The Russia Ukraine War Simplified

2022 is nearing its end, but the age-old conflict that has triggered a war again between Russia and Ukraine seems likely to bash into 2023 as well. It has been more than half a year since the two nations entered into a war with each other. We are hearing new updates regarding the Russia Ukraine war every single day. There is a lot of complex history that is at play here. Many of us even today remain to be clueless about why this war has drawn undivided global attention. 

Let’s get to know the complex Russia Ukraine War in a simplified manner.

As of 2022, the tension between the two countries started to soar in the month of February when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military troops into the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, collectively known as the Donbas region and recognised them as independent states.

One-third of the Donbas region is controlled by the Russian-backed separatist forces while the Ukrainian forces control two-thirds of the area. 

On 24th February, Putin ordered the launching of a full-scale assault on Ukraine. The Russian military attacked from Belarus to the north, the occupied Crimea Peninsula to the south and its own soil to the east. In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered a general mobilisation and martial law.

Russian air strikes, serious invasions, artillery attacks on populated urban areas, and frequent threats of launching nuclear weapons have become common in Ukraine. These attacks have killed thousands of civilians till now. 

Now the question is, what does Putin want? What triggered the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

Russia and Ukraine both, draw their lineage from a Slavic (European ethnic group) state earlier known as Kyivan Rus (present-day Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital). It was ruled by the Grand Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir in Russian and Volodimer in Ukrainian) between 980-1015. Kyivan Rus is known to be the birthplace of both countries. Thus, the two countries’ shared heritage goes back more than a thousand years. This is exactly what makes Russian President Vladimir Putin say, that Russia and Ukraine are ‘one’, negating Ukraine’s independent sovereignty altogether. Interesting observation is that both the current presidents of Russia and Ukraine carry the same name, i.e Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

Although a lot of events have unfolded in the past between the two countries, for most of it, Ukraine has remained under Russian rule. In the 1900s both Russia and Ukraine were soviet republics, with Russia being the strongest soviet republic out of the 15 and Ukraine being the second strongest. 

Ukraine was a wealthy republic home to rich agricultural lands, defence industries, and a huge amount of collective Soviet nuclear arsenal. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union or USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), every soviet nation became independent including Russia as well as Ukraine. After the collapse, Ukraine inherited the nuclear arsenal which was the world’s third-largest. It however agreed to relinquish and transfer all nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for a guarantee of security from Russia and a promise to respect its sovereignty. 

To ensure this promise was respected, the Budapest Memorandum was signed in 1994 between Ukraine, Russia, the UK, the US, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It is a document assuring Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

Russia however, openly violated this memorandum, when in 2014 it annexed Crimea. Crimea is a peninsula located in the black sea. It was earlier a part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic but was later transferred to Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954 by a soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a gift. This was done with the hope that it would strengthen brotherly ties between the Russian and Ukraine people. Both nations being a part of the Soviet Union, this transfer did not mean much at that time. 

However, after Ukraine became independent in 1991 post the collapse of the USSR, Crimea chose to remain with Ukraine and was given special autonomy. It was also home to Russian military bases. Russia promised to protect Crimea’s autonomy. 

So why did Russia annexe Crimea even after accepting its autonomous status? 

In 2014, the former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, known to be openly pro-Russia, was ousted, his government toppled after mass protests broke out in the country. The protests were held against Yanukovych for refusing to sign a trade deal with European Union which had great potential for Ukraine’s integration with the EU. Instead, the former president took a $15 billion bailout from Russia. This angered the Ukrainians making them feel sold to Russia. 

The violent mass protest made Yanukovych flee from the country. Some Ukrainians weren’t happy about this. The Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the East felt disenfranchised. Falling of Yanukovych also angered Russia as it had lost its puppet and indirect control of Ukraine. 

To balance out this loss, Russia carried out the annexation of Crimea. The Russian military began seizing government buildings in Crimea and gradually the whole of the peninsula was under military occupation. Soon a referendum was conducted when the Crimeans voted to become a part of Russia. Vladimir Putin considered this development as the liberation of Crimea. Ukraine and the rest of the world saw this as Crimea’s annexation. 

Following this, Russia’s focus shifted to Eastern Ukraine where Russia-backed separatists, as mentioned earlier, exercised control over one-third of the Donbas region. In July 2014, the Ukrainian military force decided to flush out these separatist rebels as a response to their attack on a Malaysian flight carrying 298 civilians. This is when the Russian army stepped in as the rebels were losing ground. The Russian army invaded Eastern Ukraine. 

It is important to know that Eastern Ukraine is closer to Russia whereas Western Ukraine is more European, both geographically and in sentiment.  

In order to curb the rising tension between the two countries, Minsk Agreement was signed in 2014 where both sides agreed upon a ceasefire, military withdrawal and election in the rebel-held areas. This agreement, however, stays unimplemented even today. 

Apart from wanting to revive the Russian Empire, which includes acquiring Ukraine based on past imperialism, Putin also wants NATO to stop expanding eastwards.  

Now, what is NATO? Well, it plays an extremely prominent role in the Russia Ukraine war.

NATO or North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a military alliance of liberal nations formed in 1949 by 12 countries, which includes the US, and the UK. As per the treaty, NATO members agreed to help one another if any one of them come under armed attack. Its main goal was to counter any form of future aggression from the USSR. It also aimed at pushing back the rise of communism which was practised by the Soviet Union. 

Russia thus saw NATO as its threat and created a Warsaw Pact in 1955 to counter NATO. Russia had a strong reason too, to sign this pact. It had faced five major invasions from the west. Thus to protect its interest, Russia signed the pact with the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and the German Democratic Republic. Just like NATO, as a part of the pact, if any ally of the pact was attacked, all the members would extend support. 

NATO kept its expansion in the east going and went on to offer memberships even to the former Soviet republics, something that Putin was against. 

It was in 1990 when former US President George H W Bush promised Russia that it would stop expanding further if it let Germany become a NATO member, did Russia demolish the Warsaw Pact. Nevertheless, NATO didn’t stop. This was a stab in the back of Russia. 

The very recent expansion by NATO was making Montenegro and North Macedonia its member between 2017- 2020. Both these nations are located in Russia’s backyard. In 2021 as well, NATO announced the names of a few more aspiring members which included Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Sweden, Finland, Serbia and Ukraine. Ukraine has time and again expressed its choice of joining NATO and has been waiting to be a member since 2008. It was promised membership.

NATO has invited countries which fall on Russian borders, to be members of an anti-Russian alliance which is a serious provocation. All of the numerous factors combined have led to an escalation of the Russia Ukraine war. Putin is now seeking China’s support which is happy to do so. 

The current actions by Russia do not justify its criminal attacks on Ukraine and the attempt of a forceful takeover. Wanting to win over a sovereign country based on past imperialism is wrong. War is not the correct way to go about things. However, a question that must be posed is, isn’t the west equally responsible for the Russia Ukraine war running into extremity as is Vladimir Putin himself?