Russo-Ukraine War - 24 February 2022
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “ideally” Ukraine needs to be “cleansed” from neo-Nazi ideology. Peskov rejected the idea that Russia was in the process of occupying Ukraine, saying the Russian invasion had limited goals of protecting Russia and the separatist regions.
The Russian military launched a massive attack against Ukraine on Putin’s order right after his televised address. The defense ministry said it was targeting elements of the Ukrainian military infrastructure and sought to avoid civilian casualties. Multiple reports from the ground said apparent Russian strikes throughout Ukraine have caused damage to military bases, weapons depots and some arms factories. The Russian ruble fell 10% to its lowest ever level against the U.S. dollar and euro within minutes of Putin’s announcement of a “special operation.”
Putin launched the largest combined arms offensive operations seen in the European theatre since 1945. From land, sea and air, a massive Russian offensive commenced from forward positions in Belarus, all around Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders, from the Crimea and from ships in the Black sea. As leaders around the free world have said, this is an outrage against international law that violates Ukrainian sovereignty and brings a profound change to the security landscape of the Euro-Atlantic. The Ukrainian armed forces stood their ground heroically, forcing fierce fighting around several Ukrainian cities. The Antonov-2 airfield north of Kyiv was taken by Russian airborne forces as part of the initial assault yesterday morning but was reportedly retaken by the Ukrainian forces overnight. As the world has now seen, the intelligence available to the British and American Governments over recent weeks has proven to be entirely accurate. That allowed assessing that the Russians had failed to achieve any of their planned objectives for the first day of combat operations. Andrew Salmon, a published military historian, is Asia Times’ Northeast Asia editor, wrote: "Not only has combat started, but early indications are that it has commenced on a wider scale than had been broadly predicted – a limited operation to seize Donbas. Multiple analyses posted on these pages – including by this writer – have, at a stroke, been proven wrong. What is driving this tremendously dangerous situation? Many analyses arguing against kinetic escalation were based on the apparent rationality of Russian President Vladimir Putin."
James Fallows recalled that in 1956, Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary, and in 1968, Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia, but "in none of those other cases, as best I know, did US have prominent apologists for USSR action, comparable to Trump / Carlson these days." Tucker Carlson, Fox News’s top-rated host, questioned why Americans hated President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in a segment on 22 February 2022. The next day, he labeled Ukraine “a pure client state of the United States State Department.”
On 23 February 2022, Fox News host Laura Ingraham bumped her guest, the journalist Glenn Greenwald, to speak with Mr. Trump. She described a speech by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine imploring Mr. Putin not to invade as “a really pathetic display.” Trump said that Putin would have been satisfied with just taking over two separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine but had moved ahead with the invasion because “he sees the weakness and the incompetence and the stupidity” of the Biden administration.
Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders around nearly all of the country's perimeter on 24 February 2022 after Moscow mounted a mass assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since the second World War. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had destroyed 74 above-ground military infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, including 11 airfields. Ukrainian police said Russia had carried out 203 attacks since the beginning of the day. Kyiv reported columns of troops pouring across the borders with Russia and Belarus stretching from the north and east, and landing on the coasts from the Black Sea in the southwest and Azov Sea in the southeast.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saidthat Russian President Vladimir Putin had not replied to his invitation to hold talks. Zelensky made the remarks in a 10-minute address posted on Telegram during which he spoke in both Ukrainian and Russian. Speaking emotionally in Russian, he appealed to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe.” Zelensky said that the people of Russia are being lied to about Ukraine and that the possibility of war also “depends on you.” “Who can stop (the war)? People. These people are among you, I am sure,” he said. Zelensky said he had tried to call Russian President Vladimir Putin but there was “no answer, only silence”. “The people of Ukraine and the government of Ukraine want peace,” he added. “But if we come under attack that threaten our freedom and lives of our people we will fight back.”
Calling on Ukrainians to defend their country, Zelenskiy said arms would be given to anyone prepared to fight. Ukraine currently does not have enough military equipment to defend itself, the country’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadym Prystaiko, said. "At this particular moment, we have enough people; we don’t have enough equipment,” Prystaiko said. “But we’re putting up a real fight … tanks, helicopters, planes being shot down. We are defending our land,” Prystaiko said.
Russian airborne troops seized control of the Gostomel airfield on the northern outskirts of Kyiv as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed that they would be defeated. Despite widespread international condemnations, Russia pushed further into Ukraine as battles raged for control of key military installations across the country.
