Conflict in Ukraine: Russian troops storm after Putin's television statement
Written byTimes Magazine
Russian troops launched military offensives into neighboring Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near major cities. In pre-dawn televised remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia had no plans to occupy Ukraine and asked its military to lay down arms. Moments later, attacks on Ukrainian military targets were reported.
Ukraine said, "Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine." Russian military vehicles have violated the border in several north, south, and east locations, including Belarus. President Vladimir Zelenskyy has announced that martial law will now be imposed across Ukraine.
"Don't panic. We are strong. We are ready for anything. We will all win because we are Ukrainians," the Ukrainian leader said in a video statement. Before the Russian attack, he made a last-ditch effort to prevent war by warning that Russia could start a "great war in Europe" and urging Russian citizens to fight back.
Warning sirens blared in the capital, which has a population of nearly three million.
The movement queued to leave the city at night, and crowds took refuge in the Kyiv metro. Several neighboring countries have started preparations to accommodate large numbers of refugees.
"We don't understand what we have to do now," one woman told the BBC. "Now we go to a place where we are safe, and we hope we can be safe. We have family in Mariupol, and now they are very nervous."
According to Zelensky, Russia has attacked Ukraine's military infrastructure and border guards for the first time. At the time, Ukrainian forces said Russian military vehicles had crossed the borders in Kharkiv in the north, Luhansk in the east, Crimea-annexed Crimea in the south, and Belarus.
The Ukrainian army said Kyiv's Boryspil International Airport was among a series of airports bombed and military headquarters and warehouses in the major cities of Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and Mariupol.
Zelenski said Russia had deployed nearly 200,000 troops and thousands of combat vehicles along the Ukrainian border.
The Russian leader has launched a "special military operation" that echoes a series of baseless accusations he made this week that Ukraine's democratically elected government was responsible for eight years of genocide.
He said he aimed to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. Hours earlier, the Ukrainian president had questioned how a country that lost eight million citizens against the Nazis supported Nazism. "How can I be a Nazi?" said Selenski, who is also a Jew.
Ukraine's western allies have repeatedly warned that Russia is ready for an invasion, despite repeated denials from Moscow. As a result, the United States, European Union, Britain, and Japan have imposed sanctions on Russia, Russian banks, and lawmakers who have supported the move.
US President Joe Biden said Washington and its allies would respond with unity and determination to the "unprovoked and unprovoked attack by Russian forces" on Ukraine in response to the Russian attack.
"President Putin consciously chose a war that would result in loss of life and human suffering," Biden said. "The world will hold Russia to account.
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