ah, ah ah, this is d w. news life from berlin. russian president vladimir putin has launched a quote, special military operation in ukraine. putin says his troops will take action aimed at demilitarize the country. he made the announcement in a surprise middle of the night television address. it comes after weeks of speculation that russia was preparing to invite you crime just hours earlier. you kinds president made a last ditch appeal for pace, asking russians to stand up to the later before it's too late.

ah, i'm rebecca writ as welcome to the program. russian president vladimir putin has announced a quote, military operation in east in ukraine, just as the un secretary general antonio terrace, was speaking at an emergency session of the united nations security council urging him to give pace a chance. the late night a televised address from potent came shortly after self proclaimed, separate as late as in easton. ukraine asked him for military support. it's the latest culmination in a series of escalations that began on monday when potent recognized the independence of 2 regions in east and ukraine, including territory controlled by keir doors. american city quaylon, addressing the caribbean. army, please lay down your arms, your grandad and your great grandfathers did not. cite denazi's and defend our

common fatherland. so that neo nazis would seize power and ukraine in your mouth. you made an oath to serve the ukrainian people that will you please. they are a fascist hunter who have seized power in our own delivery, floundering ukraine, and exploiting its peoples and don't fulfill their criminal orders. he lay down your weapons and go home. he's away was mimi and in the us larry w e. d. the morning while to help us get through this developing story database, charles mcfadden joins me in the studio for more. charles took us through what's been happening in the last hour before we get into that, rebecca, i've been reporting on ukraine fight years. this is a remarkable and very dark moment in european history, and i think that flighty met putin. the saw that we just heard from him that the quote that we just heard from him was absolutely full of false misinformation, obviously designed to put off an army that he's now declared. he's fighting. now

i would just wanted to take you through what vladimir putin said. he said that the government of ukraine was near not in fact, it's not. it's led by jewish president. he said that the far right was in charge of ukraine. in fact, at the last election, it received less than 2 percent of the vote. now he made a see a series of remarks at climbing the heritage of the said, the 2nd world war for russia i ukrainians would say on the other hand that millions of them died in the 2nd world war as well and, and millions of them for in the red army at so vladimir putin climbing that heritage as well. but i in fact, what he has done here is he has ah declared war on a democratically elected government. i was in ukraine when bloody me zalinski was elected in 2019 i. it was observed by the o. s. e a. the, at that election, it was, it was declared frayne. fair. so in fact,

a missile at vaughnam zalinski present. lensky has perhaps more legitimacy than president putin. the last parliamentary elections in russia were not supervised by the oversee. they couldn't get into russia due to quote, corona restrictions. so from president putin there, we heard a very, a bellicose speech, or he all but declared war on, on monday. now it seems he's done that in dade and tell us what we know about what's actually happening on the grounds. i mean, in his speech, he said this is a special operation in dumbass, but there old many indications and reports to say that this is a much wider an invasion that we're even hearing reports of, of explosions in the capital k of just talk us through what we know so far what we know so far, what we're, we've been receiving reports for about an hour and a half. i is, is that this attack is proceeding on major crime in cities. we're hearing reports from cities as diverse as a defer neither romanian border. we're hearing reports from michael live,

which is just across from crimea in, in southern ukraine, from cram tours in the dawn beth region. indeed, from hockey, the 2nd largest city, and from key of the, the capital i. it's many, many of my contacts and friends in, in kia, have been reporting explosions. many were broken up in the middle of the night as, as i slept. and this attack began, so where sing, indications are ready that this is a very, very broad attack. in date, rebecca, it's unclear what the targets of this initial bombing will be. but of the entire country, a country of $40000000.00 people a will now be awake and will be saying the effects are in just a couple of hours of that 1st wave of bombing, as tall as day dawns on one of ukraine's darkest eyes. and certainly by all accounts sound like a very comprehensive attack,

what do you see happening in the coming hours and days? and i reported widely on the region for many years. ukraine in the late up to this, sounded very united. will they fight back? ukraine will fight back it's and, and there have been surveys which were show 50 percent over 50 percent of ukrainians are prepared to take up arms to fight off the russian offensive. however, i'm the question is how prepared is the korean army. from this we saw 900000 reserves code up only yesterday. the government in cuba has been 4 months trying to pursue a diplomatic path. it's been afraid of provoking russia and, and ended up in the circumstance which it is in the now, i think what we'll see in the next in the coming days is, is whether, indeed the government in here has prepared the army well. and if the army is certainly in a condition which is far better than it was in 2014,

that's that was when victor and the coverage fighting me putin's pro ration later fled to russia. i. and at that point, the army was not really able to fight back nowadays are saved a lot of weapons and assistance from its partners in european and north america. at the question is, will it, will there be how, how will it be be deployed? will they be able to deploy the, how is the training as have been enough training? all that remains to be determined and analysts say that the russian army has a numerical advantage. i mean, russia's is a country that's far larger than ukraine. about 3 times the size though we are, and let's just take a step back again. rebecca. we are seeing the outbreak of a major war between some of europe's largest countries, including a nuclear power, sir marketable moment in 21st century history. remarkable indeed. and now the story of course, charters moving so, so fast as we're witnessing. and i do want to remind you as

