After years of tension, Russian President Vladimir Putin reignited the conflict between his country and Ukraine – led by Volodymyr Zelensky – by announcing, on February 21, 2022, “to recognize the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic Lugansk”, two pro-Russian breakaway regions of Donbass. In the process, the Kremlin leader launched a large-scale military operation in Ukraine on February 24 to officially defend these separatists. “We will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” he said. The Kremlin specified that this operation, aimed at imposing a “neutral status” on Ukraine, will last as long as necessary, depending on its “results” and its “relevance”. This Russian offensive comes eight years after Moscow annexed Crimea and sponsored the takeover of regions of the Donbass by pro-Russian separatists, triggering a regional conflict that left more than 14,000 dead. Ukraine for its part denounced the start of a “large-scale invasion of Russia.” This operation is aimed at “destroying the Ukrainian state, seizing its territory by force and establishing an occupation”, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reacted in particular. Just after Vladimir Putin’s speech, explosions went off in Kyiv, in Kramatorsk, a city in the east that serves as the headquarters of the Ukrainian army, in Kharkiv (northeast), the second largest city in Ukraine, in Odessa, on the Sea Black, and in Mariupol, the main port in the east. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history in 1986, later fell into the hands of Russian soldiers. From the early hours of the day, Kyiv residents crowded into the metro to take shelter or try to get out of the city, while cars full of families fleeing the capital created huge traffic jams. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered in a decree the general mobilization of people subject to “military conscription and reservists” within 90 days in all regions of the country. The leader lamented that Ukraine is “left alone” against the Russian army while the Atlantic Alliance (NATO) indicated that it will not send troops to support it. However, many countries have condemned the Russian invasion. US President Joe Biden, for whom the master of the Kremlin will become “a pariah on the international scene”, has imposed restrictions on the export of technological products to Russia. The number two of the Russian Embassy in Washington has been expelled. At the same time, the leaders of the 27 EU countries have taken “massive” sanctions against Russia in the energy, finance and transport sectors, but without immediately excluding it from the Swift banking network, which allows receiving or issuing payments all over the world. the world. Sanctions that will have consequences for the European economy. Emmanuel Macron announced to him that France was going to accelerate the deployment of soldiers in Romania within the framework of NATO. “France will continue to fully play its role in reassuring NATO allies by sending a new contingent to Estonia within the reinforced forward presence, anticipating its participation in monitoring the Baltic skies from March, and also accelerating its deployment in Romania “, declared the French president at the end of an exceptional EU summit in Brussels.
Source: BFM TV