US President Joe Biden has unveiled harsh new sanctions against Russia, imposing measures to impede Russia's ability to do business in the world's major currencies along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises. The sanctions would limit Russia's ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen, he said. The US president said the sanctions were designed to have a long-term impact on Russia and to minimise the impact on the US and its allies.
Biden also pledged to release oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve if needed to shield consumers from the impact of rising prices. Oil prices had surged amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the prospect that supply from Russia will be impacted. Washington "will release additional barrels of oil as conditions warrant"
But Biden stopped short of cutting Russia from the SWIFT banking system for the moment. "It is always an option but right now that's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take," Biden told reporters at a news conference.
Cutting off Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payment system should not be part of the second EU sanctions package against Russia that EU leaders will decide upon at a meeting on Thursday in Brussels, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said. "It is very important that we agree those measures that have been prepared - and keep everything else for a situation where it may be necessary to go beyond that," Scholz told reporters, responding to a question on SWIFT, as he arrived to an emergency summit set to discuss Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has told his Russian counterpart that Beijing understands what he called Moscow's reasonable security concerns on security. China's Foreign Ministry says Wang discussed the situation over Ukraine with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by phone. A statement issued by the ministry said Lavrov explained that NATO, along with the United States, had reneged on its commitments and kept expanding eastward. He stressed that Russia was forced to take measures necessary to safeguard its rights and interests.
Wang said China always respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. He called on all parties, including Russia, to return to the negotiating table. Wang said a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism should be established through dialogue and negotiation.
Police in Russia arrested nearly 1,400 people at anti-war protests staged in cities across the country after President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, an independent monitor said. “More than 1,391 people have already been detained in 51 cities,” said OVD-Info, which tracks arrests at opposition rallies. More than 700 people were arrested in Moscow and about 340 people in the second largest city Saint Petersburg. One petition, started by a prominent human rights advocate, Lev Ponomavyov, garnered over 150,000 signatures within several hours and 289,000 by the end of the day. More than 250 journalists put their names on an open letter decrying the aggression. Another one was signed by some 250 scientists, while by 194 municipal council members in Moscow and other cities signed a third.
The UN refugee agency has said an estimated 100,000 Ukrainians have fled their homes and that several thousand have crossed into neighboring countries, mainly Romania and Moldova.
Reportedly audio from Snake Island in Black Sea: "This is a Russian military ship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary victims. Otherwise we will open fire on you." Ukrainian replied "Russian military ship, go fuck yourself." They were all killed. President Zelenskiy said they’d all be given Hero of Ukraine medal posthumously. The 13 snake island defenders reads like a modern Ukrainian 28 Pamfilovtsev legend, as the Russians continue to reverse engineer their glorious Great Patriotic War myths but with themselves in the role of aggressors.
A large fleet of helicopter with Russian airborne troops took the Antonov / Hostomel airport some 20 miles from Kiev. A fleet of transport planes from Russia soon landed there to deliver more forces. Gostomel airfield was reportedly retaken by Ukraine's National Guard & the Ukranian 45th Spetsnaz Brigade. Surviving VDV units scattered. Ukrainian advisor Anton Herashchenko said the Russians that survived the counterattack on Gostomel fled into the surrounding forests and fields. Zelensky said the enemy has marked him as the number one target. "They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. We have information that enemy sabotage groups have entered Kyiv."
On February 24, units of the Russian Airborne Forces took full control of the territory in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the personnel continue to service the station as usual, said the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov. "Yesterday, February 24, units of the Russian Airborne Forces took full control of the territory in the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. An agreement was reached with the servicemen of a separate battalion of protection of the nuclear power plant of Ukraine on joint security of the power units and the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," he said.
Ian Bremmer wrote: "over the course of the past several weeks, the only de-escalatory measures that we have seen were the fake news, the disinformation, and the lies coming from the Kremlin, and particularly from Russian President Vladimir Putin. When he spoke to US President Biden and Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz and France President Emmanuel Macron, he said that troops were pulling back from the Ukrainian border. He lied. When he said the Russian troops conducting military exercises in Belarus would leave on February 20 when they were done, he lied. When he said that he not planning an invasion, he lied. When he said that all of the diplomatic efforts would lead to de-escalation unless the Russians were provoked by the Ukrainian government, he lied."
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