{"id":13159,"date":"2022-02-24T05:32:50","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T13:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13159"},"modified":"2022-02-24T05:34:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-24T13:34:09","slug":"russia-attacks-as-putin-warns-world-biden-vows-to-hold-him-accountable-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13159","title":{"rendered":"“Russia Attacks as Putin Warns World; Biden Vows to Hold Him Accountable”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anton Troianovski<\/span> and Neil MacFarquhar, front page lead story,\u00a0Feb. 24, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

Putin Announces Start to \u2018Military Operation\u2019 Against Ukraine<\/em>, posted Feb. 23, 2022, 7:11 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

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Military trucks and personnel carriers being loaded onto a train car outside Taganrog, Russia, on Wednesday.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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MOSCOW \u2014 President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared the start of a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d in Ukraine on Thursday, after months of speculation about Russia\u2019s intentions as it massed tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine\u2019s border.<\/p>\n

Addressing his nation in a televised speech broadcast just before 6 a.m. Thursday, Mr. Putin said his goal was to \u201cdemilitarize\u201d but not occupy the country.<\/p>\n

Minutes later, large explosions were visible near Kharkiv, Ukraine\u2019s second-largest city, and blasts were reported in Kyiv, the capital, and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s Interior Ministry said that Russian troops had landed in Odessa and were crossing the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe invasion has begun,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Twitter that Mr. Putin had \u201cstarted a full-scale war against Ukraine\u201d and had begun shelling civilian cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a war of aggression,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cUkraine will defend itself and win. The world must act and stop Putin. It is time to act \u2014 immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evoking the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 and the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Mr. Putin cast his action as a long-overdue strike against an American-led world order that he described as an \u201cempire of lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as he spoke, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting imploring him not to invade.<\/p>\n

Mr. Putin said he was acting after receiving a plea for assistance from the leaders of the Russian-backed separatist territories formed in eastern Ukraine in 2014 \u2014 a move that Western officials had predicted as a possible pretext for an invasion.<\/p>\n

Mr. Putin also described the operation as a response to a \u201cquestion of life or death\u201d that he said Russia was facing as a result of the eastward expansion of the NATO alliance \u2014 which Ukraine has aspired to join.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is that red line that I talked about multiple times,\u201d Mr. Putin said. \u201cThey have crossed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The operation\u2019s goal, Mr. Putin said, was \u201cto defend people who for eight years are suffering persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime,\u201d citing the false accusation that Ukrainian forces had been carrying out ethnic cleansing in separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n

In bellicose language, Mr. Putin also issued what appeared to be a warning to other countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia\u2019s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history,\u201d Mr. Putin said. \u201cWe are ready for any turn of events.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, President Biden placed responsibility for the conflict squarely on Mr. Putin\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,\u201d Mr. Biden said. \u201cRussia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he would address the American people on Thursday about \u201cfurther consequences\u201d the United States and its allies would impose on Russia.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Ukraine had mobilized its reservists and declared a 30-day state of emergency as cyberattacks knocked out government institutions including Parliament, the Foreign Ministry and the cabinet of ministers.<\/p>\n

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In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned bid earlier in the day to spare his nation from war, appealing directly to the Russian people to remember their ties to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen to the voice of reason,\u201d Mr. Zelensky said in a nationally televised address early Thursday, adding that Kremlin propaganda painting Ukrainians as aggressors was a lie. \u201cThe people of Ukraine want peace, the authorities in Ukraine want peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The West unveiled new sanctions targeting Mr. Putin\u2019s inner circle, with threats of tighter measures if Russia escalated hostilities, but a senior Russian diplomat denigrated the idea that pressure would alter Russia\u2019s course, suggesting that the sanctions would only create economic pain for the West.<\/p>\n

In Washington on Wednesday, the Pentagon said that 190,000 Russian troops and separatist forces were poised along the Ukrainian border and that 80 percent of them were positioned for combat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are ready to go,\u201d John F. Kirby, the top Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n