{"id":10890,"date":"2022-02-24T03:50:28","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T03:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hamslivenews.com\/?p=10890"},"modified":"2022-02-24T03:50:28","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T03:50:28","slug":"russia-declares-war-on-ukraine-warns-others-of-consequences-if-interfere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hamslive.com\/news\/2022\/02\/russia-declares-war-on-ukraine-warns-others-of-consequences-if-interfere\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia declares war on Ukraine, warns others of consequences if interfere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Russia declares war on Ukraine; explosions in Kyiv; Putin warns against interference threatening consequences “they have never seen”.<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized Ukraine’s pro-Russia separatist regions, elevating tensions in the area, and ordered a “military operation in eastern Ukraine”.<\/p>\n

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In a televised address to the Russian people, the Russian president said clashes between Ukrainian and Russian forces are “inevitable” and “only a question of time”.<\/p>\n

He added that Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy Ukraine. Putin said the responsibility for the bloodshed lies with the Ukrainian “regime.”<\/p>\n

Putin warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen”.<\/p>\n

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Explosions have been heard near the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where r<\/span>esidents in the city, which is located in southeastern Ukraine, were woken up at 3.30 am local time by blasts 50 km from the Russian border.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Video footage showed plumes of thick smoke rising up into the night sky near Mariupol, but it was unconfirmed whether it was as a result of shelling.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “military operation” in Ukraine on Thursday and called on soldiers there to lay down their arms, defying Western outrage and global appeals not to launch a war and Putin made a surprise statement on television to declare his intentions.<\/p>\n

“I have made the decision of a military operation,” he said shortly before 6:00 am (0300 GMT) in Moscow, as he vowed retaliation against anyone who interfered.\u00a0\u00a0He also called on the Ukraine military to lay down its arms.<\/p>\n

His statement came after the Kremlin said rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine had asked Moscow for military help against Kyiv.<\/p>\n

In response, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made an emotional late-night appeal to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe”.<\/p>\n

Speaking Russian, Zelensky said that the people of Russia are being lied to about Ukraine and that the possibility of war also “depends on you”.<\/p>\n

“Who can stop (the war)? People. These people are among you, I am sure,” he said.<\/p>\n

Zelensky said he had tried to call Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”, adding that Moscow now had around 200,000 soldiers near Ukraine’s borders.<\/p>\n

Earlier the separatist leaders of Donetsk and Lugansk sent separate letters to Putin, asking him to “help them repel Ukraine’s aggression”, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.<\/p>\n

The two letters were published by Russian state media and were both dated February 22.<\/p>\n

Their appeals came after Putin recognized their independence and signed friendship treaties with them that include defense deals.<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of Russian troops are stationed near Ukraine’s borders, and the West had said for days that an attack was imminent.<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Defiance<\/h3>\n

Putin has defied a barrage of international criticism over the crisis, with some Western leaders saying he was no longer rational.<\/p>\n

His announcement of the military operation came ahead of a last-ditch summit involving European Union leaders in Brussels planned for Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 27-nation bloc had also imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and high-ranking figures including the commanders of Russia’s army, navy and air force, another part of the wave of Western punishment after Putin sought to rewrite Ukraine’s borders.<\/p>\n

The United Nations Security Council met late Wednesday for its second emergency session in three days over the crisis, with a personal plea by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Putin who ignored it.<\/p>\n

“President Putin, stop your troops from attacking Ukraine, give peace a chance, too many people have already died,” Guterres urged, to no avail and Putin is not listening.<\/p>\n

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, warned that an all-out Russian invasion could displace five million people, triggering a new European refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

Before Putin’s announcement, Ukraine had urged its approximately three million citizens living in Russia to leave.<\/p>\n

“We are united in believing that the future of European security is being decided right now, here in our home, in Ukraine,” President Zelensky said during a joint media appearance with the visiting leaders of Poland and Lithuania.<\/p>\n

Western capitals said Russia had gathered 150,000 troops in combat formations on Ukraine’s borders with Russia, Belarus, and Russian-occupied Crimea and on warships in the Black Sea.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has around 200,000 military personnel and Wednesday’s call up could see up to 250,000 reservists aged between 18 and 60 receive their mobilization papers.<\/p>\n

Moscow’s total forces are much larger with a million active-duty personnel — and have been modernized and re-armed in recent years.<\/p>\n

Ukraine says they will defend themselves<\/h3>\n

President Zelensky<\/a> of Ukraine said his country was ready for a Russian attack, vowing: “If they [Russia] attack if they try to take our county – our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children – we will be defending ourselves.”<\/p>\n

“As you attack, it will be our faces you see, not our backs,” the Ukrainian president said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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