SPECULUM VERUM
Just before the clock 04 Vladimir Putin addressed the Russian nation and said that "a military operation has begun".
The war is a fact, states Aftonbladet's foreign affairs commentator.
- Putin threatens the whole world, sager Wolfgang Hansson.
Put down your weapons and go home, Vladimir Putin urged Ukrainian soldiers in his televised speech. The President of Russia calls it a military special operation that was launched just before the bell 04.
- It seems to be a full-scale effort that has been started. There have been explosions in a number of major cities including the capital Kyiv, and in southern and eastern Ukraine. There is very uncertain information so far, but it has been said that Russian troops have been seen in the city of Kharkiv, which is very close to the Russian border and is one of the larger cities in eastern Ukraine, says Wolfgang Hansson in Aftonbladet TV.
- The war that we have waged for the last few weeks to hope would not end, it is a fact now, he continues.
"He is incredibly threatening"
Vladimir Putin said in his speech that clashes between Russian and Ukrainian soldiers are inevitable, and warned other countries not to interfere. "If you do it, you will face consequences greater than any of your faces throughout history", said the president.
- You get a bit of a feeling that he hit a button, gone crazy or completely lost touch with reality. Has he starts a war against a brother people, a neighboring country, which is total, completely in onodan. He threatens the whole world, and I don't know how to interpret it, if he thinks of using nuclear weapons in case someone tries to intervene or what he is referring to. But he is incredibly threatening, sager Wolfgang Hansson.
On Monday, Vladimir Putin recognized the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine as independent.
- It was a very down-to-earth speech with lines of logic and strange pasta endings about the history of Ukraine. One wonders how his mental neck is doing. and that is terribly responsible, because in practice he is a dictator. Said people obey orders no matter what orders he gives, sager Wolfgang Hansson.
Underlying the Russian arm
Ukraine now faces a "fear-responsible situation", notes Wolfgang Hansson.
- Even if Ukraine's army is significantly stronger and better equipped and stronger today 2014 when Russia took the Crimea, the spirit of the Russian subjugation. I imagine that the war itself will be quite short, maybe quite bloody, but then, for the Ukrainians, it is a matter of civil resistance if Russia tries to occupy the country. We do not know the ultimate purpose of the military operation, if it is some kind of punitive action, that he wants to replace the regime, or that there is a greater underlying purpose aside from stopping Ukraine from joining NATO.
At the same time as Putin gave his speech, an extra-initiated fashion was going on at the UN:s sakerhetsrad i New York.
– FN:s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a press conference after which he was really upset, saying that "this is the saddest moment for me as Secretary-General" and appealing to Putin that "in the name of humanity, withdraw your troops”, reports Emelie Svensson live from New York in Aftonbladet TV.
Ave USA:s President Joe Biden has condemned the Russian invasion in a written statement.
"The whole world is now praying for the people of Ukraine as they now endure an unprovoked and unjust attack by Russian forces. President Putin has chosen a planned war that will bring catastrophic losses and human suffering", says Biden.