Why has Russia invaded Ukraine?

15-03-2022 · 7 min for reading

The Russia-Ukraine war began on February 20, 2014

When Ukrainian president Viktor Yanokuvych refused to sign the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union in November 2013, the citizens of Ukraine stage a demonstration in Kiev's central square, which goes down in history as the Euromaidan. This event becomes a real turning point in the history of Ukraine.

After 4 months of Euromaidan, the Russian army enters Ukraine in the east under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine (war in Donbass), and Russia annexes Ukrainian Crimea under the pretext of protecting the Crimean Tatars from the Ukrainian regime.

On February 22, 2014, the current president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, leaves his post early and flees to Russia. Through elections, on May 25, 2014, Petro Poroshenko become a new president.

The inaction of the incumbent president leads to the fact that, after 8 years of war in Donbass, Russia begins to increase its military presence on the Russian-Ukrainian borders. The Ukrainian army cannot give a decent response to Russian soldiers. It seems that the government is not interested in ending the war in Donbass and returning Crimea to Ukraine. On April 21, 2019, another seventh Ukrainian presidential election is taking place. With a majority of Ukrainian votes (73%), Vladimir Zelensky become a new president.

The military conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues to gain momentum. The Russian army is building up its military forces on the borders and Russian President Vladimir Putin openly declares that he plans to attack Ukraine. His words are not taken seriously by the civilized world of Europe.

At 4 a.m. on February 24, 2022, absolutely everyone in Ukraine wakes up to the explosions that sounded in all cities of Ukraine. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Russian-Ukrainian war, which in the Russian media was called the "special operation in Ukraine to liberate Donbass," has begun.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's initial goals were to occupy all of Ukraine in three days.

However, the Ukrainian troops, as well as the Ukrainian people, together with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, showed a decent response to the Russian army. It was not possible to take Ukraine in three days.

In the first months of the war, the Russian army failed in its attempt to take major cities such as Kiev and Kharkov. Later, they also had to retreat from the north of the Kiev region and liberate previously occupied territories in northern Ukraine (Bucha, Gostomel, and others).

The number of civilians killed by the Russian army in northern Ukraine is in the tens of hundreds.

However, nothing compares with the horror that the Russian army caused in the south of Ukraine, in the large industrial city of Mariupol.

About 23,000 civilians were found in mass graves simply in the city of Mariupol itself.

The humanitarian disaster in cities and villages, the lack of water, electricity, gas, fuel, tens of thousands of killed Ukrainian civilians - all these are the results of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

However, the united Ukrainian people will not be broken. The Ukrainian army is fighting back adequately against Russian soldiers. Thanks to the help of the European Union and the United States, the Ukrainian army is receiving modern weapons and equipment and financial aid, enabling it to deoccupy Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army and greatly increasing the chances of the Ukrainian army winning the Russo-Ukrainian war.

The whole world unites to help Ukraine. Ukraine will definitely win the Russian-Ukrainian war that started so suddenly, on February 24, 2022.

Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Ukrainian soldiers!