Ukraine

In a pre-dawn TV statement Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not plan to occupy Ukraine and demanded that its military lay down their arms.

Moments later, attacks were reported on Ukrainian military targets.

Ukraine said that “Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine”.

Russia’s military breached the border in a number of places, in the north, south and east, including from Belarus, a long-time Russian ally. There are reports of fighting in some parts of eastern Ukraine.

Russia attacks Ukraine; conflict reverberates around globe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. Ukraine’s government said Russian tanks and troops rolled across the border in what it called a “full-scale war” that could rewrite the geopolitical order and whose fallout already reverberated around the globe.

Putin announces military operation in Ukraine

Russia’s Putin announces military operation in Ukraine

Breaking: Video reportedly shows large explosion in Kharkiv, Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/mX9QWr6my2

— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) February 24, 2022

From RT – Putin announces ‘special operation’ in Donbass

The special military operation will be aimed at “the defense of” the newly-recognized republics of Donetsk and Lugansk

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he ordered his country’s military to conduct a special operation in the Donbass region after the leaders of the breakaway republics asked Moscow for military assistance in response to what they claim is an increase in “Ukrainian aggression.”

Assuming that remains the goal then nothing has really changed.

Mariupol pic.twitter.com/6VokxlCAGS

— Андрей (@AndreyZhukovv) February 24, 2022

Russian forces massing near Ukraine’s borders can only remain in position for a few days before they have to be sent back to nearby bases or risk their capability being significantly degraded, western officials and experts believe.

That means that President Vladimir Putin will come under increasing pressure to use them in a full invasion of Ukraine – or send them back to staging areas, still in Russia’s south or west, but tens or even hundreds of kilometres back.

Such advance positions, often with poor protection from the cold, can be held only for a short period – and there is some evidence on social media of the poor conditions endured by soldiers near the border.

The optics look dreadful.

Russia has deployed more than two-thirds of its military combat capability to within striking distance of Ukraine’s borders.

Its 30,000 troops that were supposed to withdraw from neighbouring Belarus at the weekend are still there. So are pontoon bridges and other logistic equipment needed for an invasion.

Violence is flaring in the two Russian-backed breakaway republics in Eastern Ukraine. Russia’s demands from Nato remain unmet and diplomacy has so far failed to bring about any significant withdrawal of Russian forces.

On Saturday, in a novel way to appeal for support, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky denounced world leaders for not aligning themselves more forcefully with his country. At the annual security conference in Munich, where Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2007 had originally decried what he depicted as America’s hubristic quest for global hegemony, Zelensky upbraided various governments for “arrogance” and “appeasement.” Even as Zelensky issued his complaints, however, Putin continued to up the pressure on Ukraine, conducting nuclear drills and taking in civilians into Russia from Donetsk.

They rushed to bolt the door and lock the windows of the little wooden house. It trembled from the battering of the men outside. Petro Mohalat, now aged 95, remembers the first food raids in the winter of 1932.

He was five years old when the communist “brigade” arrived in the village. His grandmother told the children to hide anywhere they could.

“It was very scary. The brigade had pitchforks and they came to every house searching for bread,” he recalls. “They used crowbars to come inside. Then they went to all the barns trying to find any buried bread.”