Russian reporters protest against military operation in Ukraine

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Over a hundred Russian journalists including Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov signed a petition Thursday against Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

In a public address, they said war is never the solution and "there are no excuses for it."

"We, Russian media correspondents and experts who write about Russia's foreign policy, are discussing the military operation launched by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. War has never been and will never be a method of conflict resolution and there are no excuses for it," they said.

The Russian intervention followed Moscow's recognition of the two eastern Ukrainian breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk on Monday.

The announcement drew global condemnation as a violation of the UN Charter and international law, with Western countries announcing new sanctions against Russia.

In 2014, after invading Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Moscow began supporting separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained ever since. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region early Thursday.

Putin's latest move comes after Russia amassed 100,000 troops and heavy equipment near its neighbor, prompting the US and other Western countries to accuse Moscow of preparing for an invasion.

Russia denied that it was preparing for an invasion, instead claiming that the West was undermining its security by expanding NATO to its borders.