By land, air and sea, Russia has launched a devastating full-scale invasion on Ukraine, a European democracy of 44 million people, in the early hours of Thursday. Despite promising for months that he would not attack Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin tore up a peace deal and ordered his troops to launch military operations across the border on Ukraine’s north, east and south. The United States and its allies have levied crushing sanctions on Russia; NATO has put warplanes on alert and deployed thousands of troops in the Baltic States and Poland and the United Nations has called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory.
Rockets and missiles are blasting through Ukrainian military instalments, airports and civilian settlements. The world is now accusing Putin of endangering the peace and stability of Europe by carrying out an unprovoked attack on its neighbour. The invasion of Ukraine is already being counted as the greatest act of aggression from one nation against another since World War II.
Moments before launching the attack, Putin addressed the Russian public and world in a late-night televised speech on Thursday. Putin’s speech was laced with anger and awash with hard-line Russian nationalism. He accused NATO of continuously moving its military infrastructure toward the Russian borders. He said that we have been trying to reach an agreement with the NATO countries for the past three decades but to no avail. He said that despite pleas and warnings, NATO continues to steadily expand and move closer to the Russian border.
“You didn’t want us to be friends,” he told the West, “but you didn’t have to make an enemy of us.”
He ceded no ground in his key security demands: NATO expansion must be rolled back and Ukraine’s membership must be revoked. He said that Russia’s concerns have been ignored for years and the west has been trying to “contain” Russia as a resurgent force.
The Russian leader warned other countries that any attempt to interfere in Ukraine would “lead to consequences you have never seen in history” — a dark threat implying Russia was prepared to use its nuclear weapons.
Putin said that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine, but “demilitarize it.” He said that the Ukrainian people will be allowed to select a leader for themselves.
Putin said that his aim was the “demilitarization and the denazification” of Ukraine and to protect the people from bullying and genocide. But there was no ongoing genocide in Ukraine; it was a burgeoning democracy with a Jewish president. “How could I be a Nazi?” said Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, who likened Russia’s onslaught to Nazi Germany’s invasions in the Second World War.
Russian troops are advancing in Ukraine from three sides and its military headquarters and airports are being hit with airstrikes and shelling. Civilians in the capital Kyiv and other cities are scrambling into trains and cars to flee from the onslaught. Sirens wailed in the capital and explosions were heard in other major cities of Ukraine. The first casualties of the attack are also being reported. 40 people have been killed so and numerous others are injured – the death toll is only expected to rise.
Russia’s defence ministry claims that the Russian military had destroyed 74 Ukrainian military facilities and 11 airbases.
How is the world reacting?
The western world decried that the start of an invasion would cause massive casualties, jeopardize the peace and stability of Europe, topple the democratically elected government of Ukraine and disrupt the post-Cold War balance. Condemnations, warnings and sanctions have poured in to restrain Russia from carrying out the invasion, but no effects can be seen so far as the Russian military blitzkriegs through Ukrainian territory.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called Russia’s attack “a brutal act of war” and said Moscow had shattered peace on the European continent. “Russia is using force to try to rewrite history, and deny Ukraine its free and independent path”, he said. NATO has ordered its military commanders to intensify military preparations to defend the allied territory.
US President Joe Biden said that he “has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.” Biden said that he will be meeting with the G7 countries to impose severe sanctions on Russia.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson followed in on the footpath of his American counterpart, calling Putin a “dictator” who is now facing “massive” sanctions from the west.
Ukraine can be assured of continued UK support given that “our worst fears have now come true and all our warnings have proved tragically accurate”, the prime minister said. Johnson said that the West “will agree a massive package of economic sanctions designed in time to hobble the Russian economy.”
“Diplomatically, politically, economically — and eventually, militarily — this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and urged Russia to roll back its forces immediately. Macron said France is “working with its partners and allies to end the war.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that this “egregious” and “unprovoked” attack on Ukraine will not go unpunished. “Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s egregious attack on Ukraine,” Trudeau said in a statement issued in the hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of military operations.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said: “This Russian invasion stands to put at risk the basic principle of international order that forbids one-sided action of force in an attempt to change the status quo.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply condemned Russia’s attack, calling it “a terrible day for Ukraine and a dark day for Europe.”
UN Chief Antonio Guterres said that the Russian invasion was “the saddest moment” of his five-year tenure. He opened the emergency Security Council meeting on Wednesday by appealing to Putin: “In the name of humanity, bring your troops back to Russia.”
Ukraine’s forces are no match for Russia’s military might, so Kyiv is counting on other countries to hit Russia hard – with sanctions. The United States moved forward the first tranche of sanctions against Russia before the start of the attack. In a televised speech, Biden said that the US and its allies have been preparing their response for months. He said that if Russia continues with the invasion, the west will levy more crushing sanctions to bring the Russian economy to its knees. The west is blocking billions worth of Russian assets and cutting off Moscow’s assets to the western financial markets.
Since the start of the invasion, world markets have gone haywire. The price of oil per barrel is increasing exponentially whereas Russia’s currency, Ruble, has fallen to its lowest value ever. Russia has made tremendous efforts since 2014 to inoculate itself against western financial sanctions. With the pandemic still raging across the globe and ubiquitous inflation, it is hard to measure the effects the new sanctions are producing.