SHCHASTIA, Ukraine — While the U.N. Security Council was meeting to avert war, explosions thundered and flashed across Ukraine early Thursday as Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to attack the country after weeks of failed diplomacy and a massive military buildup intended to recast the map of Eastern Europe.
The move was a stunning — if expected — play from a leader who for weeks has massed troops on Ukraine’s borders while brandishing threatening rhetoric and snubbing diplomacy. The latest incursion shatters nearly three decades of relative peace in Europe and is certain to elicit a forceful response from the U.S. and NATO. Both Washington and its transatlantic allies have promised to impose even harsher sanctions than those enacted just days ago.
But Putin, who vowed to liberate and protect the Russia-backed separatist eastern region of Ukraine, was unbowed and belligerent, warning other countries to stay out of the conflict: “Whoever tries to impede us, let alone create threats for our country and its people, must know that the Russian response will be immediate and lead to the consequences you have never seen in history.”
