Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a special military operation in Ukraine’s Donbas region early Thursday and told the Ukrainian military to lay down their arms and go home.

In a special speech televised on Russian state television, Putin said Russia has been left with no choice but to defend itself against what he says are threats from modern-day Ukraine.

The scope of the Russian military operation was not immediately clear. A Reuters reporter in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, heard explosions that sounded like artillery shelling in the distance.

Putin said that Russia would respond instantly if any outside force tried to interfere in his actions and that Moscow would try to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine.

Putin’s comments come after the United States said Russia had deployed nearly 150,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders and after Russian-backed separatists asked him for military help against what they said was mounting Ukrainian aggression. .

Kiev has denied any such aggression.

“All responsibility for the bloodshed will fall on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine,” Putin told state television.

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