Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to reporters that Moscow aims to impose a “neutral status” in Ukraine, disarm it and eliminate the “Nazis” he said were present in the country.
On Thursday morning, Russia began a comprehensive military operation in the Ukrainian territory, shortly after President Vladimir Putin announced this.
Russian forces managed to enter the Kiev region from Belarus to carry out a Grad missile attack on military targets, according to the Ukrainian border guards.
And the agency “AFP” reported that unidentified helicopters were flying in groups at low altitudes in the suburb of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Russian military operation is much greater than Moscow announced, denying reports that the Ukrainian defense forces had collapsed due to the missile strikes.
In a tweet on Twitter, Kuleba wrote: “No. This is not only an invasion of Russia in eastern Ukraine, but a large-scale attack from multiple directions.”
The course of events shows that the scope of the Russian military operation exceeds the areas that Moscow announced targeting, as Russia rained missiles on large areas inside Ukraine, including the capital, Kiev.