lkpmakers.blogg.se

The invasion began on the morning of 24 February, when Putin announced a "special military operation" to " demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine. The following day, the Federation Council of Russia authorised the use of military force abroad, and Russian troops overtly entered both territories. On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, two self-proclaimed statelets in Donbas controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The United States and others accused Russia of planning to attack or invade Ukraine, which Russian officials repeatedly denied as late as 23 February 2022. Russia demanded NATO cease expansion and bar Ukraine from ever joining the alliance permanently.

Putin also said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) constitutes a threat to Russia's national security by expanding eastward since the early 2000s, which NATO disputed.

In a broadcast shortly before the invasion, Russian president Vladimir Putin espoused irredentist views, questioned Ukraine's right to statehood, and falsely accused Ukraine of being governed by neo-Nazis who persecute the ethnic Russian minority. In 2021, Russia began a large military build-up along its border with Ukraine, amassing up to 190,000 troops along with their equipment. Russia subsequently annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatists seized part of the south-eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, sparking a war there.

The invasion marked a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. The invasion has triggered Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, with more than 4.6 million Ukrainians leaving the country and a quarter of the population displaced. Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022 in an internationally condemned act of aggression.