CNN’s Matthew Chance On The Start Of The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine: “The Question We Should Be Looking At Now Is, Where Does This Stop?
deadline.comCNN’s Matthew Chance was live, on air, from the rooftop terrace of a hotel in Kyiv at 5:07 AM local time on Thursday when he first reported the sound of explosions.
He told viewers at that he didn’t know exactly what the blast was, but put on a flak jacket and helmet. Soon there was confirmation from Ukrainian officials: The Russian attack had begun.Chance said that, based on intel from Ukrainian sources, an attack was expected even earlier in the morning, “so we were all prepared, ready to go live, waiting for these air strikes to happen,” he told Deadline in an afternoon phone interview. “The deadline had passed, but within minutes, astonishingly, the missiles started to fly.
I stood there for many, many hours, all night, in fact. I stopped counting after about 20 cruise missile salvos. I lost count after that.”The Russians were attacking airports and air bases on the outskirts of Kyiv, in what may be a prelude to an attempt to move into the city itself.U.S.
officials have warned of a Russian invasion for weeks, yet Chance, senior international correspondent based in Moscow, said that he still was surprised by President Vladimir Putin’s speech announcing military action, followed soon after by the sounds of blasts in Kyiv and other cities.“I was shocked when he announced, in that forthright way, that he was basically going to war against Ukraine,” Chance said. “And then the fact that the airstrikes started within minutes of that speech ending, shows you carefully choreographed this whole exercise had been.”He added, “Up until last night, I sort of thought Putin was a rational actor.
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