Putin warns that any interference will have consequences the likes of which have never been seen. Zelenski declares martial law in the face of the offensive that arrives from different parts of the country. At least ten Ukrainian cities, under military aggression with a balance of dozens of dead

The worst case scenario has been confirmed. Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine this Thursday. Shortly before dawn in Moscow, in a warmongering and furious speech, the Russian president announced a “special military operation” in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine. Minutes after the fiery message from the head of the Kremlin, in which he said that he was seeking to “defend” the citizens of the separatist regions of Donbas from an alleged genocide, large explosions were recorded in various parts of Ukraine. From Sloviansk and Kramatorsk to Kharkiv, 30 kilometers from the Russian border; even in Kiev, the capital. At sunset, after intense fighting, the Ukrainian Army lost control of the Chernobyl exclusion area, where the nuclear power plant that in 1986 caused the historic catastrophe remains under a sarcophagus,

With artillery barrages, heavy equipment and small arms. By land, sea and air. From east, south and north, Russian troops launched swift and insistent attacks across the country in what could be Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Ukrainian troops account for dozens of dead and wounded; some of them civilians. Moscow does not speak of casualties.

Russian troops landed in the port city of Odessa, crossed the border at various points in the country and launched another offensive from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. In Kiev, where powerful explosions were heard, Russian forces managed to seize with the control of a cargo airport on the outskirts of the city, of 2.8 million inhabitants, where some people rushed to protect themselves in one of the enabled air-raid shelters or in the subway. Many others fled west, fearing troops sent by Putin would capture the city. The Ukrainian Executive and the secret services of the United States believe that the Russian forces can try to take over the official buildings, capture the leadership of the Government and eliminate it.

Putin’s “military operation” which, according to the Russian leader, seeks to demilitarize but “not occupy” Ukraine, is already a large-scale attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been quick to declare martial law and close the country’s airspace. “The Army is working. No panic. We are strong. We are ready for everything. We will defeat everyone,” he said. In the afternoon, when more and more red dots littered the map of Ukraine with Russian attacks, Zelensky launched a plea for harsh condemnation and help. The sounds of the war in Ukraine must be heard around the world, he said, because it is not only Ukraine that will feel the impact. “It is the sound of a new iron curtain closing between Russia and the civilized world,” warned the Ukrainian leader.

US President Joe Biden has warned Putin that he has started a “premeditated war with catastrophic consequences” and said he would approve “severe sanctions” against Moscow. The American leader assured that he would coordinate with NATO allies to guarantee “a strong and united response” that deters any aggression against the Alliance, to which Ukraine does not belong. Although the country was invited to join the organization in 2008, its accession remains frozen. This invitation infuriates Putin, who wants to keep Kiev under his sphere of influence at all costs. The EU also prepared this Thursday sanctions to sink the Russian economy.

Dissuasive measures and threats of sanctions have not discouraged Putin this time either. The Russian leader has embarked on a forward rush, which could be felt across Ukraine, where heavy fighting has broken out at various points along the 400-kilometre-long front line in the country’s east. In the Donbas area, where pro-Russian secessionists supported by the Kremlin and the Ukrainian Army have clashed for eight years, there were trench fights and snipers on Thursday.

Zelensky’s alarming message about Chernobyl has come true. The Ukrainian leader stated that Russian forces were trying to capture the radioactive zone where the government had reinforced patrols a few weeks ago . “Our defenders are giving their lives so that the tragedy of 1986 does not repeat itself,” Zelensky said on social media. “This is a declaration of war against all of Europe,” he stressed.

In the morning, a series of fast and furious attacks already indicated that the operation was going to be intense. Ukraine’s state emergency service says that in just one hour, attacks were launched on 10 locations in the country, mainly in the east and south. In addition, the Government confirmed that Russian troops have also tried to penetrate the northeast borders, through the Chernihiv region, on the border with Belarus, whose authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, has already bowed to Moscow.

Kiev assures that it has managed to repel the attack and maintain control of Chernihiv – one of the shortest routes to reach the capital – and other key cities. Putin deployed 30,000 soldiers to Belarus at the beginning of the month to carry out joint exercises that, together with the concentration of tens of thousands of soldiers on the borders of eastern Ukraine, raised international alarm and raised the specter of a possible invasion. That ghost is already real.

