Kyiv: Countries across the globe have appealed to Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation to protect, he says, civilians in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea on Thursday, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two and confirmation of the worst fears of the West.
“We are starting to create an anti-Putin coalition. I have already called on world leaders to impose all possible sanctions against Putin. … We must save Ukraine, save the democratic world. And we will do that,” said Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky on Thursday. He vowed to retake an airfield close to the capital Kyiv captured by Russian forces.
The Russian president warned against foreign intervention in the unfolding conflict. “To anyone who would consider interfering from the outside: if you do, you will face consequences greater than any you have faced in history. All relevant decisions have been taken,” Putin says. “I hope you hear me.”
The Russian president’s announcement came as the United Nations Security Council was holding an emergency meeting over the crisis in Ukraine. Ambassadors from countries including the US, the UK and Albania denounced the escalation of the conflict in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attended the meeting and told Russia: “Stop your troops from attacking Ukraine. Give peace a chance.”
The Security Council is chaired by Russia. In a broadcast of the meeting, Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.N., could be heard demanding Russia relinquish its duties as council chair, imploring: “Call Putin. Call [Russian foreign minister Sergey] Lavrov to stop aggression.”
US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield also lamented that Putin had “ordered that last step.”
“As we are gathered in the council seeking peace, Putin delivered a message of war in total disdain for the responsibility of the council,” she said. “The council will need to act and we will put a resolution on the table tomorrow.”
As the meeting ended, Ukraine’s Kyslytsya told the Russian envoy: “There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador.”
In a statement, US President Joe Biden called the attack “unprovoked and unjustified,” saying that Russia has chosen a war “that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”
Biden also tweeted that he had spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: “He asked me to call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin’s flagrant aggression, and to stand with the people of Ukraine.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “appalled” by the turn of events in Ukraine. In a tweet, Johnson said he had also spoken to Ukraine’s president to discuss next steps.
