Vladimir Putin announces military operation in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday has authorised troops to launch a military operation in Ukraine, claiming it’s intended to protect civilians.

In a televised address, Vladimir Putin said the action comes in response to threats coming from Ukraine. He added that Russia doesn’t have a goal to occupy Ukraine. Putin said the responsibility for the bloodshed lies with the Ukrainian “regime.”

Putin warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”

Meanwhile, an emergency session of UN Security Council on the Ukraine crisis. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to Vladimir Putin to give peace a chance and halt military operation.

Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov said on Wednesday that Ukraine would impose a state of emergency on all of its territory, apart from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where it has been in place since 2014.

He said that the emergency state would last 30 days and could be extended for another 30 days.

Pro-Russian separatists have controlled parts of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014. Russia recognised them as independent states and approved use of its troops abroad this week.

Permission for firearms

Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday voted to approve in the first reading a draft law which gives permission to Ukrainians to carry firearms and act in self-defence.

“The adoption of this law is fully in the interests of the state and society,” the authors of the draft law said in a note, adding that the law was needed due to “existing threats and dangers for the citizens of Ukraine”.

One of Europe’s worst security crises in decades was unfolding after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised two areas of eastern Ukraine as independent and ordered troops to be deployed to eastern Ukraine.