Early Thursday morning, the Russian military attacked Ukraine, initiating a large-scale, unprovoked assault that had been predicted for weeks.
The Russian military entered Ukraine from multiple directions, with forces advancing towards Kyiv, the country’s capital, and attacking with airstrikes and shelling. During the combat, dozens of servicemen on both sides, as well as some Ukrainian civilians, were killed, according to Ukrainian authorities.
President Joe Biden and other Western officials have slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions, calling them a breach of international law. Biden announced additional, tougher sanctions against Russia on Thursday afternoon, claiming they were aimed to “maximize the long-term impact on Russia while minimizing the impact on the United States and our partners.”
The period leading up to the conflict
Weeks of intense diplomacy and Western sanctions against Russia failed to deter Putin, who had amassed between 150,000 and 200,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders.
Russia has requested that NATO’s eastward expansion be halted and that Ukraine’s membership in the US-led military alliance be rejected.
Shelling had increased since Monday, when Putin declared two separatist regions independent and ordered the deployment of “peacekeepers,” a move that the West interpreted as the commencement of an invasion.
Western countries and Japan have retaliated by imposing restrictions on Russian banks and persons.
Separatists appealed to Moscow on Wednesday for assistance in stopping purported Ukrainian aggression, which the US condemned as Russian propaganda.
As it looked that Russia was poised to attack, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an emotional speech to the country, warning that the conflict would be “a major calamity.”
WHY EXACTLY IS RUSSIA ATTACKING UKRAINE?
Here are some of Putin’s justifications for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, some of which are untrue, as well as what the US and NATO have said about his motivations.
NATO’s eastward expansion is causing concern.
Putin is concerned about NATO’s (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) expansion into Eastern Europe and former Soviet republics, particularly Ukraine.
NATO is a political and military alliance that was founded in 1949 and now has 30 members, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and many other European countries. Any European country that fits NATO’s standards is eligible to join. Ukraine is one of three aspirant members of the alliance, according to the group.
Since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, Putin has chastised NATO for pushing eastward. He has called NATO’s enlistment of nations on Russia’s borders a provocation, despite NATO’s claims that it is a defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russia.
He said the invasion of Ukraine was an act of self-defense against NATO expansion in a speech on Thursday morning.
He alleges Ukraine is committing genocide against ethnic Russians without evidence.
Vladmir Putin has repeatedly accused Ukraine of genocide and referred to its government as a Nazi dictatorship, despite the fact that neither assertion is supported by evidence.
He proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk, two rebel regions in the Donbas, as independent states on Monday and dispatched Russian forces to conduct a “peacekeeping” mission, a move largely interpreted as a justification for war.
Putin reiterated the charges of genocide in his address announcing the invasion on Thursday, stating he was seeking the “denazification” of Ukraine, a country whose democratically elected leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.
He also incorrectly claims that Ukraine is not a country.
He stated Ukraine was not a real country in a lengthy address on Monday: “Ukraine has never had its own authentic statehood. There has never been a sustainable statehood in Ukraine.”
Despite extensive evidence of Ukrainian culture and history predating the Soviet Union, he claimed Ukraine was established by the Soviet Union under its first leader, Vladimir Lenin. Putin also stated that Ukraine is a Russian territory.
“Let me emphasize once again that Ukraine for us is not just a neighboring country. It is an integral part of our own history, culture, spiritual space,”he stated.
Putin has repeatedly asserted wrongly that Russia granted Ukraine the right to secede, but in fact, the Ukrainian people overwhelmingly opted for independence in a referendum in 1991, according to The Washington Post. 84 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the referendum, with more than 90% voting in support of independence.
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