel chiefs wrote to Putin on Wednesday, pleading with him to intervene after Ukrainian shelling caused civilian deaths and crippled vital infrastructure.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the separatists’ request for Russian help was an example of the sort of ‘false-flag’ operation that the US and its allies have expected Moscow to use as a pretense for war.