Sputnik is live from Donetsk and Lugansk amid the beginning of the special military operation by the Russian forces in Ukraine.
The op was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day. He stressed it was launched to protect the people of Donbass, who were suffering from the eight-year-long war, waged in the region by Kiev, and noted that Russia's goal is demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.
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