a all those just waking up to this news this morning that a few hours prior to m l. i to be pigeons televised statement below them is zalinski ukrainian president made an emotional play to russians are in russian to support or to not support rather a major war in europe. and let's have a little listen to what he had to say in an address. yeah, for his crisis, congressional look, i'm addressing you, the russian people as a ukranian citizen, bullying, we are separated by a border stretching more than 2000 kilometers when they and right now there are 200000 of your soldiers there washer. i will go with your leadership, has authorized them to move in to the territory of another country, yet certain this could mark the start of a major war on the european continent. labor piece can continue a chance that message falling on deaf ears. hats coming a little too late. and president zalinski has been calling for

com. throughout the build up to this well, the u. s. and western allies, everyone was saying this is going to happen. this is going to happen, you know, president lindsey was saying, please everyone calm down, was he to come? was he too shy and an easy to unprepared? now, again, that was part of the strategy of the government, perhaps to avoid provoking russia. but we shall see if the population has been, are prepared for an attack on the scale of friends of contacts of mine. are those contacts of mine who are closer to the government? they'd been expecting something like this for months. i heard rumors of this when i was in ukraine in december that something like this could becoming however, the, the bulk of the, the population, most ordinary people, rebecca, they were not prepared and, and many of them believed that this would never happen. i'd say for 8 years, a war going on and designs asked which a bit limited to the don basil,

to regions erased in ukraine. they were told by, by the government that things were under control. flip president zalinski played a consoler and chief of for the nation, often same more concerned about the economic impact on, on ukraine of all this, then the possibility of a major impending war. and now, just hours before our prison improvements, address, prisoners zalinski made a last minute play to the russian people not to the cranium, people in, in russian, in the russian language. it was certainly our remarkable speech from someone who really is able to invite empathy. but whether it was the speech that should be given on this night, or whether the speech should have perhaps been given to the ukrainian people, i think people will start to ask that question in the hours to come away. hearing that this could be, ah, the bloodiest war in europe since world war 2. what,

why the impact and implications? could this air crisis had this conflict? have incredibly broad implications. rebecca, poland has been preparing for the mass arrival of refugees from from ukraine on the humanitarian front. so his romania, because of been in the fact that the city of a desiree is, is very near to the the romanian border where we're going to say a significant refugee crisis. certainly with an attack of, of the magnitude that this does appear to be so that we already saw cause from the polish and lithuanian presidents to admit ukraine to the a you, i think that ukraine's eastern european allies at this stage will, will step up those efforts obviously, it seems to right now to admit you trying to nitro,

but it's something that nato has continuously said that they wouldn't do in the u. s. as, as, as come out and said that as well. so right. but, but there are, there will be growing strength in the alliance. i think if, if at this now humanitarian catastrophe, there been warnings that from the united states, the 10s of thousands of people could be killed in such a conflict. obviously we haven't seen anything like this in the war in the former yugoslavia, but that those vulcan powers are much more of a smaller countries. i'm when we're talking about ukraine and russia, we're talking about some of europe's largest countries are certainly the 2 largest countries in the, in the, in the former soviet union side, the implications of this could be absolutely catastrophic, indeed. and child, thanks very much for breaking that down for us or i will be speaking to you shortly as this story develops at such a pace. chance mclension. thank you. as we just mentioned earlier, hooton's announcement came as the un security council was holding an emergency

session in new york on the russian threat against you, crime, here's what the ukrainian ambassador had to say was. so i was intending to ask the rest of them better to confirm on the record that the russian troops will not start firing at ukrainians to day and go ahead with the offensive. it became useless. 48 minutes ago. because about hold a minutes ago, your president declared the wall and ukraine. so now i would like to ask the ambassador of the russian federation to say, own the records that at these very moment your troops do not shell and bomb ukrainian cities

that your troops do not move in the territory of ukraine. you have a smartphone, you can call over off right now. we can make oppose to let you go out and call him if you are not in a position to give an affirmative answer, the russian federation ought to relinquish responsibilities of the president of the security council. pass these responsibilities onto a legitimate member of a school council member that is respectable over the charter. and i ask the members, oh security council to convene an emergency meeting immediately and consider all necessary drug decision. let's bring

a date of it. stephan simmons, his standing by for us in washington 7 there. you heard it. the un representative ukraine, addressing his russian counterpart and the council at that emergency meeting. what do you make of that actually got a little bit more heated, right? after that, what we just a broadcast city of the crating ambassador to the and called upon the entire security council. 15 member states 10, a non permanent 5 permanent of course, to call that the beginning of the war in ukraine because he, of course, had to intelligence slash information that russia had apparently started to bomb or attack. and in his words, start an invasion, full fledged invasion. that's the ukraine government saying this now into ukraine, the russian ambassador to the u. n. who.