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Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday, officials and media said, after President Vladimir Putin authorised what he called a special military operation in the east.
Shortly after Putin spoke in a televised address on Russian state TV, explosions could be heard in the pre-dawn quiet of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The Kremlin on Wednesday said the heads of east Ukraine’s rebel republics have asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for “help” to “repel aggression” from the Ukrainian army.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the separatist republics “ask the president of Russia for help in repelling the aggression of the armed forces in Ukraine.” The statement was carried by Russian state news agencies.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron that he will recognize two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin announced Monday.
“I deem it necessary to make a decision that should have been made a long time ago: To immediately recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic,” Putin said later in an address to the Russian people, before signing a decree to make his intentions official.
The Ukrainian military stated that a soldier has been killed in shelling by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday morning in eastern Ukraine. This week’s attack in the long-running conflict has fueled fears that the Russian military is behind it.
Following the report, Reuters cited witnesses who heard several explosions in the north of the separatist-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The origin of the explosions was not clear. There was no immediate comment from separatist authorities or from Kyiv.
Three days ago, in a jarring answer to a question from the media, Russian President Vladimir Putin said allowing Ukraine to join NATO would increase the prospects of a Russia-NATO conflict that could turn nuclear.
Putin’s assertion, made in the context of a complicated hypothetical about an unlikely Ukrainian attempt to take Crimea back from Russia, came during a joint press conference with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron.
