SITREP DAY 1: A Full-scale Russian Invasion of Ukraine

By IndraStra Global News Team

Cover Image Attribute: Missile attack outside Kyiv, Ukraine on February 24, 2022 / Source: Twitter

By IndraStra Global News Team

On February 24, 2022, at 5:00 UTC, Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, marking a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that had been ongoing since 2014. The campaign was preceded by a prolonged Russian military buildup since early 2021, and demands by Russia to legally prohibit Ukraine from joining NATO. Days prior to the invasion, Russia recognized two self-proclaimed Ukrainian states, the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, followed by an incursion of the Russian Armed Forces to the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine on February 21.

Despite receiving global flak, Russian President Vladimir Putin has justified the invasion by asserting the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine, though there was no evidence they were under any threat. The U.S. and European allies had warned for weeks that their intelligence showed Moscow planned to create a false justification for war.

Putin also warned that any interference would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”  He further added in his pre-invasion address early Thursday, “As for military affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today's Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states. Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.”

On the other hand, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded by enacting martial law, severing diplomatic ties with Russia, and announcing general mobilization. The invasion received widespread international condemnation, including sanctions being imposed on Russia, while anti-war protests in Russia were met with mass arrests.

Events of Day 1 (Thursday, February 24, 2022)

• Russia's Defence Ministry said its first day of the Ukraine invasion had achieved all its goals and that it had destroyed 83 land-based Ukrainian targets. Ukrainian police said Russia had carried out 203 attacks since the beginning of the day. 

• Missiles rained down on Ukrainian targets and 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.

• An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Russian forces had captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 90 km north of the capital, and Hostomel airport in the Kyiv region, where paratroopers had earlier been landed. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to defend their country and said arms would be given to anyone prepared to fight.

• Unconfirmed reports of casualties included Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian bombardment and border guards defending the frontier. Authorities in the southern Odessa region said 18 people were killed in a missile attack. At least six people were killed in Brovary, a town near Kyiv, authorities there said. Ukraine reported five people killed when one plane was shot down.

• Ukraine's military said it had destroyed four Russian tanks near Kharkiv, killed 50 troops near a town in the Luhansk region, and downed six Russian warplanes in the east. Russia denied reports its aircraft or armored vehicles had been destroyed. Russian-backed separatists claimed to have downed two Ukrainian planes.

• As night fell, the picture of what was happening on the ground was sketchy. Fierce fighting was taking place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odesa in the south, news agency Reuters reported.

• Speaking at the White House on Thursday, President Joe Biden said the US and its allies would impose new sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. “Putin chose this war and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said. “I’m authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia. This is going to impose a severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time.” Biden said the US would also sanction more major Russian banks, including VTB. He said the US would also target state-owned companies with assets over $1.4tn and would impose sanctions on more wealthy Russians.


• U.S. and European officials are holding one key financial sanction against Russia in reserve, choosing not to boot Russia off SWIFT, the dominant system for global financial transactions. Biden pointedly played down the need to block Russia from SWIFT, saying that while it's "always'' still an option, "right now that's not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.'' He also suggested the sanctions being put in place would have more teeth. "The sanctions we've imposed exceed SWIFT,'' Biden said in response to a question.
  

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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