The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, announced that he decided to carry out a special military operation in eastern Ukraine to defend the separatists in the east of the country.
In a message to the nation, the president said that his goal is to demilitarize and denazify the country, but not to occupy it, and demanded that Ukrainian soldiers lay down their arms and go home.
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Putin warned other nations that any attempts to interfere with Russian actions “will face consequences greater than any they have ever faced in history.”
He assured that Russia cannot feel safe, develop and exist with the constant threat coming from Ukrainian territory: “We were simply given no other option to defend Russia and our people than the one we will use today,” he asserted.
Vladimir Putin’s announcement comes minutes after United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on him to stop his troops and allow people to live.
First explosions were recorded
Moments after the Russian president’s speech, explosions were recorded in the Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv (the second-largest city in the country), Mariupol, Kramatorsk, and near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
Translated by María Isabel Carrasco Cara Chards
