Russia launches military strikes on Ukraine, which declares martial law, urges citizens to not panic

Associated Press, CNN
Posted:
Updated:

What’s happened so far:

-Putin orders army into Ukraine, seeks to ‘demilitarize’ neighbor

-Explosions heard in Ukrainian cities of Odesa, Kharkiv as Putin announces launch of military action

-Biden denounces ‘unprovoked and unjustified’ attack on Ukraine, pledges world will ‘hold Russia accountable’

-Putin warns any foreign attempt to interfere with Russian action would lead to ‘consequences they have never seen’

-Stock markets plunged and oil prices surged to nearly $100 a barrel. Russia is the world’s No. 2 supplier.

Russian troops launched their anticipated attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions, warning other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”

Big explosions were heard before dawn in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa as world leaders decried the start of an Russian invasion that could cause massive casualties and topple Ukraine’s democratically elected government.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced martial law, saying Russia has targeted Ukraine’s military infrastructure and explosions are heard across the country. Zelenskyy said he had just talked to President Joe Biden and the U.S. was rallying international support for Ukraine. He urged Ukrainians to stay home and not to panic

Biden pledged new sanctions meant to punish Russia for an act of aggression that the international community had for weeks anticipated but could not prevent through diplomacy.

Putin justified it all in a televised address, asserting the attack was needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine — a false claim the U.S. had predicted he would make as a pretext for an invasion. He accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia’s demand to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and offer Moscow security guarantees, and credulously claimed that Russia doesn’t intend to occupy Ukraine but will move to “demilitarize” it and bring those who committed crimes to justice.

An emergency U.N. Security Council meeting was meant as an eleventh hour effort to dissuade Russia from sending troops into Ukraine. But the message became moot even as it was being delivered.

While diplomats at U.N. headquarters were making pleas for Russia to back off — “Give peace a chance,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres implored — Russian President Vladimir Putin went on television in his homeland to announce a military operation that he said was intended to protect civilians in Ukraine.

With rare but fragile alignment, the U.S. Congress is largely backing President Joe Biden’s decision to confront Russia with potentially escalating sanctions for the crisis in Ukraine as lawmakers brace for perhaps the most daunting foreign policy crisis the nation has faced in a generation.

Ukraine’s parliament and other government and banking websites were hit with another punishing wave of distributed-denial-of-service attacks Wednesday, and cybersecurity researchers said unidentified attackers had also infected hundreds of computers with destructive malware.

Ukrainian businesses large and small no longer plan for the future — they can barely foresee what will happen week to week.

There’s little support among Americans for a major U.S. role in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to a new poll, even as President Joe Biden imposes new sanctions and threatens a stronger response that could provoke retaliation from Moscow.

So what’s happening and where?

As a long-feared Russian invasion of Ukraine appears to be underway, here is a map locating Ukraine’s Donbas region and the area currently held by Ukrainian separatists. This map is current as of February 22, 2022 and will update as news breaks.

A full-scale invasion could have major repercussions in the U.S. Stocks have taken a hit this week as investors react to the Russia-Ukraine military conflict. But experts say you shouldn’t shake up your investing strategy just because stock prices are moving.

Meanwhile, oil hit $100 a barrel and stock futures fell sharply. Dow futures lost nearly 700 points, or about 2%. Nasdaq futures dropped 2.7%.

Brent crude, the world benchmark, briefly climbed above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014. US crude jumped 3.3% to $95.15 a barrel. Oil supplies are already very tight. Analysts have warned that any disruptions to oil flows from Russia, the world’s No. 2 oil producer, would drive consumer gas prices even higher.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has spent most of her life working to nurture economic growth. Now her department is tasked with finding ways to choke off parts of Russia’s economic development in response to President Vladimir Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.

One key question for the administration is how to measure the success of such an endeavor. With inflation already at record highs, a global pandemic that keeps businesses struggling to reopen and an energy shortage throughout Europe, the mathematics on punishing one of the world’s biggest economies can be complex to tease out.

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