Conflict between Russia and Ukraine: Explosions reported in Kyiv after Vladimir Putin launches military operations

*Paromita Das

On Thursday, February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a military operation to “demilitarise Ukraine” in a surprise televised address to people.

Moments afterwards, a CNN correspondent reported hearing explosions coming from Kharkiv. He then stated, quoting the Ukrainian interior ministry that the explosions near Kyiv were caused by missile attacks.

Explosions were also heard in Mariupol, which is located in eastern Ukraine, according to AFP. The blasts were heard early Feb 24 Thursday in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and Mariupol, the country’s eastern port city.

Residents in Mariupol, close to the frontline and the Russian border, reported hearing artillery in the city’s eastern suburbs, according to AFP correspondents in both cities.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted, “Putin has initiated a full-scale war against Ukraine.”

“Strikes continue in Ukraine’s tranquil cities.” This is an aggressive war. Ukraine will fight and win. Putin can and must be stopped. “Now is the moment to act,” he added.

“Russian President on record declared war,” said Ukraine’s representative to Russia’s representative at a UN emergency meeting.

It is the obligation of this body to put an end to this war. “I appeal to everyone to put an end to the war.” Should I show you the video of your president declaring war?”

‘Tidal waves of suffering’: US warn that a Russian invasion of Ukraine will displace at least 5 million people.

Speakers at a United Nations meeting on Ukraine on Wednesday warned that a Russian invasion would almost certainly result in a new “refugee crisis” around the world.

The United States has warned that war might displace up to five million people; Ukraine’s foreign minister has remarked that such a battle would mark the “end of the international order as we know it.”

The grim warnings were issued during a UN General Assembly session on “temporarily occupied Ukrainian areas,” which has been conducted each year at the UN headquarters in New York since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.

In his remarks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the situation was putting “our planet in jeopardy.”

“If the situation in Ukraine escalates, the world may witness a scale and severity of need unseen in many years,” he said.

“It is time for caution, reason, and de-escalation,” Guterres remarked, emphasizing that no acts or remarks might “throw this hazardous situation over the abyss.”

According to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, an invasion might result in the displacement of an additional five million people, on top of the three million already displaced by Russian military operations in eastern Ukraine.

“If Russia continues down this route, according to our estimations, it might produce a new refugee catastrophe, one of the world’s largest today,” she warned.

Given that Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat to underdeveloped countries, Thomas-Greenfield warned that Russian military activities “may create a jump in food prices and even more acute famine in places like Libya, Yemen, and Lebanon.”

“The tidal waves of agony caused by this conflict are unfathomable,” she remarked.