As all eyes turn to Ukraine after the Russian invasion on February 24, it is crucial to understand the context of this event.
Ukraine is a former part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was a socialist state in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. After the Soviet Union was disbanded, Ukraine declared its independence in 1991, beginning the tension between the two countries.
In February 2014, pro-western protests broke out in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. The former President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, rejected economic opportunities involving the European Union, which angered Ukrainian citizens. Putin tried to smooth over the situation by signing a 15 billion dollar deal, including buying a portion of Ukrainian debt and reducing the cost of Russian gas for Ukrainians. This further angered Ukrainians. This led to months of protests and the eventual overthrow of the president, who was replaced with Petro Poroshenko in May 2014.
Russia then invaded and seized the Crimean peninsula, a region off of southern Ukraine home to significant populations of Russian and Ukrainian identifying people.
In September 2015, a ceasefire known as Minsk was signed between Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany. However, in December, Russia still had soldiers in Eastern Ukraine, revealing that Russia was not fully following the agreement. They have continued to back separatist areas like the Donbas region to, in their own words, protect the Russian people living in Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine continues to make an effort to align itself with western countries through actions like appointing another pro-western president and looking to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. However, this very idea is what seems to have sparked the recent conflict in the region.
NATO is an alliance of 30 countries in North America and Europe formed after World War 2 in hopes of ensuring security in the North Atlantic area. If one country in NATO is attacked, it is considered an attack against every member of the organization, and they must send aid, whether it be military or financial. If Ukraine were to join NATO and Russia were to then invade, all of the countries in NATO would immediately come to Ukraine’s defense.
As of now, countries in NATO have been adamant about not sending troops into Ukraine to fight Russia. However, Europe and North America are taking drastic measures - strict sanctions have been imposed on Russia. The goal of these economic sanctions is to hurt Russia’s economy to a point where Putin reconsiders his current attack on Kyiv. One example is stopping the construction of the German oil pipeline supplying lots of oil and money to Russia.
Special forces have been deployed into Poland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, all countries part of NATO, in hopes of preventing Russia from moving further west in the case of additional invasions.
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