DEEP DIVE — The first bulletins hit late in the evening of February 23, 2022 in the U.S., and just before dawn on the 24th in eastern Europe: Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine; Russia was firing missiles and dropping bombs on Ukrainian cities; and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had announced a “special military operation” to “protect the people” of eastern Ukraine from what he called a “genocide” being carried out by the “Nazi” government in Kyiv. The “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine were Putin’s reasons for launching the invasion, he said, though he also said his troops were entering Ukraine as “peacekeepers.”
It was a parade of falsehoods backed by massive force – the beginning of the largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
