RUSSIA ATTACKS UKRAINE Putin’s decision to launch military operation draws condemnation from West
https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-attacks-ukraine-drawing-broad-condemnation-11645682406
Biden calls move an unprovoked attack, pledging further action against Moscow; senior Ukrainian official says he believes hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have died
KYIV, Ukraine—Russian troops and tanks pushed into Ukraine and airstrikes hit the country’s capital and more than a dozen other cities early Thursday after President Vladimir Putin said he ordered a military operation to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine” and bring its leaders to trial.
Ukrainian officials said an initial wave of strikes targeted military installations, airfields and government facilities across the country, as well as border force installations. Ukraine’s border service said its troops came under attack all along the country’s frontiers with Russia and Belarus.
In Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine’s largest city, residents said a large fire was visible in the morning darkness, after what appeared to be a hit at a weapons depot. Heavy shelling targeted the city of Mariupol on the Azov sea. Air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv after 7 a.m.
In a televised early-morning address, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, called on citizens to remain calm. “We are working, our army is working,” he said. “Don’t panic, we are strong, we are ready for anything, we will overcome.”
Mr. Zelensky said he had ordered the introduction of martial law across Ukraine and had spoken with President Biden about the attack.
Kyiv didn’t immediately offer any official estimate of casualties. But a senior Ukrainian official said he believed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers had died in Russian airstrikes and missile attacks that began at 5 a.m. local time.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had only targeted military installations and hasn’t attacked cities or civilian populations, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Mr. Biden called Mr. Putin’s move an unprovoked, unjustified attack in Ukraine, pledging further action against Russia. “President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” he said in a statement.
Just before the airstrikes began, Russian television aired a speech by Mr. Putin in which he said, “Circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action” to remove Ukraine’s leaders, whom he accused of “committing numerous bloody crimes.”
The Russian leader railed against the eastward expansion of NATO in the decades since the 1991 collapse, saying Moscow had been faced with “deceit and attempts at pressure and blackmail.” And he issued a pointed warning against any attempt to stop Russia’s move into Ukraine, saying Russia was “one of the most powerful nuclear powers in the world.”
Mr. Putin justified his actions by saying he was answering appeals for help from leaders of two Russian-controlled breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which he recognized as independent this week.
Mr. Putin said that his plans didn’t include the occupation of Ukraine, military activity all along Ukraine’s borders suggested otherwise. He called on Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their weapons and go home.
As Mr. Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations Security Council met to discuss the crisis, with diplomats agreeing to vote on a resolution against Russia on Thursday.
Moscow is unlikely to face any consequences at the Security Council because it holds a veto due to its permanent membership. In addition, Moscow holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for February
Just hours earlier, Mr. Zelensky made a Russian-language appeal to Russian citizens, saying that his nation posed no threat to Russia and that responsibility for unleashing a conflict that could cause tens of thousands of victims would lay squarely with Mr. Putin. Mr. Zelensky, who is of Jewish origin, ridiculed Russian propaganda assertions that Ukraine was somehow beholden to neo-Nazis, pointing out that eight million Ukrainians died during World War II and that his own grandfather was a decorated Soviet officer at the time.
Ukraine’s border service said Russian strikes and shelling hit the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Odessa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. It said Ukrainian aircraft were destroyed in the Melitopol and Ozerne air fields.
Ukraine’s Interfax news agency reported the beginning of Russian amphibious landings on the Black and Azov sea coasts, as well as cross-border artillery and rocket fire. Residents reached in Ukraine’s main port of Odessa said they heard explosions but couldn’t confirm landings. A Wall Street Journal reporter heard low-flying aircraft and explosions in the central Cherkasy province.
Ukrainian airspace has been closed to all civilian aircraft, according to Eurocontrol, which manages European air traffic. A formal notice to pilots and operators has been sent warning of the “potential hazard for civil aviation.”
