(Kiev) Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, with airstrikes and the entry of ground forces from several directions, the Ukrainian authorities reporting a few hours later an initial assessment of around fifty dead, including one ten civilians.
Posted at 6:10 a.m.
The attack immediately sparked an outcry from the international community, with emergency meetings scheduled in several Western countries including NATO and the European Union.
The Russian president gave the signal for hostilities on Thursday at dawn, after recognizing the independence of Ukrainian separatist territories in the Donbass on Monday and having the Russian Parliament validate an intervention on Tuesday.
“I have made the decision for a special military operation,” the Kremlin master announced in a surprise statement on television before 6 a.m. (10 p.m. EST). “We will strive to achieve demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” he added, sitting at a dark wooden desk.
“We do not have in our plans an occupation of Ukrainian territories, we do not intend to impose anything by force on anyone”, he assured, calling on the Ukrainian soldiers “to lay down their arms”.
He justified himself by repeating his baseless accusations of a “genocide” orchestrated by Ukraine in the pro-Russian separatist territories, and by arguing an appeal for help from the separatists and NATO’s aggressive policy towards Russia, which would exploit Ukraine.
Shortly after, a series of explosions were heard in Kiev, Kramatorsk, a city in the east which serves as the headquarters of the Ukrainian army, in Kharkiv (east), the country’s second city, in Odessa (south), on the Black Sea, and Mariupol, the main port in the east of the country.
Air-raid sirens sounded every 15 minutes in Lviv, the western city where the United States and several other countries have moved their embassies, and in Odessa.
Promising to “win”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proclaimed martial law in the country, called on his fellow citizens to “not panic”, before announcing the break in diplomatic relations with Moscow.
He also ordered his troops to “inflict maximum casualties on the aggressor”, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army.
At around 5 am EST, a member of the presidential team told reporters that “more than 40 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed, dozens injured” and “nearly 10 civilians killed”.
Ukraine has closed its airspace for civil aviation, and neighboring Moldova has announced that it will do the same. Flights were also canceled from airports in major cities in southern Russia, near Ukraine.
Moscow has closed the Sea of Azov, which borders Ukraine and Russia, to navigation
“I told him to leave”
In Kiev, at dawn, residents crowded into the metro to take shelter or try to leave the city.
“I was woken up by the sound of bombs, I packed bags and I fled,” Maria Kachkoska, 29, told AFP, crouching in shock at one of the stations.
Cars full of families sped out of town, west or into the countryside, furthest from the Russian border, 400 km away.
In Chuhouïv, 30 km from Kharkiv, a woman and her son were mourning a man killed by a missile, one of the first victims of this attack.
“I told him to leave,” repeated the son, not far from the crater dug by the projectile that fell between two five-storey buildings.
On the main roads of eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army was everywhere. A civil defense spokesman said that evacuation operations were underway, but were hampered in places by heavy artillery fire and poor communications.
The Russian army claimed to have destroyed air bases and Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, while claiming to target strategic sites with “high precision” weapons.
“Ukrainian civilians have nothing to fear,” the Russian military said.
Both sides were making unverifiable claims from independent sources: the Ukrainian army claimed to have killed “about 50 Russian occupiers”, while the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the separatists had already gained a few kilometers of ground in Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
In the streets of Moscow, some expressed their concern, others their support for their president.
“I’m not happy, I’m completely worried,” said Nikita Grouschine, a 34-year-old executive, before adding that she could not say “who is right or wrong”.
Ivan, a 32-year-old engineer, professes his loyalty to Putin: “I’m not going to discuss an order from the Supreme Commander, if he thinks it’s necessary, it should be done that way.”
“Reckless Attack”
The Russian attack, after months of tension and diplomatic efforts to avert a war, sparked a torrent of international condemnation.
“President Putin, in the name of humanity, bring your troops back to Russia! “Launched the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, visibly tried, during an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
US President Joe Biden has denounced an “unjustified attack” which will cause “suffering and loss of human life”. “The world will hold Russia to account,” he promised. He also spoke early Thursday with the Ukrainian president, pledging his support.
French President Emmanuel Macron, President-in-Office of the Council of the European Union, has called on Europeans to “unity”.
“Russian leaders will face unprecedented isolation,” warned Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief.
The member states, which meet at an exceptional summit on Thursday evening in Brussels, will adopt the “most severe (set of sanctions) ever implemented”, he added.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg condemned a “reckless and unprovoked attack” by Russia.
An emergency meeting of Atlantic Alliance ambassadors has been decided.
China, which has close relations with Moscow, said it was “monitoring the situation closely” and called for “restraint by all parties”.
Panic in the markets
Many fear that the crisis in Ukraine could lead to the most serious conflict in Europe since 1945.
Mr. Putin addressed himself to those “who would try to interfere”: “they must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead to consequences that you have never known before”.
Washington and its Western allies took the first sanctions on Tuesday in response to the recognition of the Moscow-backed Donbass separatists, which Kiev has been fighting for eight years, a conflict which has already killed more than 14,000 people to date.
The attack caused panic on the world markets, causing the stock markets to fall and the raw materials, oil and gas in the lead, to ignite.
Shortly after Putin’s speech, oil rose above $100 a barrel for the first time in more than seven years.
Stock markets, first in Asia and then in Europe, collapsed.
From the first exchanges in Europe, the Paris Stock Exchange lost 3.15%, Frankfurt 3.73%, London 2.45% and Milan 3.10%.
The Moscow Stock Exchange plunged by more than 30% and the ruble hit a historic low against the dollar, before the intervention of the country’s central bank.
The United States was to table a draft resolution on the table of the UN Security Council on Thursday condemning Russia for this “war”.