“I took the decision of a special military operation”. With these words, Vladimir Putin launches, on February 24, 2022, the invasion of neighboring Ukraine, triggering the worst conflict on the European continent since the Second World War.
In a context of heightened tensions with the West, the Russian president opens hostilities shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT), in a surprise statement on television.
The objective is a “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine”, hammers, chilling, the master of the Kremlin, reiterating his unfounded accusations of a “genocide” orchestrated by Ukraine in the Russian-speaking east of the country and denouncing a NATO’s “aggressive” policy.
Two days earlier, Vladimir Putin declared the “independence” of Ukrainian separatist territories in Donbass – which kyiv has been fighting with arms since 2014.
He threatens the West with “consequences never seen before”, if it interferes.
Powerful explosions rip through the skies of the former Soviet republic.
They shake the capital kyiv, Kramatorsk, headquarters of the Ukrainian army in the east, Kharkiv, the country’s second metropolis located near the Russian border.
They also resound in Odessa, on the Black Sea, as well as in Mariupol, the main port of the country.
From one end of the territory to the other, the aerial warning sirens began to howl.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba denounces the start of a “large-scale invasion”.
From dawn, residents crowd into the kyiv metro, transformed into a shelter.
“I woke up to the sound of bombs, I packed bags and ran away,” 29-year-old Maria Kashkoska told AFP, crouching in shock.
Promising to “defeat”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proclaims martial law and calls on his 40 million fellow citizens to “not panic”, in a video on Facebook.
In the early morning, Russian armor penetrated Ukrainian soil to the north — from Moscow’s allied Belarus — to the south and east.
Endowed with “total air superiority” over Ukraine – limited in anti-aircraft means despite growing military aid from the West – the Russian army is advancing towards Kiev, where a curfew is imposed.
She wants to “decapitate the government” of Ukraine and install authorities favorable to Moscow, analyze Western military sources.
Russian helicopter forces attack the military airport of Gostomel, at the gates of the Ukrainian capital.
Over the hours, troops from the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea – annexed in 2014 by Vladimir Putin – progressed in the south where they took control of Genichesky, in the Kherson region.
In the northeast, fighting is raging in Kharkiv where Russian paratroopers have been dropped.
“I didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” 52-year-old Olena Kourilo told AFP, her face covered with bandages due to injuries from a kick.
“I will do everything for Ukraine, as much as I can,” says this teacher from Chuguiv, near Kharkiv.
In Western countries, condemnations are raining down.
US President Joe Biden announces an arsenal of economic and financial sanctions, aimed at making the master of the Kremlin “a pariah on the international scene”.
The United States, he said solemnly, would defend “every inch of NATO territory” but would not send troops to Ukraine, which is not a member of the military alliance.
The Pentagon announces that it is sending 7,000 more men to Germany, bringing the number of American soldiers in Europe to 90,000.
The armed forces of NATO countries are placed on alert.
European Union (EU) leaders impose new “massive” financial sanctions on Russia.
Rare dissonant voice, China, with close relations with Moscow, says it “understands the concerns” of Russia.
In the evening, kyiv announces that the Chernobyl power plant, near Belarus and the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history in 1986, has fallen into the hands of the attackers.
Russia claims to have destroyed more than 70 military installations, including eleven airfields. Ukraine says it shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter.
At the end of this first day of war, Volodymyr Zelensky deplores the death of “137 Ukrainian heroes” and decrees general mobilization.
Whoever presents his country as the “shield of Europe” against Russia, pinpoints the lack of help from his Western allies.
“Who is ready to fight with us? I don’t see anyone,” he said, regretting NATO’s refusal to send troops to Ukraine.
Wearing the clothes of a warlord, the 44-year-old former comedian swears that he “stays in the capital”, with his government, initiating a powerful popular resistance movement.
European stock markets lose up to 5%, raw materials soar.
Investors are panicking about possible disruptions in the supply of gas and oil, of which Russia is one of the leading producers.
Fears over exports from Russia and Ukraine propel the price of wheat to an unprecedented level.
The offensive threw some 100,000 Ukrainians onto the roads, several thousand of whom flocked to the borders of the EU, particularly in Poland, Hungary and Romania.
The conflict will cause the fastest exodus since the Second World War.
burs-jmy-kd/mw/juf
02/24/2023 07:07:38 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP