2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, its neighbour to the southwest, marking a dramatic escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014.

The invasion was preceded by a Russian military build-up that started in early 2021, during which Russian president Vladimir Putin criticized NATO's post-1997 enlargement as a threat to his country's security and demanded that Ukraine be legally prohibited from joining the military alliance; he also expressed irredentist views.  On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, two self-proclaimed states in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, and sent troops to the territories. The following day, the Russian Federation Council unanimously authorised Putin to use military force outside Russia's borders.

Around 05:00 EET (UTC+2) on 24 February, Putin announced a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine; minutes later, missiles began to hit locations across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv.  The Ukrainian Border Service said that its border posts with Russia and Belarus were attacked.  Two hours later, Russian ground forces entered the country.  Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded by enacting martial law, severing diplomatic ties with Russia, and ordering general mobilisation.  The invasion received widespread international condemnation, including new sanctions imposed on Russia, while anti-war protests in Russia were met with mass arrests.

The invasion has been described as the largest conventional military attack on European soil since World War II.

Post-Soviet context and Orange Revolution

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine and Russia maintained close ties.  In 1994, Ukraine agreed to abandon its nuclear arsenal; it signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances on the condition that Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) would provide assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. Five years later, Russia was one of the signatories of the Charter for European Security, which "reaffirmed the inherent right of each and every participating State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements, including treaties of alliance, as they evolve".

In 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, then prime minister, was declared the winner of the presidential elections, which had been largely rigged, according to a Supreme Court of Ukraine ruling.  The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, who challenged the outcome. During the tumultuous months of the revolution, candidate Yushchenko suddenly became gravely ill, and was soon found by multiple independent physician groups to have been poisoned by TCDD dioxin.  Yushchenko strongly suspected Russian involvement in his poisoning.  All of this eventually resulted in the peaceful Orange Revolution, bringing Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power, while casting Yanukovych in opposition.

In 2008, Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke out against Ukraine's potential accession to NATO.  In 2009, Romanian analyst Iulian Chifu and his co-authors opined that with regard to Ukraine, Russia has pursued an updated version of the Brezhnev Doctrine, a Cold War policy of Soviet intervention in the countries of the Soviet sphere of influence during the late 1980s and early 1990s.  In 2009, Yanukovych announced his intent to again run for president in the 2010 presidential election, which he won.

Ukrainian revolution and the Donbas war

The Euromaidan protests began in 2013 over the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the signing of the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Following weeks of protests, Yanukovych and the leaders of the Ukrainian parliamentary opposition signed a settlement agreement on 21 February 2014 that called for an early election. The following day, Yanukovych fled from Kyiv ahead of an impeachment vote that stripped him of his powers as president.  Leaders of the Russian-speaking eastern regions of Ukraine declared continuing loyalty to Yanukovych, causing the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine.  The unrest was followed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014 and the War in Donbas, which started in April 2014 with the creation of the Russia-backed quasi-states of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

On 14 September 2020, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved Ukraine's new National Security Strategy, "which provides for the development of the distinctive partnership with NATO with the aim of membership in NATO."  On 24 March 2021, Zelenskyy signed the Decree No. 117/2021, approving the "strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol."

In July 2021, Putin published an essay titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he re-affirmed his view that Russians and Ukrainians were "one people".  American historian Timothy Snyder described Putin's ideas as imperialism.  British journalist Edward Lucas described it as historical revisionism.  Other observers have described the Russian leadership as having a distorted view of modern Ukraine and its history.

Russia has said that a possible Ukrainian accession to NATO and the NATO enlargement in general threaten its national security.  In turn, Ukraine and other European countries neighbouring Russia accused Putin of attempting Russian irredentism and of pursuing aggressive militaristic policies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine