Friday, March 29

Russia invades Ukraine after months of threats and demands


The death toll continued to mount in the hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Wednesday night and launched airstrikes, ending weeks of diplomatic stalemate and plunging Eastern Europe into a nightmare of violence and bloodshed not seen since the darkest days of World War II.

More than 40 people in Ukraine were killed and several dozen injured after missiles strikes were launched, said Aleksey Arestovichadviser to the head of the country’s presidential office.

Ukraine’s military said six Russian plans and one helicopter were shot down amid the ongoing aerial assault. The military also said four Russian tanks were destroyed and 50 troops were killed.

The attacks came first from the air. Later, Ukrainian authorities described ground invasions in multiple regions, and border guards released security camera footage Thursday showing a line of Russian military vehicles crossing into Ukraine’s government-held territory from Russian-annexed Crimea.

Putin claimed Russia was undertaking a “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” the country under the pretense that Russia was defending itself.

Putin announced the operation in a live televised speech that aired before 6 am local time, threatening countries that attempt to interfere with “consequences they have never seen.”

Damaged radar arrays and other equipment at a Ukrainian military facility outside Mariupol, Ukraine.
AP
Military trucks, with letter 'Z' on them, drive near Armyansk, in Crimea, February 24, 2022.
Military trucks, with the letter “Z” on them, drive near Armyansk, in Crimea, February 24, 2022.
REUTERS

Immediately following the speech, explosions were reported in the capital city, Kyiv, as well as Kramatorsk, Kharkiv, Odessa and Mariupol. It wasn’t immediately clear what the targets were.

Russian tanks crossed into Sen’kivka, Ukraine, from Belarus on Thursday, CNN footage showed. Images of the ground invasion aired after explosions were heard in the nation’s capital.

Ukrainian airspace was closed to civilian aircraft as the region was considered an active conflict zone. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency issued an alert saying there is a risk of “both intentional targeting and misidentification” of civilian aircraft.

Traffic out of Ukraine
The flow of traffic out of Kyiv following missile strikes in Ukraine’s capital.
Getty Images
An explosion strikes Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022.
An explosion strikes Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022.
ZUMAPRESS.com

Ukraine imposed martial law as Russian forces launched offensives across the country. A nationwide state of emergency had been in effect, giving officials extra powers to impose restrictions. Under martial law, military leaders are the absolute authorities of Ukraine’s civilians.

Highways could be seen jam-packed with vehicles early Thursday as Ukrainian citizens desperately tried to flee to safety.

Images showed Ukrainian citizens bandaged and bloodied from the bombings. An apartment building was struck outside Kharkiv, where more casualties were reported.

Also Read  The people have spoken, time to unite behind winners: Inquirer contributor
A wave of explosions took place in Kharkov and the region at about 5 am.
A wave of explosions took place in and around Kharkov at about 5 am local time.
just_kharkov_/Instagram

Putin said the Kremlin has no intention of occupying the country, placing blame for any potential bloodshed on the Ukrainian “regime.”

International intelligence has long expected the Russian leader to use “false flag” operations to justify its aggression against Ukraine.

Putin had directly addressed Ukraine forces in his remarks, urging them to lay down their arms, according to a translation.

A man mourns near a body as an airstrike damages an apartment complex outside of Kharkiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
A man mourns near a body after an airstrike damages an apartment complex outside Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A woman is wounded following airstrikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
A woman is wounded following airstrikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

President Biden released a statement shortly after military action began, calling the aggression “an unprovoked and unjustified attack” by Russia.

“Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” he said in a statement late Wednesday.

“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.”

Biden was briefed on the Russian attack on Ukraine in a secure call late Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

On the call with Biden were Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Biden was also reportedly speaking with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky just before midnight.

The president planned to meet with G7 counterparts Thursday morning to announce further sanctions from the US and allies for “this needless act of aggression.”

Ukrainian tanks move into the city of Mariupol on Feb. 24, 2022.
Ukrainian tanks move into the city of Mariupol on Feb. 24, 2022.
REUTERS
The graphic shows the locations of major explosions across Ukraine.
The graphic shows the locations of major explosions across Ukraine.
New York Post Illustration

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, said in a statement that Putin had launched “a full-scale war” against Ukraine.

“Strikes continue on peaceful Ukrainian cities,” Kuleba said. “This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend and win. The world can and must stop Putin. It’s time to act—just now.”

