Live: Updating.
Reuters: Russian forces launch invasion of Ukraine with strikes on defence
MOSCOW/KYIV, Feb 24 (Reuters) - 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.
Gunfire rattled near the capital's main airport, the Interfax news agency said, and sirens were heard over the city.
WSJ: The Latest News on the Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Live Updates
Russian troops and tanks pushed into Ukraine and airstrikes hit the country's capital and more than a dozen other cities early Thursday after President Vladimir Putin said he ordered a military operation to "demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine" and bring its leaders to trial.
Ukrainian officials said an initial wave of strikes targeted military installations, airfields and government facilities across the country. Ukraine's border service said its troops came under attack all along the country's frontiers with Russia and Belarus as well as Crimea. Heavy shelling targeted the city of Mariupol on the Azov sea. Air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv after 7 a.m. and the city's airport came under attack. Ukraine's military said it shot down five Russian warplanes and one helicopter. Russia denied any of its aircraft were hit.
CBS: NATO officials say Russian attack on Ukraine has begun
Russia has begun attacking Ukraine, NATO officials confirmed. The late-night attack began moments after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had "decided to conduct a special military operation" to protect eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. CBS News correspondents reported hearing loud blasts in the capital city, Kyiv, and in the eastern city of Kharkiv.
A Ukrainian government spokesperson said early Thursday that "cruise and ballistic missile strikes are underway at the control centers" in Kyiv.
BBC: Ukraine conflict: Russian forces invade after Putin TV declaration
Russian forces have launched a military assault on neighbouring Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near big cities.
In a pre-dawn TV statement Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not plan to occupy Ukraine and demanded that its military lay down their arms.
Moments later, attacks were reported on Ukrainian military targets.
Ukraine said that "Putin has launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine".
Russian military vehicles were said to have breached the border in a number of places, in the north, south and east, including from Belarus.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday February 26 2022, @04:38AM (17 children)
Jesus H Christ you speak some shit. Yes, Putin should not have invaded... there were other avenues that could have been explored... but this was a US-engineered crisis (including a civil war) building since Obama including a coup against a DEMOCRATICALLY elected government. These ghouls want to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian, and haven't wanted to let up even when Zelensky wanted to turn down the heat... though Zelensky doesn't have his own independant powerbase so he's being swept along by other forces. In Syria the muscle in the revolution-attempt was islamofascists, and in Ukraine it was literal neonazis. It sounds so hyperbolic that must be propaganda right? The Russians forced embarrassment with a resolution in the UN about not funding neonazi groups... the only two nations that didn't sign it were the USA and Ukraine. Just absorb what that means. BTW, there are US neonazis going to Ukraine for training, but that's another issue. Congress then banned funding the Azov Battalion (after having previously explicitly allowed funding them)... and Right Sector just splintered away and became the political face in a Sinfein/IRA kind of relationship. That's just ONE of the ways the US has been using Ukraine to poke Russia.
Sure, Russia needs more democracy, but so does Ukraine let alone the USA. If actual people had the say they should none of this would be happening. BTW, I have a Ukrainian grandfather (and last name), a Crimean Russian grandmother, and my partner has a brother who studied and spent time in Ukraine, and in Moscow for the last five years or so... although he's not from either country.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 26 2022, @12:54PM (3 children)
Is it the US, or is it all of NATO? The strategy of keeping people divided against themselves is classically attributed to the British using Lawrence of Arabia's intelligence to divide the middle east.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by quietus on Saturday February 26 2022, @02:52PM (1 child)
Err ... not a nitpick, but the Sykes-Picot agreement was negotiated behind the back of TE Lawrence (and severely traumatized him, if you read Seven Pillars of Wisdom thoroughly). That agreement was not based on any intelligence by him (or by any other British intelligence), it was just the result of a colonialist agreement between career bureaucrats of two nations that thought they were the summum of human civilization, France and Britain.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday February 26 2022, @04:48PM
I'm in no way saying the TE Lawrence endorsed the agreement, just that his transfer of knowledge from the Bedouin to the British Empire informed the Brits how best to keep the sandmen down, by setting them against each other. Like Oppenheimer's work informed the world how to make atomic bombs - he didn't tell them what to do with them, he just gave them what they needed to build them. Lawrence may have been even less aware of how his transfer of knowledge would affect the people he learned about than Oppenheimer, but without the things he learned about the tribes and cultures the "new world order" would likely have been less effective at keeping the Bedouin down.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Pav on Sunday February 27 2022, @01:25AM
