Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the initiation of a “special military operation” in Ukraine during a television appearance on Russian State television, the New York Times reports. A Times reporter posted that two large explosions were heard in the Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk at virtually the same time Putin’s announcement was broadcast on television.
Putin said the action would be aimed at the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” a reference to a conspiracy theory the Kremlin has supported that the high ranks of the Ukrainian military are held by neo-Nazis.