Breaking: Putin declares ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine in apparent declaration of war
Russian President Vladimir Putin just announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine, and with those words declared that his eight-year war has reached a point of dramatic escalation.
Falsely claiming that two Moscow-backed breakaway regions inside Ukraine were under attack by Kyiv’s forces, Putin stated: “I have declared a special military operation” for the “demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.”wearing the same red tie and speaking from the same office His pronouncement at 5:45 a.m. Moscow time — during a simultaneous U.N. Security Council meeting in New York, at which Western nations pleaded for Putin to exercise restraint and deescalate — could spark the largest land war in Europe since World War II, one that could result in the deaths of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian troops and civilians, and spark a refugee crisis.
Western leaders warned for weeks that the chances of getting Putin to turn back were low amid intelligence reports that said he had, in recent weeks, sufficient military forces along Ukraine’s border to invade “at any time.” Now they hope that an escalating series of sanctions will prove strong enough to deter Russia from pushing deeper into Ukraine.
The Russian president, who first invaded and laid claim to pieces of Ukraine in 2014, has long indicated he believes that Ukraine is a part of Russia.