President Viktor Yanukovych was elected in 2010. The West (the US and the EU) disapproved because the new president was too close to Russia.
Before Yakunovych’s election, Ukraine was working on an EU-Ukraine FTA. Yanukovych refused to sign the agreement in 2013, preferring closer ties with Russia.
In November 2013, the US sparked a Color Revolution (dubbed Euromaidan) in Ukraine, led by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. Yanukovych fell.
Eastern Ukrainian leaders swore allegiance to Yakunovych. So, in February 2014, anti-government protests erupted, and 97 percent of Crimean voters chose to return the peninsula to Russia. In March 2014, Russia annexed Crimea.
Meanwhile, the post-coup Ukrainian government proposed abolishing Russian as an official language. Russia-speaking Ukrainians said ethnic Russians were in grave danger.
Early in 2014, Russia began supporting Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine (Donetsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Odessa).
Donetsk and Luhansk, both predominantly Russian-speaking, declared independence from Ukraine in April 2014.
Russia began military exercises along the Ukrainian border in early 2014, while NATO conducted similar operations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, all of which border Russia.
In September 2014, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a ceasefire in Minsk, Belarus.
Despite the Minsk agreements, Ukrainian forces and separatists from Luhansk and Donetsk have been fighting over territory in the Donbas since 2014.
As well as military action, the EU and the US imposed international sanctions on Russia. The sanctions caused the Russian currency to plummet, harming EU economies. By 2016, Russia had lost $600 billion.
According to a 2017 UN report, the EU was losing roughly “3.2 billion dollars per month” due to Russian sanctions.
In March 2021, President Putin ordered Russian troops to deploy near the Ukrainian border and in Crimea. RUSSIA SENT VEHICLES TO THE BLACK SEA IN NOVEMBER TO “ Putin called the US ships a “serious challenge.”
“The purpose of US efforts in the Black Sea region is to investigate the theater of operations,” the Russian Ministry of Defense stated in November 2021.
Beginning in mid-January 2022, the US warned that Russia would invade Ukraine before the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
In January 2022, NATO began supplying Ukraine with anti-armor missiles and other US-made weapons. On January 22, the US delivered 90,000 kg of lethal weapons to Ukraine. The Netherlands and Spain sent troops to support NATO.
In February, the US sent troops and F-15 fighter jets to Romania to bolster NATO’s presence in Europe. A British invasion force was sent to Eastern Europe.
Donetsk and Luhansk leaders asked Putin to officially recognize their independence on February 21. Putin agreed, signing a document recognizing the republics and dispatching troops there.
On February 22, Boris Johnson sanctioned Russian banks and people. Germany has halted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline certification process.
EU foreign ministers blacklisted all Russians who voted for recognition of separatist territories.
On February 24, 2022, President Putin announced a “special military operation” in Donbas. So that is where we are now.
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