Thursday, Feb 24, 2022 • 20min

The Russian Invasion Begins

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After months of escalating tensions, President Vladimir V. Putin took to state television on Thursday to declare the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine. In the prelude to the invasion and as Russian troops launched their attacks, we spoke to our colleagues on the ground as they hunkered down to cover the fighting. Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The New York Times; Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The Times and Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter for The Times.

Talking about

Speakers

(5)

Sabrina Tavernise

Alex

Michael Barbaro

Transcript

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Break

Sabrina Tavernise

00:32

This is

Sabrina Tavernise

. I'm in

Kyiv

Ukraine

and it's about 11:20 at night. About an hour ago we got information from some colleagues that there will likely be an attack tonight in

Kyiv

and in a number of other cities in

Ukraine

. We're gathering all of our stuff together. Looking at an empty bag that I'm about to put a bunch of stuff in, a bunch of bottles of water, a little contraption that powers a computer off of a car battery, headlamp, bunch of extra power supplies and-

01:08

And the plan is to go into the bathrooms of this hotel if there is a bombing. They are the furthest internal and away from the windows in the hotel and their big deep closets in front of them that are also protective. Looking out the window, this beautiful city just started to rain, kind of misty. Really hard to imagine that there could be major damage in the city of millions of people.

01:51

I'm feeling nervous and my adrenaline starts going, which means the way I focus and remember what I'm seeing and witness, is to write down notes in my notebook with time stamps. So here's the first one: it's 11:28 in

Kyiv

And I'm putting all my gear into an empty bag

Michael Barbaro

02:30

From

New York Times

. I'm

Michael Barbaro

. This is

The Daily

02:35

The

Russian

assault on

Ukraine

has begun. Today, my colleagues in

Kyiv

Slovyansk

and

Moscow

documented the hours leading up to the military operation and the attack itself. It's Thursday, February 24th.

Anton Troianovski

03:10

This is

Anton Troianovski,

Moscow

bureau chief of

the New York Times

. It's 3.20 a. m

Moscow

time on Thursday, February 24th. We're all wondering could this be it, could this be the night? About 3.5 hours ago, the

Kremlin

put out a statement saying that the

Russian

backed separatists in

Eastern Ukraine

had asked the

Kremlin

for military help, but this feels like that type of moment that we've been waiting for, a pretext for an invasion. And yeah, so it's such an unsettling feeling. Walking through my neighbourhood in central

Moscow

tonight, it looked totally normal. Everyone was just going about their business, restaurants are full. And to think we could be on the verge of a horrific war is still, I think not, not something that people can imagine. So for now I'm staying up, all my colleagues in

Ukraine

are staying up, and we just have to wait.

Sabrina Tavernise

04:39

It's 1:51 a. m. in

Kyiv

Ukraine

. This country's president just gave a live address to his own nation and to the nation of

Russia

04:56

In the beginning, he says that he called

President Vladimir Putin

the President of The

Russian

Federation

. And he said, quote, "The result was silence." And then he said, "As a result, I want to address all of the citizens of

Russia

. I am speaking to you, not as a president, I speak to you as a citizen of

Ukraine

. We are separated by more than 2000 km of mutual borders along which 200,000 of your soldiers and 1000 armoured vehicles are standing. Your leadership has approved their step forward into the territory of another country. This step, this step could be the beginning of a big war on the European continent."

05:42

It was really striking speech in which he essentially appealed to

Russians,

to their sense of conscience, and told them that what they were getting on their televisions was completely different version of the country he knew as

Ukraine

. He said, "You were told we are nazis, but how can people support nazis that gave more than eight million lives for the victory over

Nazism

06:09

"You were told we hate

Russian

culture. How can one hate a culture? Any culture? Neighbours always enrich each other culturally. However, that does not make them a single hole. It doesn't dissolve us into you. We are different but that's not a reason to be enemies."

06:30

"Note, I'm speaking to you now in the

Russian

language, but no one in

Russia

understands what I'm talking about."