Ukrainian lawmakers passed emergency legislation that would allow Kyiv to prepare for a Russian attack, with Mr. Zelensky’s political rivals putting their grievances aside and closing ranks in the name of defending Ukraine’s independence
“Ukraine above all. As long as the risk of invasion remains, we are taking a moratorium on anything that undermines national unity,” former President Petro Poroshenko, Mr. Zelensky’s main rival, said in an interview. “The Ukrainian people are showing unity, the Ukrainian society is showing unity, Ukraine’s responsible statesmen are demonstrating unity.”
Mr. Poroshenko, who is facing treason charges that he says are politically motivated, had instructed his party’s lawmakers to vote for emergency legislation introduced by Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Zelensky had held off on mobilizing troops and other overt preparations for weeks, fearing that a panic would torpedo Ukraine’s already-battered economy. He changed his approach after Mr. Putin recognized the independence of the two Russian-backed statelets in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region and made a grievance-laden speech that questioned Ukraine’s right to exist as a sovereign nation. Some 190,000 Russian troops have gathered on Ukrainian borders for what the U.S. warns could be an imminent invasion. About 80% of Mr. Putin’s force is in forward positions amassed around Ukraine and ready for a full-scale invasion, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
On Monday, Mr. Putin said that Moscow was ready for dialogue, but praised the readiness of Russia’s armed forces, which he said have been modernized and sharpened by exercises. “Weapons that have no equal in the world are now on combat duty,” he said in a televised address to mark Russia’s veterans day. “The security of our citizens is unconditional for us.”
Mr. Zelensky’s national security adviser, Oleksiy Danilov, said that the call-up of reservists will initially involve 36,000 service members with combat experience. Ukraine’s National Guard and border control service are activating an additional 10,000 reserve members. The country’s standing military numbers some 200,000 uniformed troops. The call-ups won’t go to the front initially but will undergo training exercises, including with weapons newly supplied by the U.S. and other allies, such Javelin and Stinger missiles.
“I hope a huge escalation will not happen. I hope our army will be enough to hold Russia in the eastern part of the country,” said Oleksiy Radziyevskyy, a 39-year-old reservist who normally drives an Uber and is now waiting to be called up to his tank unit. “Of course, my wife is not happy with it, but what can we do? It’s our land, it’s our home.”
Myroslav Borysenko, a 48-year-old history professor at Kyiv National University who served in a mortar unit on the front line in the 95th Paratrooper Brigade in 2015, also awaits his call-up. “I have been living the last three months under psychological pressure,” he said. “I think it would be better to be mobilized.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry advised citizens to leave Russia immediately, citing “the intensification of Russian aggression against Ukraine” that might make it impossible for its consulates to offer help inside Russia. It also advised Ukrainians to avoid any travel to Russia. Russia, meanwhile, closed its diplomatic missions in Ukraine and on Wednesday was evacuating Embassy staff from Kyiv.
Mr. Putin recognized the two Russian-controlled statelets, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, in borders that include major Ukrainian-held cities such as Mariupol and Kramatorsk. The Russian Parliament, in a unanimous vote after Mr. Putin’s speech on Ukraine, allowed him to send Russian troops to the country.
After Russia’s recognition of the statelets and Russian troop movements into Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that was scheduled for Thursday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian canceled a meeting with Mr. Lavrov planned for Friday.
The Parliament has already voted to allow the government to divert revenue to the armed forces without approval from the legislature. In recent months, Kyiv has turned its attention to organizing territorial defense units of part-time soldiers who could be mobilized in case of war. In addition to these units, some 700,000 Ukrainians already own licensed firearms.
For weeks, Ukraine has shown few outward signs of moving to a wartime footing. Kostyantyn Batozsky, a political consultant in Kyiv, said that changed after Russia’s recognition of the statelets. He said he noticed that half the children in his daughter’s kindergarten weren’t in school Wednesday. He said he was planning to take his daughter Thursday to a relative near the Polish border. “Everyone understands now that war is inevitable as Russia has territorial claims for Ukraine,” he said.
The Polish and Lithuanian presidents came to Kyiv in a show of support on Wednesday, visiting Mr. Zelensky. “Be strong,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said as he shook hands with his Ukrainian counterpart. “I am strong,” Mr. Zelensky replied.
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