Russia is launching an attack on Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a keynote address on Thursday morning in Moscow, announced that Russia would launch a military campaign in Ukraine. NBC News reported an explosion in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
The United Nations Security Council recently convened an emergency meeting on Wednesday night.
Earlier, European and US officials rallied to punish Russia on Wednesday, in response to a military coup sent to eastern Ukraine by hundreds of economic sanctions.
As concerns grew that Russia’s violence would escalate, Ukraine warned its citizens to refrain from going to Russia and to leave the country as soon as possible. The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow was “always open” to talks, days after ordering troops to enter eastern Ukraine and seeing the independence of the two self-proclaimed Republicans in the region.
The European Union is expected to hold an emergency meeting on Thursday, and will reportedly consider further sanctions against Russia. Officials in the United Kingdom and the United States have also announced or threatened retaliatory measures after launching the first stages this week.
Putin says Russia will launch a war on Ukraine, reports say
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a public address broadcast Thursday morning in Moscow that he had approved a military operation in Ukraine.
The announcement was made just after 5:30 a.m. local time, at which point the United Nations Security Council convened in New York, and representatives from member states freely urged Putin not to attack.
Putin said Russia’s intention was not to take Ukraine, but to protect the citizens of eastern Ukraine from what he called a “state.”
Putin said the aim of the attack, in which 190,000 Russian troops were stationed on the Ukrainian border “was a military coup and the overthrow of the Ukrainian Nazification,” according to a Reuters version.
Putin warned other countries that any attempt to disrupt Russia’s action would lead to “consequences they have never seen,” according to Reuters.
Within minutes of Putin’s announcement, the NBC News team in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv reported a blast in the city.
U.S. President Joe Biden is keeping a close eye on the situation in Ukraine and his national security adviser, the White House said on Wednesday.