KYIV, Feb 24: At daybreak on Thursday in a televised address President Vladimir Putin said he had no other option but to order a "special military operation"
against Ukraine as his appeals seeking assurance of security from the West failed
to elicit any response. "I have decided to proceed with a special military operation,"
of sending "peacekeeping forces" inside Ukraine. He ordered a "demilitarisation"
of Ukraine, and asked Ukrainians to put down their arms.
Soon the attacks began by air, land and sea and several explosions were heard
in Kyiv, Capital of Ukraine. Air raid sirens rang out. Bombs and missiles hit
military installations and residential areas in cities across the country forcing
frightened citizens to flee their homes, leaving a deserted look to many streets,
even as ground forces moved in from the north, south and east, seizing territories
contiguous to Crimea in the south and rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas
in the east.
Troops also landed in the Ukraine Black Sea port of Odessa and in Mariupol
in Donetsk. Chuguiv was another town battered by the blitzkrieg. In the key
port city of Mariupol civilians were being evacuated.
From Crimea the troops pushed into the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson
where 13 civilians and nine Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Some stretches beyond
the Crimean border were also seized. Kherson fell to the invaders. The Russians
penetrated deep in the north-west, and fighting was reported at Chernobyl, the
seat of the former nuclear power plant. Sumy, north-east of Kyiv, also reported
air strikes. Other areas devastated were: Lutsk, Ivano Frankivsk, Hostomel Anpv, Vasilko Vsky airport, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kramatorsk, Senkivka border. No place in the largest European country was spared!
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces destroyed 74 military facilities,
including 11 airbases. The Government had to close its airspace to civilian
flights following bomb attacks on its cities. An Air India flying to Kyiv to
evacuate Indians had to return half way as the airport closed.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles at
airfields and military headquarters near the Capital, Kyiv.
Russia attacked more than a dozen cities and towns across the country from
land, air and sea.
Ukraine said 40 of its soldiers are dead in a day in rebel offensive and 'around
50 Russian occupiers' were also killed. Ten civilians were killed by Russian
shelling. An Ukrainian military plane was shot down, killing five people.
Even as Ukraine declared "This is a war of aggression," Russian troops in the
east advanced by up to three km. Fighting on the ground is going on in several
regions.
"I woke up because of the sounds of bombing. I packed a bag and tried to escape,"
said Maria Kashkoska, as she sheltered inside the Kyiv metro station, reported
AFP:
"I have decided to proceed with a special military operation," Putin said in
a television announcement in the early hours of Thursday. Shortly afterwards,
the first bombardments were heard in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and several other
cities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law in the face of the widespread
attacks. The mayor of Ukraine's Capital of Kyiv ordered curfew in the city.
Russian Defence Ministry said that the Russian troops were providing supporting
fire to the rebels who are fighting the Ukrainian forces, in fact since 2014.
On Wednesday soon after the parliamentary authorisation to Putin enabling him
to send troops anywhere outside Russia he wanted, troops had started moving
into the rebel-held regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in the Donbas province of
eastern Ukraine.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday his forces will
join the Russians when needed.
Meanwhile, Russian police detained about 400 for holding anti-war protests
in 39 Russian cities. Dozens of protesters were also detained in Moscow.
Ukraine's trained reservists
According to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies
(IISS), the Russian army strength is 280,000 and the total military personnel
number 900,000 and has 2,840 battle tanks. Compared with Russia's, Ukraine has
very few tanks. Zelensky had recently launched a programme
to raise the armed forces strength to 361,000. Its defence budget is one-tenth
of Russia's at $ 4.3 billion. Although Ukrainians are today more motivated,
at the time of Crimean invasion the army was little trained that they could
not offer any resistance when Russia took it away just like that in 2014. It
has since enlisted 900,000 trained reservists, who have now been urgently called
upon to join services.
Stock markets crash
Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent shock waves through global markets. Stock
market across the world crashed. Sensex shed around 2,000 points. The ruble
fell nine per cent and stocks plummeted by 50% at the Moscow Stock Exchange.
Petrol, edible oils and food prices are set to rise in India.
Oil hit $105 a barrel and natural gas prices soared. The Hang Seng in Hong
Kong lost 3.2 percent. On Wall Street, the S&P 500 tumbled 2.5 per cent at the
start of trading, but later the initial panic seemed to ease. Gold prices shot
up.
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