Foreign Affairs

Russian Journalist Says There’s No Invasion As Video Plays Showing Russia Invading Ukraine

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A Russian journalist denied her country was invading Ukraine during an interview with i24NEWS, while footage of the invasion played beside her.

“Let’s get one thing straight, you’re saying troops, however, there has not been any proof of actual troops going into Ukraine,” Moscow journalist Tatiana Kukhareva said on Thursday. Because of this, she said Russia’s actions could not be called an “invasion” and that her government was only attacking  “military targets” through airstrikes.

Footage of Russian tanks in Ukraine began playing while Kukhareva spoke, which she did address.

“What you’re showing now, those, unfortunately, the pictures that … cannot be verified that those are troops going into Ukraine,” she said. “There is no verification.”

CNN’s Matthew Chance documented Russian troops taking over an airport just 15 miles outside of Ukraine’s capital on Thursday morning.

“We are here at the Antonov airport, which is about 25 kilometers, 15 miles or so out of the center. These troops you can see over here, they are Russian airborne forces,” Chance said. “They have taken this airport.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of two separatist-controlled regions in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday and deployed troops to the territories under the pretext of “peacekeeping functions.”

On Thursday morning, Putin announced Russia would begin “a special military operation in Donbas,” which was followed minutes later by reports of explosions in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Putin said he did not want to occupy Ukraine but “demilitarize and de-Nazify” it.