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NBC says: Putin orders troops to eastern Ukraine, drawing condemnation at emergency U.N. meeting, but I don't see how they got the information.

Swissinfo says: Russian military will only enter Ukraine's Donbass if separatists ask - official

A Reuters witness saw columns of military vehicles including tanks early on Tuesday on the outskirts of Donetsk, the capital of one of the two breakaway regions, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised them as independent states.
The Reuters reporter saw about five tanks in a column on the edge of the city and two more in another part of town. No insignia were visible.

Is there a source for "Putin ordered" and any evidence that the "invasion" has started (beyond this sighting of a few unidentified tanks).
(It seems that aid from Russia has now been requested, but the troops have not yet been given orders.)

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    Uh, besides Putin's own statements where he said that he was spending soldiers there for "peacekeeping"?
    – Obie 2.0
    Commented Feb 23, 2022 at 21:08
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    Also, even ignoring Putin's various decrees, tanks in Eastern Ukraine can only be from Russia or Ukraine itself, and given that the separatists control that region and are backed up by Putin, I think we can safely that Ukraine did not suddenly retake the area after years of fruitless conflict without anyone noticing.
    – Obie 2.0
    Commented Feb 23, 2022 at 21:12
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    @Obie 2.0 Sefdeclared republics have tanks as well.
    – convert
    Commented Feb 23, 2022 at 21:19
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    This map collects reported conflicts, with links to sources and video evidence where possible.
    – Rebecca J. Stones
    Commented Feb 24, 2022 at 4:07
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    I’m voting to close this question because the situation is changing too quickly for any posted answer to be meaningful, and the answer to the question will be obvious (one way or another) after the fact.
    – Bobson
    Commented Feb 24, 2022 at 16:13

1 Answer 1

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Putin's own words are that he approved "special military operations" in Ukraine:

TASS 24 FEB, 07:55

Putin declares beginning of military operation in Ukraine

Russia has begun a military operation in Ukraine following a request from the authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics for assistance in repelling Kiev’s military aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in urgent address on Thursday. [...]

After that there followed reports of sounds of explosions in a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kiev and Kharkov. TASS has summarized the latest news regarding the situation.

Military operation

After a message from the Donbass republics Putin made a decision to conduct a "special military operation."

Also, the latest headline on TASS right now is that:

Top brass reveals 74 Ukrainian military facilities were crippled by Russia’s strikes

More than 70 ground infrastructure facilities belonging to Ukraine were incapacitated by strikes carried out by Russia’s Armed Forces, Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Thursday.

If you're looking for confirmation from the Russian side of a ground invasion, that (confirmation) has yet to materialize.

On the other hand, Western media already reports (at least) a 3-pronged attack, around Kharkiv in the North, and Kerhson in the South https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60506682

If you'd rather trust Chinese media, they also report ground fighting around Kharkiv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kih7g9XR-8c

Also, this is not on TASS (in English) yet, but AP reports that Russia has confirmed invading/taking Kherson, at least:

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that its ground forces have moved into Ukraine from Crimea, the first confirmation from Moscow that its ground forces have moved in.

Russia previously said only that it unleashed air and missile strikes on Ukrainian air bases, air defense batteries and other military facilities. The ministry said it has destroyed 83 Ukrainian military facilities.

For the first time since the start of the action, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov confirmed the Russian ground troops had rolled into Ukraine, saying they advanced toward the city of Kherson, northwest of Crimea.

Kherson sits on reservoir providing the bulk of fresh water for Crimea until Ukraine cut it off with a dam in 2017 in response to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Konashenkov said that the Russian troops’ move allowed to resume water supply to Crimea.

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  • I expected that the US would make some kind of diplomatic offer, even if just not to put nuclear missiles on Russia's border. I might ask if anything is known about that.
    – Keith McClary
    Commented Feb 24, 2022 at 20:39
  • @KeithMcClary - It's kind of hard to remove nuclear missiles that are not there. There are missiles in Poland and Romania, I believe: neither country borders Russia. In addition, at this point is rather untenable to believe that Putin is only concerned about NATO. He is quite clear that he believes the Ukrainian government is illegitimate and that Ukraine should be part of Russia.
    – Obie 2.0
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 2:17
  • I said the US could promise not to, but they didn't even do that AFAIK, although they don't want them in Cuba.
    – Keith McClary
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 3:25
  • @KeithMcClary: according to Western media, Russian media has been significantly censoring the scale of their own operations in Ukraine edition.cnn.com/videos/media/2022/02/24/…
    – got trolled too much this week
    Commented Feb 25, 2022 at 21:07

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