INTERNATIONAL: Russian President Vladimir Putin has authorized a special military operation in Ukraine's Donbass region in the early hours of Thursday morning ,February 24 and told the Ukrainian military to lay down their weapons and go home.

In a special televised address on Russian state TV, Putin has said Russia has been left with no choice but to defend itself against what he said were threats emanating from modern Ukraine.

The People's Republic of Donbass has asked Russia for help. In this regard, under Article 51, Part 7th of the Charter of the United Nations, with the approval of the Russian State Federal Council, and in accordance with the friendship and mutual assistance treaties with the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, ratified by the Russian parliament on February 22, Putin has decided to conduct a special military operation. It aims to protect people who have been bullied and subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. For that, Russian president has said he will strive to de-militarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine and will bring to justice those who have committed multiple bloody crimes against civilians including Russian citizens.

The scope of the Russian military operation was not immediately clear. In Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, explosions was heard which sounded like artillery shelling in the distance.

Putin has said Russia would respond instantly if any external force tried to interfere with its actions and that Moscow would try to de-militarize and 'de-Nazify' Ukraine.

Putin's comments come after the United States said Russia had stationed nearly 150,000 troops near Ukraine's borders and after Russian-backed separatists appealed to him for military help against what they said was growing Ukrainian aggression.

Kyiv has denied any such aggression.

"All responsibility for bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine," Putin has told state TV.