Russia on Thursday launched a massive, coordinated attack on Ukraine, with Russian jets reportedly hitting major Ukrainian cities and ground forces crossing into Ukrainian territory on multiple fronts, as Vladimir Putin’s long-feared invasion threatened to plunge all of Eastern Europe into its most devastating conflict since World War II.
The Russian president cast the invasion as an effort to push back on Ukrainian aggression aimed at the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which Russia recognized as independent states earlier this week. But the Russian military moves extend far beyond those enclaves and indicate that a full-scale invasion is under way, perhaps with the goal of toppling the government in Kyiv and rewriting the geopolitical order in Europe and beyond.
Mr. Putin also threatened “consequences they have never seen” against any countries that try to interfere with the Russian invasion, even as NATO members began shifting military assets eastward and warned Moscow that it was ramping up its own “defensive planning” amid fears that the military campaign ultimately moves beyond Ukraine.
Explosions were reported in at least 16 Ukrainian cities on Thursday morning across virtually all areas of the country, suggesting that the massive Russian assault is aimed at both taking out Ukraine’s military defenses while also terrifying the civilian population. Missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities while Russian armored columns moved across the border.
Video footage posted to social media purportedly showed massive traffic jams in and around Kyiv, the capital city, as citizens looked to escape the escalating Russian attack.
In a Twitter statement early Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy invoked World War II and urged his citizens to take to the streets to protest the Russian aggression.
SEE ALSO: Biden condemns ‘unprovoked and unjustified’ Russian attack on Ukraine
“Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in #2WW years. As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history,” he wrote. Russia “has embarked on a path of evil, but [Ukraine] is defending itself & won’t give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks.”
Mr. Zelenskyy quickly declared martial law within his own country and formally cut off diplomatic relations with the Kremlin, signaling that the West’s diplomatic efforts to defuse the simmering crisis are being abandoned amid the beginnings of war.
In a video address later Thursday morning, Mr. Zelenskyy said the survival of his nation is at stake.
“Putin began war against Ukraine, against the entire democratic world. He wants to destroy my country, our country, everything we’ve been building, everything we were living for,” he said, according to an English translation of his remarks broadcast on CNN.
Ukrainian officials said that more than 40 soldiers had already been killed and dozens more wounded Thursday morning as Russia moved in from the north, south and east. That casualty figure is expected to rise sharply as the Russian assault continues.
Ukrainian forces reportedly claimed to have taken out several Russian tanks as they fought back against the advance.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine crisis shows Biden behind the curve again, critics say
But the Ukrainian military is vastly overmatched by the Russians. Despite being equipped with U.S. anti-tank missiles and a host of other equipment, Ukraine is outnumbered at least 4-to-1 by the Russians and has nowhere near the amount of artillery, planes, vehicles and weapons as its foe.
Thursday’s developments indicate Mr. Putin is now prepared to use the full force of his military to crush Ukraine, a former Soviet republic that has steadily built closer ties to the U.S. and NATO in recent years, angering the Kremlin.
Russia’s close ties to Belarus and its 2014 military annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula are greatly aiding the Russian assault, with both of those areas serving as key staging grounds.
Russian troops stationed in neighboring Belarus and in Crimea have moved across the border. Russian troops that have spent months stationed elsewhere along the border with Ukraine also reportedly have started to advance.
Following fresh cyberattacks over the past several days, Russian forces began the assault through the air. Russian planes reportedly targeted cities and major Ukrainian military bases. Explosions were heard in Kyiv, the capital, along with the eastern city of Kharkiv and the western city of Odesa. Explosions were reported elsewhere across the country, and Russian officials claimed to have already crushed Ukraine’s air defenses.
Russian troops also landed by sea in the southern city of Mariupol, Reuters reported, suggesting that Mr. Putin and his military planners aim to connect the Crimean peninsula with the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Fears mounted Thursday that Russia may quickly move on Kyiv in an effort to decapitate the government and crush Ukraine’s ability to fight back.
In his own address, Mr. Putin urged the Ukrainian military to lay down its weapons and he cast the invasion as a just war against Ukrainian oppressors — the latest example of the Russian president’s fact-twisting as he seeks to build justification for an invasion. The Russian leader also made a bizarre statement about an effort to rid eastern Ukraine of Nazis as both sides of the battle used World War II imagery.
“Its purpose is to protect the people who have for eight years been exposed to humiliation and genocide by the regime in Kyiv. For this we will seek demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, and also press for bringing to justice those who have committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful civilians, including Russian” citizens, he said, as quoted by Russia’s state-run TASS News Agency.
President Biden condemned the invasion late Wednesday, looking on as months of diplomatic efforts to stave off a major war went up in smoke.
“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “Russia 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.”
NATO called an emergency session early Thursday morning as the West plots its next retaliatory moves, including another round of major economic sanctions on Russia.
“Russia’s leaders must bear full responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Russia will pay a very heavy economic and political price,” NATO said in a Thursday morning statement.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.