【明報專訊】The crisis in Ukraine has taken a sharp turn for the worse, as Russia has launched a ''special military operation''. Fire and smoke are rising in Eastern Ukraine, and military facilities and airports in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and other places have been under heavy shelling. The West has condemned Russia for instigating a full-blown war, while Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that he is simply supporting the separatist ''regimes'' in Eastern Ukraine against their enemies, and his aim is to demilitarise Ukraine rather than to occupy it.