in the year 2014 Russia annexed Crimea in the war known as Ukrainian Revolution where the Russian-backed paramilitaries seized part of the Donbas region of south-eastern Ukraine, which consists of Donetsk oblasts and Luhansk which started a regional war.
by March 2021 upto 190,000 troops from Russia began a large military build-up along its border with Ukraine but they denied any plans to invade or attack Ukraine up to the day before the invasion.Fast forward to 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognized Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic , two self-proclaimed breakaway quasi-states in the Donbas. The next day, the Federation Council of Russia authorized the use of military force and Russian troops entered both territories.
What You Didn’t Know About the True Reasons for the War in Ukraine
The Russian invasionof Ukraine began on the morning of 24 February, where Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” whose purpose was for the “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of Ukraine. President Putin in his address challenged Ukraine’s right to statehood and claimed Ukraine was governed by neo-Nazis who persecuted the ethnic Russian minority.
What followed was missiles, rockets and airstrikes across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, followed by a large ground invasion from multiple directions. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted martial law and a general mobilisation in response.
Russian attacks were initially launched on a northern front from Belarus towards Kyiv, and north-eastern front towards Kharkiv, a southern front from Crimea, and a south-eastern front from Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russia’s advance towards Kyiv stalled in March, with Russian troops retreating from the northern front by April. On the southern and south-eastern fronts, Russia captured Kherson in March and then Mariupol in May after a siege. On 19 April, Russia launched a renewed attack on the Donbas region, with Luhansk Oblast fully captured by 3 July.
What You Didn’t Know About the True Reasons for the War in Ukraine
Russian forces continued to bomb both military and civilian targets far from the frontline. Ukrainian forces launched counter offensives in the south in August, and in the northeast in September, successfully recapturing the majority of Kharkiv Oblast. Soon after, Russia announced the illegal annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian oblasts. In the course of the southern counteroffensive, Ukraine retook Kherson in November.
The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and caused Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II, with an estimated 8 million people being displaced within the country by late May as well as 7.8 million Ukrainians fleeing the country as of 8 November 2022. After five weeks of the invasion, Russia experienced its greatest emigration since the 1917 October Revolution. The invasion has also caused global food shortages.
The invasion has received widespread international condemnation with the United Nations General Assembly passing a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full withdrawal of Russian forces.The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to suspend military operations and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia, as well as on its ally Belarus, which have affected the economies of Russia and the world. They have provided humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, totaling over $80B from 40 countries as of August 2022.
Protests occurred around the world; those in Russia were met with mass arrests and increased media censorship, including a ban on the words “war” and “invasion”. Over 1,000 companies have pulled out of Russia and Belarus in response to the invasion and The International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into crimes against humanity in Ukraine since 2013, including war crimes in the 2022 invasion.
