On Thursday, before dawn, Russia's open war against Ukraine began.

President Vladimir Putin announced it as a "military special operation" in a nearly half-hour speech published early in the morning.

The Ukrainian border guard reported that Russia is attacking five areas, with support from Belarus.

The American broadcaster CNN shows a video showing tanks from Belarus rolling towards Kiev from the north.

Frederick Smith

Political correspondent for Russia and the CIS in Moscow.

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Until last week, Western warnings about troop concentrations there and in other areas around Ukraine, as well as in the annexed Ukrainian Crimea, had been described by Moscow as "hysteria".

Now the Russian Defense Ministry said it had eliminated Ukrainian Air Force bases and dismissed a Ukrainian report that a Russian plane had been shot down.

In addition, according to the Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian border guards are not offering any resistance to the Russian units.

Don't plan rocket, artillery or air strikes on Ukrainian cities, just target precise strikes on military infrastructure, anti-aircraft defenses, military airports and the Ukrainian Air Force.

According to the ministry, nobody is threatening the civilian population. 

The "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk announced that the "liberation of occupied territory" had started.

Putin recognized the "people's republics" as states on Monday and emphasized on Tuesday evening that this was done within the borders claimed by the entities;

This refers to the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, most of which were controlled by Kiev until Thursday.

Russia closed 12 airports in the south of the country and in Crimea, initially until March 2. 

Putin's speech Thursday morning was the third in four days.

Putin addressed the "esteemed citizens of Russia", the "dear friends".

The aim of the "special military operation" is to "protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years".

Putin said his goal was not "occupation of Ukrainian territories".

You will “not force anything on anyone”.

However, Putin hinted that he could annex Ukrainian territories or create more "people's republics".

"The basis of our politics is freedom," he said.

Nobody asked the people who live in Ukraine today how they wanted to shape their lives.

“The freedom of choice for everyone to determine their own future and the future of their children.

And we consider it important that all peoples living on the territory of today's Ukraine should be able to exercise this right, the right of choice.

All who want it.” At the National Security Council meeting on Monday, which dealt with the recognition of the “people's republics”, annexation appeared as an option, but Putin did not want to discuss it. 

Putin stressed that efforts would be made to "demilitarize and denazify" the neighboring country and bring to justice those "who committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful citizens, including Russian citizens".

Putin and his power and media apparatus have long claimed that “Nazis” and “radical nationalists” rage unchecked in Ukraine;

that was one of the explanations for the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and also accompanied the land grab in the Donbass by pro-Russian militias and the covert military operation at the time.