AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
FRA
GER
ESP
ITA
NLD
PRT
SWE
GRC
IND
POL
BRA
ZAF
RUS
CHN
UAE
Highlights
- The war is in its second week and Russian troops have entered Ukraine on all fronts.
- Putin has time and again emphasised on saying that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia.
- In November 2021, Putin decided to go all out but kept denying his plans to invade Ukraine.
“I have made the decision to carry out a special military operation”, were the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin as he invaded Ukraine. But is it just a special military operation? The war is in its second week and Russian troops have entered Ukraine on all fronts. All the cities have been attacked, including the capital city Kyiv. Over half a million Ukrainians have been forced to flee while many are still hiding in bunkers, basements, metro stations across the country, waiting for the war to come to an end. Europe is witnessing one of its largest wars since World War II.
Putin has time and again emphasised on saying that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia. He believes that Ukraine and Russia are one nation and hence here is his attempt to make that happen.
While the two countries share a history, Ukraine has fought hard to have its own identity. The Russian Revolution brought down the empire in 1917 and Ukraine was taken over by the Soviet Union after a brief phase of independence. By late 1991, Ukraine began declaring its independence from Soviet rule. Belarus and Ukraine were inclined to join NATO for a long time and that is what made them the prime target for Russia.
Ukraine became a NATO partner in 1994 and in 2013, it decided to sign an agreement with the European Union. But Ukraine suspended its talks on the EU trade pact because of pressure from its pro-Russian government. Protesters saying ‘Ukraine is Europe’ gained steam during that time and the Ukrainian President was voted out. During that time, Putin started losing his influence over Ukraine and that is when he started taking a tough stance against Ukraine. Putin invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and then Russia-backed separatists captured the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. These regions were then declared independent, and Putin has since then kept these regions to destabilise Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians got displaced and thousands were killed in this move.
In November 2021, Putin decided to go all out but kept denying his plans to invade. Satellite images showing military placement at the border of Ukraine were reported and weeks later, Putin presented a list of his demands. He wanted NATO to go back to its military borders as they were in 1997 and stop expanding. But NATO rejected his demands and that is when Putin decided to act.
Military operations were conducted in Belarus. On 23 February, there were reports of Ukraine imposing state of emergency and President Zelensky made an appeal to the Russian people. Hours later, what was feared, happened. On 24 February, Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine. The attack was called barbaric by world leaders. Warnings to Russia poured in – “Putin chose this war and now he will bear the consequences,” said US President Joe Biden.
NATO’s response force has been activated for the first time in history as Russia holds the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. Putin has warned that anyone who came in his way would bear the consequences that had never been seen in the history. Countries have started imposing the harshest economic sanctions on Russia, but all of that has been unsuccessful in stopping Putin. Russian forces continue to move into Ukraine, which is now fighting back with zeal.