Both the Germans and French were in favour of Minsk, and of course the Russians, and the people of Ukraine (they voted for it TWICE)... though for some mysterious reason their Minsk/peace candidates always seemed to swing to refusing negotiations, or being outright hawkish launching new offensives. Russia just decided to go over the Ukrainian leaderships head and negotiate directly with the top ie the US, with results being the same. Thinking from the US (or at power elites) perspective: reintegration of the breakaway areas would have strengthened the political will for mending ties with Russia further. Continuing the war (which made it impossible for Ukraine to join NATO) was against the US's interest also. Therefore the desired outcome was clear - war with Russia. Donbas is a mined-out poor area anyway - if Putin takes it he loses international credability, gets sanctioned, and that expensive dirty Texas shale-oil starts really making coin. And if Putin is stupid enough to try taking all of Ukraine and somehow succeeds the billionaires who've been buying up farmland worldwide get a bite of the apple too (Ukraine being a breadbasket). This scenario will sure help sell a lot of weapons too. It looks to me like whatever helps make the first part of the proclamation "you will own nothing and be happy" become true gets the green light.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 26 2022, @01:29PM (1 child)
Indeed. You could have just shut up at this point.
Given the huge public turnout for the Euromaidan revolution, it was the right call. And now, Russia is the country overthrowing a DEMOCRATICALLY elected government. The Ukraine had an election in 2019 which removed the guy who came in after Euromaidan. So sorry, they're doing the very same crime that they're using as a pretext for the invasion - probably smirk about that one a lot.
It's interesting all the perverse, ridiculous excuses used here. Russia is attempting to remove a democratically elected government because the Russian democratically elected government got removed before. They're invading because of Ukrainian neo-nazis and fascists even though Russia has just demonstrated once again that it's worse on that front (and Russia created those Islamofascists BTW by supporting the Assad regime for decades). They're invading because of NATO even though the very invasion is why so many of Russia's neighbors wanted to be part of NATO.
Your bullshit runs thick today! Russia never delivers more democracy. This is not their first rodeo. They won't deliver democracy to Ukraine much less the US.
Again, whose fault is it that this war is happening? Russia invaded not the Ukraine nor the US. I hope some day you realize the profound cognitive dissonance you exhibit here. You can make all the excuses you want, but Putin invaded an innocent country which was doing nothing to Russia - he crossed the line.
One thing about all the US-engineered crises that get whined about here, Russia has access to the same bag of tricks. But if they dared use those tricks, it'd backfire on Putin, destabilizing his regime and putting him out of a job. The US can get away with encouraging democratic/populist revolutions because it has them every four years. There's no additional instability possible. Russia can't because any such revolutions would spread to Russia as well.
Now, that Russia has crossed the line, it's time for more of those crises. Putin has shown he's way too dangerous to democracies everywhere with this action. As I noted above, this is not the first time he's put down a democracy.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Saturday February 26 2022, @10:31PM
Stupid comments as always... simple to throw down but for some reason I usually bite because I find it entertaining for some weird reason.
So large demonstratiosn are a legitimate excuse to overthrow a government. You must agree that eg. China shoudl have couped Trump during the black lives matter protests. Does that help you to get a grip on your schitzophrenia for at least a moment?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 26 2022, @01:36PM (10 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Sunday February 27 2022, @12:32AM (9 children)
That's a single aspect and certainly doesn't require an invasion, BUT because you can't keep two ideas in that schitzophrenia-addled head of yours let me remind you - NATO membership was specifically prevented by that civil war, and Ukraine (backed by the US) was trying to end it quickly for this reason. That left Putin with a couple of options - retreat, lose face (he's already unpopular due to covid and other factors), and open the door to US-backed factions in his own country OR escalate, and lose face and trade internationally for a crummy poor mined-out region. It seems he chose neither... he has raised the stakes. A VERY dangerous game, yes, especially when there are also psychopaths sitting on the other side of the table. The Ukrainian people are a pawn in this game, and noone with any power on either side cares one bit... otherwise they would have acted differently, though it must be said Putin has tried negotiating about this for years. Perhaps it's because he feels weak, or perhaps he actually cares about Ukrainians (even if it's only because powerful Russians have Ukrainian family ties).
