Ukraine History With Russia

History: Russian Military Attack on Ukraine - How We Got There
[Moscow Report, 2-25-22]
2-24-22, * -- The current situation is the result of years of failed talks to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine after the 2014 coup in Kiev. Following are the key events of the past eight years that led to this conflict:

• On November 3, 2013 ‘Euromaidan’ protests in Kiev with West backed coup began, after then-President Viktor Yanukovich decided to delay the signing of an EU association deal. The initially peaceful protests were joined by hardline nationalists and spiraled into violent riots in Kiev and takeovers of administrative buildings across Ukraine. [1]
• In February 2014, pro-Western factions overthrew Yanukovich’s government, and officials with a notable pro-EU and anti-Moscow stance came to power.
• The eastern and southern regions of the nation that have a large Russian-speaking population and strong historic ties to Russia, came out strongly against the violent coup . In cities such as Odessa, the anti-Maidan protests were soon violently suppressed. In the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the Black Sea autonomous republic of Crimea, pro-Russian protests persisted.
• In March 2014 the Republic of Crimea and the special-status city of Sevastopol, which had continuously hosted a Russian naval base despite the entire peninsula having been transferred to Ukraine by the Soviet government in 1954, responded to the Kiev coup by holding a snap referendum when the people overwhelmingly voted to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia.
• Moscow later admitted it used its forces stationed in the region to ensure security during the March events, while Ukrainian troops either switched allegiance, or left the Black Sea peninsula without incident. Kiev refused to recognize Crimea’s vote and reabsorption, as did the majority of countries around the world. Therefore, the new Ukrainian government’s Western allies placed restrictions on the Moscow and Crimean authorities, starting the tit-for-tat sanctions war.
• In April 2014 conflict broke out in Donbass - the two regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the historic mining area declared independence from Kiev. The Ukrainian government responded to the formation of the People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) by launching what it called an “anti-terrorist operation.” Newly formed “battalions” of volunteer fighters, many of them with nationalist backgrounds, accompanied the troops sent to deal with the rebels. The assault spilled out into months of fighting, with heavy shelling in two republics and civilian casualties and heavy losses reported on both sides. Both Kiev and the Donbass forces accused each other of war crimes. The Ukrainian government accused Russia of directing the “aggression,” but Moscow insisted its troops never entered the Donbass.
• On September 5, 2014 the Minsk Accords ceasefire was signed. It ended the large-scale fighting, but fighting never completely ceased.
• In February 2015 the second ceasefire deal between the Ukrainian government and the rebels was brokered by Russia, France and Germany. In it Kiev pledged decentralization reform, providing broad autonomy to the eastern regions. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe deployed its monitoring team along the “line of contact” separating the Ukrainian army from DPR-LPR forces. Kiev and the breakaway republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating the Minsk agreements, but, crucially, the promised reforms have never materialized. The Ukrainian government continued branding the DPR and LPR officials as “terrorists” and ruled out any direct negotiations, while new rounds of talks in the same international ‘Normandy Format’ failed to produce tangible results.
• In late 2021 and early 2022, allegations of an imminent full-scale attack intensified both in Kiev and in the breakaway republics. Ukraine’s Western allies accused Moscow of planning an unprovoked military operation that would see large swaths of the country occupied and its capital taken, while the Kremlin continued to dismiss the allegations and, in turn, accused Kiev of planning an attack in the Donbass.

• Currently in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “not satisfied with all provisions” of the agreements, claiming Kiev and Moscow saw their implementation differently.
• Russia has accused Kiev of abandoning the deal altogether, as cross-border shelling continued. According to the United Nations more than 13,000 people were killed in the conflict between 2014 and 2020. Last week, officials in Donetsk and Lugansk accused the Ukrainian army of launching heavy artillery across the border. The DPR and LPR responded with a large-scale evacuation of civilians to Russia and declared the mobilization of all military-age men.
• Ukraine denied it was planning a full-blown assault on the breakaway republics, blaming the DPR and LPR for the ceasefire violations.
• On February 21,  2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and assistance with Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
• President Putin citing what he said was Ukraine’s inability to implement the Minsk agreements and the continued attacks on Donetsk and Lugansk; he also signed friendship treaties with the DPR and LPR, which included the provision of military assistance.
• On Wednesday 2/23/22 Donbass republics asked Russia to help them repel the “aggression” of Ukrainian troops. Putin responded by announcing a military operation against Ukraine early on Thursday morning, 2-24-22. He claimed he wanted to protect the people of the Donbass from what he described as “genocide” and sought the “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine. The president did not reveal the scope of the operation nor how long it would last.
• The Russian Defense Ministry said in a short statement that it was carrying out “precision strikes” against Ukrainian military targets, without specifying their location.
• Ukrainian officials and media outlets have reported strikes in cities across the country, as well as alleged incursions by Russian soldiers and armored vehicles from several directions.
• Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied that its ground troops have crossed Ukraine’s borders.
• Kiev declared martial law and closed its airspace for civilian flights. President Zelensky said Kiev was cutting diplomatic ties with Moscow.
• On February 24, 2022, Thursday President Putin said: “ Russian troops don’t plan on occupying Ukrainian territories.” However, speaking to reporters on February 22, 2022 he said Moscow has recognized the whole of Ukraine’s former Donetsk and Lugansk administrative regions as the DPR and LPR. Both regions have been partly controlled by Ukrainian forces since 2015.
• ,Yuri Maximov, a senior military official in Kiev after announcing the mobilization in Ukraine, said 46,000 reservists would join the Ukrainian army, police and border guards.
• Meanwhile, President Zelensky has been pleading with his Western allies to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia. The EU, the UK and the US were due to announce their package of anti-Russian measures later on 2/24/22.
• The US-led NATO bloc has said it would not be deploying any troops to Ukraine. After an emergency meeting on 2/24/22 it said it would instead “take additional steps to further strengthen deterrence and defense across the alliance.”
• Moscow had earlier cited NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s potential membership as a key reason for launching its military operation.

 
*Excerpted full original report here: https://www.rt.com/russia/550493-ukraine-donbass-military-operation-prehistory/
 
[1] https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/explainers/understanding-ukraines-euromaidan-protests