By air, land, and sea, Russia has attacked Ukraine, a European democracy with a population worth 44 million.
For months, Russian President, Vladimir Putin denied claims that he would invade his neighbour, Ukraine. But, Putin tore up a peace deal after sending troops across Ukraine’s borders in the north, east and south.
As the number of deaths climbs, Putin is faced with accusations of endangering peace in Europe and what may happen next could jeopardise the continent’s entire security structure.
Where have Russian Troops Attacked and why?
Airports and military headquarters were hit first, near cities in Ukraine, including the Boryspil International Airport in Kyiv.
This followed tanks and troops rolled into Ukraine in the north-east, near Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million people in the east near Luhansk, and neighbouring Belarus in the north. Additionally, Russian troops landed in Ukraine’s big port cities of Odesa and Mariupol.
Before the invasion began, President Putin declared on TV that Russia could not feel “safe, develop and exist” because of what he called a constant threat from modern Ukraine.
Many of Putin’s arguments are alleged to be false or irrational, as he claimed his goal was to protect people subjected to bullying and genocide and aim for the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine. But reports suggest there is no genocide in Ukraine and it is a vibrant democracy led by a Ukrainian President who is Jewish.
“How could I be a Nazi?” says Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who likened Russia’s onslaught to Nazi Germany’s invasion in World War Two.
President Putin frequently accused Ukraine of being taken over by extremists, ever since its pro-Russian President, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted in 2014 after months of protests against his rule. Russia later retaliated when it seized the southern region of Crimea and triggered a rebellion in the east by Russian-backed separatists who fought Ukrainian forces in a war that claimed 14,000 lives.
Later in 2021, Putin deployed big numbers of Russian troops to Ukraine’s borders. This week, the Russian leader scrapped a 2015 peace deal for the east, recognizing areas under rebel control as independent.
Russia resisted Ukraine’s move towards the European Union and the West’s defensive military alliance, NATO. Announcing Russia’s invasion, he accused NATO of threatening “our historic future as a nation”.
What Does Putin Want?
In the weeks and months before the invasion on Thursday, February 24, 2022, Russia spelt out a series of demands for “security guarantees” from the West. Most of them involved NATO. Hence, President Putin partly blamed his decision to attack NATO’s eastward expansion to include Ukraine as an ally.
He had earlier complained Russia has “nowhere further to retreat to – do they think we’ll just sit idly by?”
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, disclosed that: “For us, it’s absolutely mandatory to ensure Ukraine never, ever becomes a member of NATO.”
Other Demands by Putin
Mr. Putin’s other core demands are that NATO should not deploy “strike weapons near Russia’s borders”, and that it should also remove forces and military infrastructure from member states that joined the alliance in 1997.
These member states include: Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Baltics. In reality, Russia wants NATO to return to its pre-1997 borders.
Last year (2021), President Putin wrote a long piece describing Russians and Ukrainians as “one nation”, and he described the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, as the “disintegration of historical Russia”.
According to Putin, modern Ukraine was entirely created by communist Russia and is now a puppet state, controlled by the West. He also argued that if Ukraine is allowed to join NATO, the alliance might try to recapture Crimea.
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