Donavan Le
eSomethin Staff
Ukraine and Russia are finding themselves in a brutal war with one another. Many bystanders around the world still find themselves wondering, “What caused this conflict in the first place?”
Both Russia and Ukraine have a long history intertwined; Ukrainians and Russians alike often refer to each other as “brothers” or sibling peoples. Both nations were part of the Soviet Union that dominated most of 20th century global politics, and remained close diplomatically even after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991.
However, the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia has origins from 2014 with the Euromaidan Protests. Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a free trade agreement with the EU—under pressure from the Russian government—which would have led to closer relations with the rest of Europe.
Citizens of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, immediately took to the streets to protest the decision at the time, leading to widespread violence between police and activists. In February of that year, over 100 protesters and around 18 police officers were left dead in what was considered the bloodiest month of Ukraine’s history since the post-Soviet collapse.
By the end of February 2014, Yanukovych was ousted from power in Ukraine and fled to Russia. The Ukrainian Parliament, in his absence, unanimously impeached him and voted in Oleksandr Turchynov as acting president. Almost immediately after Yanukovych’s exile, however, Putin launched a full-scale invasion and annexation of Crimea, a significant peninsula in Southern Ukraine. Russia’s annexation was finalized on March 18.
Pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine broke out in violence, with the highest concentration of fighting being centered in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk in April of 2014. The separatists stormed police and military buildings, seizing arms and control of urban centers. They declared independence from Ukraine in the same month, proclaiming the People’s Republic of Donetsk and the People’s Republic of Luhansk, petitioning Putin to annex them as part of the Russian Federation. Though the violence continues on to this day (with an ongoing casualty count of over 30,000 people), 2014 and 2015 are generally regarded as the most violent periods of this conflict.
French president Francois Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) representative Heidi Tagliavini traveled to Minsk, Belarus to reach a resolution to the ongoing violence in Ukraine in September of 2014. Negotiating and mediating with Ukrainian representative Leonid Kuchma and Russian president Vladimir Putin. The resulting negotiations were finalized into the “Minsk Protocols” which called for an immediate ceasefire between Ukraine and separatist forces while not officially recognizing the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk as an autonomous country. Due to the apparent ineffectiveness of the treaty’s ability to enforce the ceasefire, the Minsk II was signed which gave more clear boundaries and stipulations on what is allowed in the Donbass region in order to more effectively enforce the ceasefire.
(Photo credit: Kremlin.ru)
However, varied degrees of fighting still continued from late 2014 onwards to now, despite the ceasefire being signed. The first major infraction of the Minsk Protocols culminated in the Second Battle of Donetsk Airport in September of 2014 and lasted until January of 2015. While the first battle was more brief and resulted in a quick Ukrainian capture of Donetsk Airport, the second battle resembled more of a siege than a quick engagement. This is considered to be one of the most significant battles in the entire Ukrainian-Russia conflict prior to 2022.
The siege eventually ended in January of 2015 with a separatist victory, although the stubborn defenders of the Ukrainian Army in that battle are memorialized in Ukrainian pop culture collectively known as “cyborgs” (Ukrainian: кіборг). They earned the nickname for their unwavering defense, with the term originally coming from a leaked radio transmission of a rebel officer referring to them as “cyborgs” out of frustration.
During the years of 2016 to 2021, however, the frontline remained static as much of the fighting slowed down to a few back and forths along the border of separatist-controlled Donbass and East Ukraine. While fighting still occurred and frequent violations of the ceasefire were reported by both sides, there was little to no exchange of territory between the two opposing forces in those years. In total, since 2014 up to 2021, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed that the total number of deaths (both civilian and combatant) was estimated to be around 13,000.
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