Photo: http://tolknews.ru
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a statement that he had decided to conduct a special military operation in connection with the situation in Donbas [a historical, cultural, and economic region in south-eastern Ukraine, some of whose territory is occupied by separatist groups in the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War: the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR)].
The Russian leader explained this step by the UN Charter, the decision of the Federation Council, and treaties with the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
According to Putin, this operation is aimed at protecting people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. “To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and bring to justice those who have committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including citizens of the Russian Federation,” the Russian leader said in his address early Thursday morning.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Armed Forces are not launching artillery or airstrikes against Ukrainian cities, and Ukrainian military infrastructure is being hit with precision-guided weapons.
After that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an announcement that martial law was being imposed throughout the country. He said that Russia had struck Ukrainian military infrastructure, frontiersmen, and border guard detachments, and explosions were heard in many Ukrainian cities. Zelensky urged citizens to stay calm and stay at home.
“It was clear to any sober-minded person,” Reserve Colonel Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, told wek.ru, “that these events were bound to happen. I spoke about this on federal television on February 22. The goals and tasks of the military operation that has begun are the denationalization and demilitarization of Ukraine, which from now on will be a non-aligned neutral state whose status will be guaranteed by the Russian Federation.”
Russia's actions in Ukraine and Donbas are a response to Kyiv's manifestations of terrorism in the DPR and LPR that must be stopped, said former Russian Prime Minister and Chairman of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society Sergei Stepashin.
Zelensky said on February 24 that Ukraine is breaking off diplomatic relations with Russia. “This morning came down in history,” he said on air of a national TV channel, “but this history is absolutely different for our country and for Russia. We broke off diplomatic relations with Russia.”
In addition to the fireworks to Russia's long-awaited recognition of the DPR and LPR, ordinary residents of Donetsk and Luhansk are now telling TV reporters that “the Nazi regime will be finally grabbed by the scruff of the neck and chucked out.”
Reports that Ukrainian servicemen are abandoning their weapons and leaving their places of deployment en masse are coming one after another from the frontlines. According to military experts, the Russian peacekeeping operation may last 5-10 days.