Russia has launched a devastating air, land, and sea attack on Ukraine, a European democracy of 44 million people, and its forces are on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.
President Vladimir Putin denied for months that he would invade his neighbor, but then he ripped up a peace deal, sending forces across Ukraine’s borders in the north, east, and south. As the death toll rises, he is accused of shattering Europe’s peace. What happens next could jeopardize the entire security structure of the continent.
Why have Russian troops launched an attack?
Russian troops are closing in on Ukraine’s capital, just days after Russia’s president ordered an all-out invasion from the north, east, and south. In a pre-dawn TV address on February 24, he declared that Russia could not feel “safe, develop, or exist” because of the constant threat posed by modern Ukraine.
Airports and military headquarters were targeted first, followed by tanks and troops arriving from Russia, Russian-annexed Crimea, and ally Belarus.
Many of President Putin’s claims were false or illogical. He stated that his goal was to protect people who had been subjected to bullying and genocide, as well as to “demilitarise and de-Nazify” Ukraine. Ukraine has not experienced genocide; it is a thriving democracy led by a Jewish president.
Russia controls how much of Ukraine?
Since its pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was deposed in 2014 after months of protests, President Putin has frequently accused Ukraine of being taken over by extremists.
Russia then retaliated by seizing Crimea’s southern region and sparking an eastward rebellion, supporting separatists who have fought Ukrainian forces in a war that has claimed 14,000 lives.
Late in 2021, Russia began deploying large numbers of troops near Ukraine’s borders, despite repeatedly denying that it intended to attack. Then, in 2015, Mr. Putin scrapped a peace deal for the east and recognized rebel-held areas as independent.
Russia has long opposed Ukraine’s move toward the European Union, as well as the West’s defensive military posture.
How far is Russia willing to go?
Russia is clearly attempting to destabilize Ukraine’s democratically elected government. Its goal is for Ukraine to be liberated from oppression and “cleansed of Nazis.”
According to President Zelensky, “the enemy has designated me as target number one; my family is target number two.”
This false narrative of a fascist-seized Ukraine in 2014 has been repeated on Kremlin-controlled television on a regular basis. Mr. Putin has stated his intention to bring to justice “those who committed numerous bloody crimes against civilians.” Russia’s plans for Ukraine are unknown, but it will face stiff opposition from a deeply hostile population.
What is the significance of this invasion for Europe?
The people of Ukraine are terrified, and the rest of the continent is horrified, as a major power invades a European neighbor for the first time since World War II.
Hundreds of civilians and soldiers have already died in what Germany has dubbed “Putin’s war.” And for Europe’s leaders, this invasion has been one of the darkest periods since the 1940s.
Emmanuel Macron of France has spoken of a watershed moment in European history, while Germany’s Olaf Scholz has warned that “Putin wants a Russian empire.” Volodymyr Zelensky, recalling the Soviet Union’s Cold War days, spoke of Ukraine’s efforts to prevent a new iron curtain from closing Russia off from the civilised world.