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 27 2022, @01:27AM (8 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Sunday February 27 2022, @02:27AM (7 children)
For the altzeimic : NATO was an anti-USSR/Warsaw Pact alliance. It should have been dissolved, but the US wanted to keep up arms sales, boots on the ground, and wars in and around Europe under its ageis (as we have seen in Kossovo/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Serbia, Libya etc...). If Europeans sort out their own problems US **ahem** **billionaire** interests might not be taken into account. Regarding Putin, one must remember Yeltsin hand-picked Putin as a gift to Washington... everyone was getting nervous about Yeltsin drinking himself to death after all. Everyone believed Putin would be another puppet... he was just the dumb guy facing reporters and taking hits for eg. the Moscow mayors corruption. Everybody expected him to allow a continuation of the biggest raping of wealth and natural resources in human history to continue. Putin became a "demon" when he ousted the ex-commies-now-oligarchs (who appreciated the capitalist freedom of giving up all pretenses, and just openly stealing). Unfortunately Putin kept some of the existing oligarchs who saw which way the wind was blowing. Putin also installed some new ones, though he actually nationalised some stuff again. Still, there's no denying he cultivated his own flavour of corruption, but at least Russia was getting fair market price for Russian resources, and average Russians stopped starving and freezing quite as much. Of course to the US this was UnAccCeptable!!!! He started getting demonised around this time. And since there has been a new undeclared cold war, and when Putin responds to some attack or other (apparently you often call those attacks a subcategory of "whataboutisms") he seems to quite deftly respond, even though he commands lesser resources. This is great because although theft from Russia is off the table for the moment, theft from US taxpayers is open season, and whole suburbs and yacht fleets are being purchased on the taxpayers dime while waving Putins mug around. Unfortunately Putin wasn't really a big enough justification for such gargantuan theft, at least at first... so Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Yemen etc... had to fill in... but for a while now all that anti-commie propaganda is reaping the ching ching again. Kaloo Kalay!!! Champaign showers and glasses all 'round!!! You must feel soooo... loved?! Is that what your voices are saying?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 27 2022, @02:58AM (6 children)
And well, that's what it's doing now.
And yet here we are with Russia doing that invasion thing that NATO was meant to counter. Looks like someone had a bit of foresight there.
Gosh, I didn't realize that every bit of bullshit could be blamed on Washington. Would that mean that Washington can change their minds and pick a new Russian leader? Because this would be a great time for that.
I guess you weren't around for the USSR then. But then given that Putin was former KGB, maybe that should have been our expectations. It certainly has played out with a pretty big raping of wealth and resources.
In other words, Putin seized the wealth of his opponents and gave it to his allies. Classic kleptocracy behavior.
Well, that's the point of propaganda. No point to making Putin look like a loser. As to the new undeclared cold war, well, I'm blaming Putin especially since he's now invaded the Ukraine.
FTFY. Russia wouldn't have gotten this shitty, if he were trying to make it better.
This reminds me of your silly accusation [soylentnews.org] that the entire western media was completely beholden to the US military industrial complex. It's a profoundly stupid narrative that has nothing to do with reality.
(Score: 2) by Pav on Sunday February 27 2022, @03:18AM (5 children)
You're saying the US media (constricting under fewer and fewer banners) is NOT beholden to your own oligarchs ie. the ones that keep the lights on? I suppose funding individual propaganda... I mean "news segments"... has no editorial bearing at all (and its certainly a dispicable practice be it arms manufacturers, drug companies, plastic surgeons, whoever...). Hell... now direct propaganda by the government has been made legal all the three letter agencies just go on TV with little pushback or criticism, or else take the revolving door and become a host or contributor.
These upstanding individuals sure have your best interests at heart.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday February 27 2022, @05:02AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday February 28 2022, @07:12AM (3 children)
Perhaps for people in schitzophrenia-land with a weak grasp of cause and effect.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 28 2022, @07:27AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by Pav on Monday February 28 2022, @08:57AM (1 child)
:) That's some Jobs level reality distortion... You should apply for a board position at Apple. They're missing some of that "magic" these days.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 05 2022, @03:33AM