Invasion of Ukraine
On 24th February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin began invading Ukraine and began the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II. Putin called it a “special military operation” but the scale of attack shows its a war with thousand of casualties and more than a million people are forced to flee their homes.
The Russian army were already present on the borders of Ukraine since November 2021. There were speculations that Russia will invade Ukraine in December or January but they didn’t started the attack. So, what stopped them or delayed the attack. There were rumors that China delayed the attack saying that they don’t want any interruptions in Beijing Olympics. Could this be true? Well, we have no facts to prove it but on 20th Feb Olympics ended and the very next day on 21st Feb Putin addresses the entire world saying that in Eastern Ukraine we recognize Donetsk and Luhansk, the two separatist groups, as independent countries. And on 24th Feb starts a full scale invasion on Ukraine.
United States, U.K. and many countries in Europe have started to put one of the toughest economic sanctions on Russia. They have also banned many Russian banks from SWIFT, a global messaging system used by banks. But this is not enough to stop Russia. Russia has warned other countries if they tried to help Ukraine they will unleash Nuclear weapons which will be catastrophe.
History
Ukraine was part of Russian Empire in 18th and 19th century but in 1917, the Russian revolution brought down the empire. Ukraine gained independence but was quickly taken over by soviet union. The USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republic) began expanding in Europe and on the western side the NATO (North Atlantic treaty of Organization) began expanding.
With differences in ideologies and the greed to become the most powerful group started distrust and tension between them which led to the beginning of the most infamous cold war. In 1991, Soviet Union dissolved into 15 independent countries with many countries overthrowing their communist government. But the NATO stood strong and began to expand. In 1999, Poland, Hungary and Czech republic joined NATO. In 2004, seven more countries joined. Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia are now the last post Soviet countries left between NATO and Russia.
While Ukraine and Georgia, both wanted to join NATO from a long time which made them the prime targets of Russia. During 1990s, the relationship between NATO and Ukraine strengthened and in 2013, they were going to sign the association deal with the European Union but when the time came to sign the deal, Ukraine’s pro-Russian government refused. Thousands of people of Ukraine have protested against this, they want their country to be part of NATO and demands that the deal be signed, they took to the streets with slogans like “Ukraine is Europe”.
The people of Ukraine overthrew their government, with Russia loosing political influence over Ukraine. So he decided to use force instead. In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, invaded eastern Ukraine, and backed Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk region and declared them independent of Ukraine. Till date, this has killed more than 14,000 people. And now, Putin has decided to go all the way in.
World leaders have spoken out against the invasion, and sees the invasion as a barbaric and hideous attack. Anti-war protests have broken out around the world including Russia. Neighboring countries have opened their borders and all the world leaders are putting pressure on Russia by putting economic sanctions but the world is treading carefully as Russia has one of the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons and they have warned if any country tries to interfere the consequences will be bad.
The Ukrainian President and Prime minister have not left the country and has decided that they will fight until each and every citizen is safe. Still Ukraine is fighting not just for their democracy or freedom but for their survival. Do you think Putin’s way is right? And threatening the world with nuclear weapons is right? which could result in the complete destruction of our planet. Does he have the right to put into all of humanity’s existence into danger?
