February 24, 2022 is already forever marked on the calendars of History. The date on which Russia launched the , with the clear objective of “demilitarizing and denazifying” a territory that President Vladimir Putin considers “an integral part of Russian history, culture and space.” However, to understand all this, you have to go back further, with a series of key dates since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The end of the USSR
The beginning of the 1990s brought with it the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After long years of decline, the fifteen republics that formed it became independent from March 1990 to December 1991, producing that of Ukraine on August 24, 1991.
Since then, the Ukrainian state has been one of the most politically turbulent given its extreme proximity to the Russian borders (Kiev is located less than 250 kilometers from the border), which has caused pro-Russian sentiments to persist in the country. .. always faced with those citizens who understand that Ukraine is a nation with independent historical and cultural touches.
Yanukovych’s fall
So until in November 2013 and in the umpteenth attempt by Ukraine to get closer to the European Union, as other former Soviet republics have done, the Ukrainian President Víctor Yanukovych -of pro-Russian ideology- suspended the signing of an association agreement with the EU.
This led to protests throughout the country, mainly in university environments, and with the Plaza de la Independencia (Maidán) as a great symbol of discontent. The conflict between pro-Europeans and pro-Russians had only just begun and as a result hundreds of people died throughout the country, forcing Yanukovych to leave Ukraine.
The Crimean conflict
At the same time and once the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) approved the dismissal of the president, at the end of February 2014 armed groups took over the airport on the Crimean peninsula (of strong pro-Russian ideology) and its government headquarters where they hung Russian flags. Putin took advantage of this movement to hold a referendum on annexation to Russia.
The yes wins with 97% of the votes with the EU, the UN and the Ukrainian nationalists branding the consultation as “illegal”. Putin signs, days later, the Crimean Annexation Treaty, which leads to the expulsion of Russia from the G8 (since then the G7).
The Donbas War
As a consequence of everything that happened in Kiev and Crimea, in the Donbas region, in eastern Ukraine, a similar pro-Russian movement broke out in April 2014, which led to the self-proclamation of two independent Ukrainian People’s Republics (Donestk and Lugansk).
Moscow helped the separatists, while the leaders of Germany, Angela Merkel, and France, François Hollande, tried to mediate, achieving the Minsk Agreements (February 2015) with which a ceasefire was agreed… that barely a few months then it breaks leaving conflicts in Donestk and Lugansk since then.
Rapprochement with the EU and NATO
Since then and in recent years, Ukraine has sought to become closer to the European Union, through the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, as well as NATO. Russia, for its part, has understood this as a direct attack on its interests and has always denied the return of Crimea.
With some rapprochement between Washington and Moscow, during the presidency of Donald Trump, Joe Biden’s mandate has revived the controversy between the two powers, which has helped Putin to withdraw his ambassador to the US, as well as to return to launching direct proclamations against the interests of the Atlantic Alliance, which he understands as “a direct attack against the Russian people”.
the invasion of ukraine
Since 2019, with Volodimir Zelinski as president of Ukraine, the tension between the two countries has been increasing. Because of the rapprochement with the West, but also because of Putin’s various speeches denying the Ukrainian state as an independent nation and demanding its return to Russian borders, all the tension has led to the February 2022 attacks.
Prior to this, Russia has carried out different troop approaches and warnings against NATO, while the US and the EU have denounced such events, warning of . With Putin branding the Ukrainian government as “pure Nazis”, it also signed a collaboration agreement with Xi Jinping’s China and, as a mediator in the conflict.
So until February 21 and after mutual bombardments between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russians, Putin deployed the Russian army there. In response, Germany halted the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the US warned that there will be sanctions against Russian companies.
On February 23, Ukraine declared a state of emergency, put all its citizens on notice of a military attack and, hours later (at 4 in the morning of February 24), saw Putin announce the definitive “military operation” on their territories. and, while requesting international support, bombardments were unleashed throughout Ukraine, with a greater focus on kyiv, which have ended up unleashing the current war.
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