The invasion follows frantic diplomatic efforts by the US and its Western allies to find a middle ground with Moscow after rejecting the Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine be kept out of NATO, as well as that the alliance draw back its forces from Eastern Europe and not deploy missile systems inside Ukraine.

Also Read  New lawsuit filed over Texas trans family investigations

On Wednesday, a US defense official told reporters that Russian forces “could go at any hour now” and added that Putin has “near 100 percent of all the forces [in place] that we anticipated that he would move in.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of judges of general jurisdiction and arbitration courts of the Russian Federation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded that NATO not be expanded to include Ukraine.
AP

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby backed that assessment, telling reporters that “we believe that they are, they are, they are ready. I’ll just put it — just leave it at that. They’re ready.”

US officials estimated that Russia had massed between 150,000 and 190,000 troops along Ukraine’s border in recent months, which one diplomat described last week as “the most significant military mobilization in Europe since the Second World War.”

The situation began deteriorating Monday after Putin delivered an astonishing speech in which he ranted and raved that Ukraine was not a standalone nation but rather “an integral part” of Russia.

Cars drive out of Kyiv after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Cars drive out of Kyiv after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a military operation in eastern Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
REUTERS

Delivering a distorted history lesson, the Russian leader insisted that “modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia — more precisely, Bolshevik, Communist Russia” and lamented that Soviet leaders going back to Vladimir Lenin had erred by “giving in to nationalists.”

“Why did we have to be so generous, and then give these republics the right to leave?” the Russian leader asked at one point, making a clear reference to the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. “Madness.”

At the conclusion of his speech, Putin recognized two pro-Russian breakaway enclaves in eastern Ukraine as independent states and signed a decree ordering troops to the region to perform “peacekeeping functions.”

On Tuesday, Biden denounced Putin’s actions as the “beginning” of an invasion of Ukraine and announced new economic sanctions targeting Russia.

“Who in the Lord’s name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belonged to his neighbors?” Biden said. “This is a flagrant violation of international law and demands a firm response from the international community.”

Russian military tanks
A video screengrab shows Russian tanks advancing in the Russian separatist-controlled part of the Donbas region on February 23, 2022.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The sanctions, which Biden called the “first tranche” of punishments, would affect two Kremlin-backed banks and restrict the trading of Russian government debt on Western finance markets.

Biden also announced that the US would shift an additional 1,000 military personnel to Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from elsewhere in Europe.

Also Read  LeBron James passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most combined points in regular season and playoffs

That move follows an earlier deployment of 5,000 troops to Poland and Germany from the US, and the shift of another 1,000 troops from Germany to Romania to bolster NATO forces there. Washington has also sent millions of dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine to counter the Russian threat.

People walk through a metro station in Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022.
People walk through a metro station in Kyiv on Feb. 24, 2022.
AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, conditions became more violent in eastern Ukraine, with the Kyiv government saying Wednesday that six soldiers had been killed by separatist shelling in recent days.

The so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic broke away from Ukraine after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014. Fighting has continued ever since with an estimated death toll of more than 14,000.

Despite Moscow’s insistence that it had no intention to invade, US intelligence continued to show Russia bolstering its forces around Ukraine, leading Sullivan to say last week that an attack was “hours or days away.”

Police officers inspect the remains of a missile that fell in the street in Kyiv, Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Police officers inspect the remains of a missile that fell in the street in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 24, 2022.
REUTERS

Sullivan also predicted that any invasion would be “extremely violent” and be waged “by Russia on the Ukrainian people, to repress them, to crush them, to harm them.”

“We believe that the world must mobilize to counter this kind of Russian aggression should those tanks roll across the border, as we anticipate they very well may do in the coming hours or days,” Sullivan said on NBC’s “Today” show Feb. 21 .

The US also informed the United Nations that its intelligence indicated that Russia was compiling lists of Ukrainian dissidents “to be killed or sent to camps” following an invasion.

As late as this week, the Biden administration held out hope the standoff could be resolved diplomatically.

After the White House said Sunday that Biden would be willing to meet with Putin “in principle” as long as an invasion of Ukraine had not yet happened, the Kremlin rejected the olive branch.

“It’s premature to talk about any specific plans for organizing any kind of summits,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters,

“There is an understanding that dialogue should be continued at the level of foreign ministers,” he said, adding that there are “no concrete plans in place” for a presidential summit.

This is a developing story and will be updated.




nypost.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *