Russian President Vladimir Putin announced early Thursday morning a “special military operation” in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, although explosions and attacks are being reported across the country, the BBC reports. Putin warned that Moscow’s response would be “instantaneous” if anyone attempts to confront Russia.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced cruise missile attacks from Russia. There are bombs and explosions in several cities in the country, beyond the eastern Ukrainian territories cited by the Russian president.
Ukrainian police reported that at least 7 people have been killed by Russian shelling. Another 19 people are missing. According to the reports of the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, 40 soldiers and dozens of Ukrainian civilians have already been killed.
However, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu denied that the Armed Forces are attacking the Ukrainian population and instead stated that they are using precision weapons against military targets.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry indicated that the Russian military operation was being supported from Belarus. Western TV channels captured the moment when tanks and troops were crossing the Ukrainian border from Belarus.
The Ukrainian government declared martial law imposing restrictions on movement or a ban on gatherings, among other measures.
U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other leaders roundly condemned the Russian intervention. But Putin justified his decision by the request made yesterday by the separatist leaders of the rebel regions of Donetsk and Luhansk to the Kremlin to send Russian troops to their territories.
The first reactions of the cryptocurrency markets have already started
The war also has negative consequences for the economy and also for cryptocurrencies.
Since last night, the first reactions of the cryptocurrency markets have already begun, with drops of 10% and more in the last 24 hours (the Russian dawn, when the war broke out, was the night on the American continent).
As we can see in the Cryptomarkets charts, Bitcoin (BTC) is down 9.36% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum (ETH) is down 12.91%, Binance Coin (BNB) 12.41%, XRP 13.25%, Solana (SOL) 11.21% and Cardano (ADA) 17.68%. This is just to name a few of the major ones.
