Putin's invasion of Ukraine speech in the context of "Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine"

"Special military operation" (also "special operation", and abbreviated as "SMO" or "SVO", or Russian: спецопера́ция, romanized: spetsoperatsiya, Ukrainian: спецопера́ція) is the official term used by the Russian government to describe the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is widely considered a euphemism intended to minimize the invasion and obfuscate the war's original objective of annexing all Russophone regions of Ukraine. Russia bans the use of the terms "war" or "invasion" in referring to its invasion of Ukraine, as well as discussion of the censorship itself.

The expression appears prominently in the public address by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, released on 24 February 2022.

"Address concerning the events in Ukraine" (Russian: Обращение по поводу событий на Украине, romanized: Obrashcheniye po povodu sobyty na Ukraine) was a televised address by Russian president Vladimir Putin, broadcast on 21 February 2022, announcing that the Russian government would recognise the Ukrainian separatist regions of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent. During the speech, Putin also made a number of claims regarding Ukrainian history and Ukrainian domestic politics. Genocide experts, historians and other experts have shown these claims to be false and possibly justifying a genocide. The speech, which marked a significant escalation in the culminating Russo-Ukrainian crisis, was followed three days later by another speech declaring "a special military operation" in Ukraine—announcing the Russian invasion of Ukraine,which began minutes later.