There are dozens of dead and wounded soldiers, according to Kiev. In addition, the Ukrainian military command assured that a Russian attack reached the Vuhledar hospital, in the Donetsk region, in the part controlled by the Government. It has not been possible to verify the number of injured or deceased. The Russian agency Interfax also reported explosions in the Donetsk and Lugansk areas, under the control of pro-Russian separatists fueled by the Kremlin. The Russian Defense Ministry has claimed, for its part, that it is using “high-precision weapons” to disable military infrastructure, air defense facilities, military airfields and Ukrainian Army aircraft, according to the Russian state agency RIA.

Putin, who has for months agitated for the argument that Ukraine is a “Nazi regime” that discriminates against Russian-speakers and that the citizens of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are suffering “genocide”, has claimed that the military aggression is taking place to “defend and protect” citizens. “We will strive to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. And also for bringing to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of Russia,” the president said with a serious gesture in a video message in which he was seen flanked by two flags of his country.

On Monday, after a fiery speech in which he questioned the sovereignty of Ukraine, which he considers a fictitious country, the result of historical and diplomatic seams, Putin signed the recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk. Immediately afterwards, as the decree stated, he ordered the sending of troops to the two secessionist territories, which control only a third of the territory of Donbas, which they claim with the endorsement of Putin.

The Russian leader, who had already planted for weeks the key ingredients to try to justify a military intervention, assured in the early hours of Thursday that he made the decision to send troops after receiving a request for help from the leaders of the separatist territories in the east of Ukraine. And when announcing the military operation, he warned: “Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more, create threats to our country and our people, must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead to consequences such as they have never experienced before in their country.” history”. “We are ready for any turn of events,” he added.

Hours earlier, in an emotional speech to the nation, with a restrained but dramatic gesture, Zelensky seemed to foreshadow another Russian military aggression . Kiev is ready to negotiate with Moscow on any channel and at any time, he said in a speech in Ukrainian and Russian, posted on his Telegram channel.

“Today I made a phone call to the Russian president. The result was silence, although silence should be in Donbas,” Zelensky said, before addressing the Russians directly: “We are separated by more than 2,000 kilometers of mutual borders, along which there are 200,000 of its soldiers and 1,000 armored vehicles. Your president has approved your passage to the territory of another country. This step could become the beginning of a great war”, he stressed. “We don’t need war, neither hot nor cold nor hybrid. But if the troops attack us and someone tries to take away our country, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, then we will defend ourselves. And when they attack us they will see our faces, not our backs.”

The very pernicious economic effects of the invasion were immediately felt. The main indices of the Moscow Stock Exchange fell more than 30% on Thursday, while the ruble posted record declines against major currencies. European stock markets also closed with significant losses, between 3% and 4%, while the price of gas and oil soared.

Queues at ATMs and gas stations
The night has been unsettling and tense in Donbas and throughout Ukraine. The government, which despite warnings from the United States and NATO, has been skeptical for weeks about a possible invasion, reversed course on Wednesday. It closed the airports of Kharkov, Zaporiya and Dnipro, in the east of the territory. Before, he declared a state of emergency and decreed the call for up to 36,000 reservists. In the city of Sloviansk and in Kramatorsk, when the first morning attacks gave a respite, a good number of citizens went to gas stations to refuel, to supermarkets and ATMs, which limited cash withdrawals to 3,000 hryvnias ( about 90 euros). “It’s not panic, it’s anticipation,” commented Olga Kubikova, 53. Like her, the citizens of the Donbas region already experienced an open war in 2014.

Since the end of November, Moscow has concentrated tens of thousands of soldiers around Ukraine’s borders: up to 190,000, according to the latest information from the United States. In his speech broadcast on state television channels while the UN Security Council was taking place on the occasion of the Russian threat, Putin assured that the clashes between the Ukrainian and Russian forces are “inevitable” and “only a matter of weather”. In a bellicose tone, the Kremlin chief said that NATO’s further expansion and its use of Ukraine’s territory are “unacceptable”.

In addition, the Russian president called on the Ukrainian military to lay down their arms and threatened with a forceful response to those countries that decide to intervene in the situation from abroad. “I urge you to lay down your arms immediately and go home. All servicemen of the Ukrainian Army who meet this requirement will be able to freely leave the combat zone and return to their families,” he stated.

The policy of the empire of lies is based, first of all, on direct brute force. In such cases we say: there is power, no mind is needed. And we all know that true power lies in justice and truth, which are on our side,” Putin said. “And if this is so, then it is hard not to agree that strength and readiness to fight are the basis of independence and sovereignty, they are the necessary foundation on which only one can build his future.” he asserted.