06:45

"Many of you have been in

Ukraine

. Many of you have relatives in

Ukraine

. Some studied in

Ukrainian

universities. You know

Ukraine

. Listen to yourselves. Listen to the voice of reason. The people of

Ukraine

want peace. The authorities in

Ukraine

want peace. They want it and they're doing everything they can for it."

07:11

"We don't need war. But if we are attacked, if someone attempts to take away our land, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. We won't attack but defend ourselves. By attacking you'll see our faces, not our backs, our faces."

07:37

"I know this speech of mine won't be shown on Russian TV, but the people of Russia need to see it. They need to know the truth. The truth is that this must be stopped before it is too late. And if the leadership of

Russia

does not want to sit down at a table for peace with us, then maybe it will sit down at a table with you. Do

Russians

want war? I would very much like the answer to this question, but the answer depends only on you, the citizens of the

Russian

federation."

Anton Troianovski

08:24

So, an hour or two after the

Kremlin

made that announcement about the separatists, another remarkable thing happened, which is that

President Zelenskyy

Ukraine

released a speech, a video address in the

Russian

language, to

Russians

. And it was really something to watch you know. Really felt like a last ditch appeal for peace,

Zelenskyy

telling

Russians

that they're the only ones who can stop this horrific bout of violence from breaking out that

Zelenskyy

said could kill tens of thousands of people. But of course, the fact is they can't really influence it. They can't really influence anything in this country. It's a country run by

President Putin

Sabrina Tavernise

09:28

It's 3:28 a. m. The hotel's quiet. I gonna open the window. The rain stopped. The lights in the city are still on. I'm gonna get some sleep.

Michael Barbaro

09:59

We'll be right back.

Break

12:02

It's 6:20 a. m in

Moscow

. Just a few minutes ago,

Putin

went on national television in the middle of the night to essentially all but declare war against

Ukraine

. He said he had ordered a special military operation to, quote, "Demilitarize and denazify the country." He said he wanted to bring

Ukrainian

officials, who the

Russians

call

Neo-nazis

to justice. It's something obviously I'm still processing. He called on

Ukrainian

soldiers to lay down their arms, and he threatened that any other countries who tried to interfere would face consequences, quote-unquote, "Unlike they've never seen before in their history."

Sabrina Tavernise

13:06

It's 5:09 am. I just heard an alert on my phone and it sounds like it started. There's a strange green light directly out of my window, I can see it on this horizon. I can't hear anything here in

Kyiv

. I'm seeing my colleagues send little recordings.

Michael Schwirtz

13:34

This is Michael Schwirtz.

Sabrina Tavernise

13:35

Saying it's begun.

Michael Schwirtz

13:36

I'm a reporter with the

New York Times

reporting from

Slaviansk

. I was just woken up by two very large booms. It seems like the neighbouring city of

Kramatorsk

is under some kind of fire. Still waiting to confirm this.

Sabrina Tavernise

13:50

It looks like explosions.

Michael Schwirtz

13:54

Rocket or artillery attacks right now in

Kyiv

, the outskirts of

Kyiv

and-

Sabrina Tavernise

14:01

Kharkiv.

Michael Schwirtz

14:01

Kharkiv, which is a large city a little ways to the north of me.

Sabrina Tavernise

14:05

I'm seeing other reports, several major cities.

Michael Schwirtz

14:10

What's happening, but there was definitely some kind of artillery or rocket attack on the city of

Kramatorsk

this morning, about 10 or 15 minutes from where I am right now. There were reporters from the BBC, in the city, who confirmed that there was some kind of attack. There are other reports of...

Sabrina Tavernise

14:28

Oh my God, this is actually happening.

14:48

There was a very loud explosion just now. 5:37 a. m. The same spot over the horizon, it's glowing red.

15:06

I'm watching reports from other cities. Here's one from

Mariupol'

by a journalist.

15:15

Very loud explosions over the city of Mariupol'. It's a city on the southern coast really close to

Russia

. There's just no way that

Ukraine

can fight this off.

Russia's

military is overwhelmingly stronger. It's just like they're coming in and attacking and I'm just not sure how long

Ukraine

will be able to hold this off if, at all.