MOSCOW: Despite the threat of ”harshest sanctions”, enormous international pressure and appeals for peace, the Russian troops continued to invade Ukraine on Thursday and mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since the Second World War.
Casting aside international condemnation and sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the United States and its NATO allies that any attempt to interfere would lead to ‘severe consequences you have never seen.’
Addressing the Russian people in a televised address from Kremlin, Putin said, “Whoever tries to hinder us, and even more so, to create threats to our country, to our people, should know that Russia`s response will be immediate. And it will lead you to such consequences that you have never encountered in your history.”
Reminding the West of Russia’s massive military power, the Russian president said, “As for the military sphere, today, modern Russia, even after the collapse of the USSR and the loss of a significant part of its capacity, is one of the most powerful nuclear powers in the world and possesses certain advantages in some of the newest types of weaponry. In this regard, no one should have any doubts that a direct attack on our country will lead to defeat and horrible consequences for any potential aggressor.”
The Russian President also authorized a military operation in Ukraine that began soon after his address to the nation. Russia’s Defence Ministry later on Thursday 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.
The assault also brought a calamitous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to avert war, their worst fears about Putin’s ambitions realised. US President Joe Biden called the Russian action an “unprovoked and unjustified attack” and announced “strong sanctions” and export curbs.
Biden though ruled out sending US troops to defend Ukraine, but Washington has reinforced NATO allies in the region with extra troops and planes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin late Thursday, appealing for an “immediate cessation of violence”. The Indian government ramped up efforts to evacuate Indians stranded in the country.
Meanwhile, France`s Foreign Minister said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, when making threats about using nuclear weapons, needs to understand that NATO, too, is a nuclear alliance.
However, he ruled out NATO-led military intervention to defend Ukraine. Asked whether Putin`s threat of “such consequences that you have never encountered in your history” was tantamount to threatening Russian use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was indeed understood as such.
“Yes, I think that Vladimir Putin must also understand that the Atlantic alliance is a nuclear alliance. That is all I will say about this,” Le Drian said on Thursday on French television TF1.
Western leaders have threatened unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia, but none have argued for a NATO-led military intervention to defend Ukraine. Ukraine is not a NATO ally, and the alliance is not treaty-bound to protect it.
Asked why NATO member states – which in past decades have intervened militarily in non-NATO countries such as Afghanistan, Libya and former Yugoslavia – are refusing to put soldiers on the ground in Ukraine, Le Drian said, “That is not what the Ukrainians are asking us”.
He said Ukraine is asking for humanitarian and financial help, as well as military equipment, which the West has provided and will continue to provide. Asked what weaponry NATO could provide, Le Drian said “they have made a list and we are studying that list in order to meet their requests as soon as possible”.
Asked whether Europe and NATO could continue to rule out a military response despite the presence of Russian soldiers in Ukraine and Putin`s threat of nuclear apocalypse, Le Drian said sanctions will be more efficient. “Strangling Russia economically and financially will, in the long run, be stronger than any intervention,” the foreign minister said.
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