Russia has launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War II and confirmation of the worst fears of the West.
The attacks began on Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that he had approved a “special military operation”. The move came after Moscow earlier recognised rebel-held territories in Luhansk and Donetsk and said they had asked for its “help”.
Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine reported columns of troops pouring across its borders into the eastern Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, and landing by sea at the cities of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.
Russian troops attacked Ukraine from Belarus as well as Russia with Belarusian support, and an attack was also being launched from annexed Crimea, Ukraine’s border guard service said.
Explosions could be heard before dawn in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. Gunfire rattled out near the main airport and sirens blared across the city.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said martial law had been declared and he appealed to world leaders to impose all possible sanctions on Russia, including on Putin, who he said wanted to destroy the Ukrainian state.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that Putin had “launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”
Putin justified the attack as “a special military operation” to protect people, including Russian citizens who had been subjected to “genocide” in Ukraine, an accusation the West has long described as absurd propaganda.
“And for this, we will strive for the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine,” Putin said. “Russia cannot feel safe, develop, and exist with a constant threat emanating from the territory of modern Ukraine.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it had taken out military infrastructure at Ukrainian air bases and degraded its air defences.
Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian flights citing a high safety risk, while Russia suspended domestic flights at airports near its border with Ukraine until March 2.
Russian-backed separatists in the east said they had captured two towns, the RIA news agency reported.
Shortly after Putin spoke, Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, who is in Kyiv, said there were explosions in the capital and power had been cut.
Putin said: “The operation aims to protect the people who for eight years have been suffering “genocide of the Ukrainian regime”, he said, claiming the action was justified under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which allows for individual or collective self-defence in the face of an armed attack on a UN member state.
WHY DID RUSSIA INVADE UKRAINE?
According to International media Mr. Putin says the main objective is to defend the Russian-speakers in Ukraine, especially those in the two self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which broke away from Ukrainian control in 2014. Moscow has provided hundreds of thousands passports to people living there, providing it a pretext to defend its interests in the area. Ukraine has denied Moscow’s claims that it is forcibly trying to take the territory back., Per CNN
International news agency say More significantly, Mr. Putin regards Ukraine and Russia as inseparable, “one people, a single whole.” He has questioned Ukraine’s right to exist, citing a similar language and shared history and culture. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union before its collapse at the end of the Cold War in 1991, and it borders Russia to its eastern flank, where, historically, it has been most vulnerable to invasion.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union left Russia with a vastly depleted population, territory and economy. It also diminished Russia’s superpower status and, in Moscow’s eyes, left it vulnerable to attack after Ukraine signaled its intent to one day join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.