In the early morning, eyewitness reports piled up around the capital, Kiev.
(Photo: Reuters)
Brussels, New York Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has officially ordered a military operation in eastern Ukraine. “I have decided to conduct a special military operation,” Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning. “Your goal is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide for the past eight years.”
In the early morning, eyewitness reports piled up around the capital, Kiev. A reporter from the Reuters news agency speaks of several distant explosions. Reporters from the US news channel CNN also reported explosions in Kiev and in the second largest city of Kharkiv. Attacks on major Ukrainian cities and military infrastructure were later confirmed.
The Russian news agency Interfax reports on Russian missile attacks on military targets across Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speaks of a “large-scale war against Ukraine”.
US President Joe Biden strongly condemned Putin’s actions in a statement: Putin deliberately started a war that will result in catastrophic loss of life and suffering. Russia alone is responsible for the destruction that this attack could bring. The United States and its allies will “respond together and decisively. The world will hold Russia accountable.”
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Germany also expressed itself in a similarly sharp tone in the morning. At the recently scheduled meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, the German UN Ambassador Antje Leendertse said: “The Russian aggression will have an unprecedented price politically, economically and morally”.
USA warned in the evening before attack in the night
The situation had steadily deteriorated on Thursday night. The United States warned of one in the evening Russian attack within the next 48 hours. A major offensive was described, initiated by bombardment from the air, accompanied by artillery fire and rocket fire. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even said in a television interview that he was expecting an invasion that night.
These forecasts now seem to be confirmed. By early morning (CET), 80 percent of Russian troops were in combat positions along the border. The aviation safety organization warned airlines against overflying Ukrainian airspace. This could lead to an unintentional launch, or cyber attacks could impede air traffic control.
This warning was also confirmed. According to the US television station CNN, numerous Ukrainian websites were not accessible in the early hours of the morning. The websites of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure and Education were affected.
The events of the morning were preceded by the news that the Donetsk and Luhanzk separatist regions Putin had asked to “repel the aggression of the Ukrainian armed forces in order to avoid civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe in Donbass,” the Kremlin said on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, requests for peace from Ukraine became increasingly urgent. In an emotional speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned of tens of thousands of deaths. He asked Russia to keep the peace, but added that if there was an attack on the country’s freedom and the lives of its people, his country would fight back.
The Ukrainian President addresses his compatriots in a speech in the evening.
(Photo: AP)
Selenski also tried to contact Putin directly. However, his calls went unanswered. The Ukrainian President has again asked the UN Security Council for an emergency meeting. The committee last met on Monday to discuss the Ukraine crisis. The UN was to comply with the request on Thursday night.
Military experts recently described the scenario of an invasion as follows: The first wave of attacks would probably destroy the command centers of the Ukrainian army and paralyze its communication networks. Then the ground forces would advance and take out the disoriented enemy. Within days there could be tens of thousands dead. Poland expects up to a million refugees.
Alarming images from the region also circulated in the evening. Cell phone videos on which Columns of tanks and military trucks can be seen, taken from muddy roadsides in the border area. Satellite images also show new troop concentrations in the region around the Russian city of Belgorod, less than 100 kilometers from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city with a population of 1.4 million. Kharkiv airport has been closed.
Ukraine called the state of emergency off and recruited reservists. “The Ukrainians learned a lot from their experiences in 2014,” said American Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith in an interview with Handelsblatt – an allusion to the skirmishes with Russian troops in Donbass, in which Ukraine suffered heavy losses.
More on the Ukraine crisis:
“Many NATO partners, including us Americans, have helped train the Ukrainian army and improve its defense capabilities.” But militarily, almost all experts agree, the Ukrainians would not have been able to cope with Russian superiority, at least not in a direct confrontation.
The West, meanwhile, has made clear its support for Ukraine and its people. In the heart of Berlin, the Brandenburg Gate shone in the national colors of Ukraine – blue and yellow. However, the gesture is purely symbolic: the West has made it clear that no one but the Ukrainians will fight for the freedom of Ukraine.
Instead, the Western allies are trying to join Putin sanctions to deal with A number of EU measures came into force on Thursday night. Those affected include Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Economics Minister Maxim Reshetnikov and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Grigorenko.
A man looks out from a balcony after an artillery shelling at sunset. Ukraine is gearing up for war with Russia.
(Photo: dpa)
However, it remains unclear whether the measures currently being taken will serve this purpose, as the Kremlin has probably already priced the economic penalties into its plans. From now on, the sanctions of the EU and the USA no longer serve primarily as a deterrent, but to defend their own credibility. “We will continue to escalate sanctions if Russia escalates,” US President Biden said. This probably also includes sanctioning the pipeline operator North Stream 2.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already stopped the certification of the Baltic Sea pipeline. According to the US Treasury Department, the latest sanctions are also aimed at German Nord Stream CEO Matthias Warnig. In addition, the sanctions should hit the Swiss-based parent company. The head of the supervisory board of Nord Stream 2 AG is former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD). According to the US government, he should not be affected by the sanctions.
Biden had previously refrained from taking such a step out of consideration for Germany. The Americans’ decision is another major blow to the pipeline.
With agency material.