Russia, Ukraine War – Must Know Top 10 Prime Unaware Facts.

Russia, Ukraine War – Must know the Top 10 prime reasons of turmoil between two neighboring countries for which many innocent civilians lives are compromised.

On 24 February 2022, Russia began an open military invasion of Ukraine. It is the largest military attack in Europe since World War II. On 24 February, about 5 am EET (UTC+2), Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine. Minutes later, missiles and airstrikes struck throughout Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, shortly followed by a large ground invasion from multiple directions. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, enacted martial law and general mobilization. Multi-pronged assaults were launched from Russia proper, Belarus, and the two occupied territories of Ukraine (Crimea and Donbas). Four war theatres developed: the Kyiv offensive, the Northeastern Ukraine offensive, the Eastern Ukraine offensive, and the Southern Ukraine offensive. Russian forces approached or besieged a number of key settlements, such as Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mariupol, and Sumy. And rest is in front of the whole world.

But why is there a sudden war between Russia and Ukraine or is there any history behind it? What is the reason that set the war on fire between these two countries? Today “YouAware” will put light on the prime unaware facts of the Russia-Ukraine war which is now the global concern.

The war between Russia Ukraine War is not the war which set on 24th February 2022 but it’s a huge aggression continuing since February 2014. The Russo-Ukrainian War is an ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine which began in February 2014 following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity, and initially focused on the status of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. In April 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian groups in the Donbas region of Ukraine escalated into a war between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatists of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics. The first eight years of the conflict included the Russian annexation of Crimea (2014) and the war in Donbas (2014–present) between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists, as well as naval incidents, cyber warfare, and political tensions.

Top 10 Reason of Russo-Ukraine Conflict:

1. Ukraine Crisis (Divided between east and west):

Ukraine is a Texas-size country wedged between Russia and Europe. It was part of the Soviet Union until 1991, and since then has been a less-than-perfect democracy with a very weak economy and foreign policy that wavers between pro-Russian and pro-European.

The country has been divided more or less evenly between Ukrainians who see Ukraine as part of Europe and those who see it as intrinsically linked to Russia. When people talk about this divide, they typically refer to language. About two-thirds of Ukrainians speak Ukrainian as their native language, mostly in the country's west; about a third are native Russian-speakers, mostly in the east.

And language is really just shorthand for describing a much more complicated political and ideological division. People in the west of Ukraine tend to regard Russia with suspicion, see themselves as European, and want to break away from Russia's orbit to join Europe. The protests were much, much stronger here. In every election, this half of the country has voted overwhelmingly for pro-European political candidates.

The eastern half of Ukraine, on the other hand, has voted overwhelmingly in favor of political candidates who are more sympathetic to Russia, who is from the east. They tend to look more fondly on Russia and see their two countries as more historically linked. There are still lots of statues of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in the east.

The east and west of Ukraine disagree so fundamentally about what sort of country they want to have, about what it means to be Ukrainian, that a big, internal political battle may have been quite likely. For example, the EU trade deal that sparked all this only had about 43 percent popular support, mostly in the west; another 31 percent of Ukrainians said they wanted a trade deal with the Russia-led Customs Union instead. When Yanukovych rejected the EU deal, many western Ukrainians saw it as a betrayal, but eastern Ukrainians may have regarded a different decision the same way.

Ukrainians never really resolved the national identity crisis between its Russia-facing east and pro-European west that was sparked by its 1991 independence from the Soviet Union. The current crisis is, in many ways, an extension and perhaps culmination of that internal — and external — dispute about their country's identity.

2. Euromaidan:

Euromaidan literally ('Euro Square'), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21st November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The protests were sparked by the Ukrainian President Yanukovych’s sudden decision not to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) had overwhelmingly approved of finalizing the agreement with the EU. These protests continued for months and their scope widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov Government. Russia backed Yanukovych in the crisis, while the US and Europe supported the protesters.

Protests were also held in many other parts of Ukraine. Protests increased from mid-January. In January and February 2014, clashes in Kyiv between protesters and Berkut special riot police resulted in the deaths of 108 protesters and 13 police officers, and the wounding of many others. The deadliest clashes were on 18–20 February, which saw the most severe violence in Ukraine since it regained independence. Thousands of protesters advanced towards parliament, led by activists with shields and helmets, and were fired on by police snipers. Eventually, the Euromaidan protest moved toward a complete reboot of the state system known as the Revolution of Dignity.

3. Revolution of Dignity:

The Revolution of Dignity (also known as the Maidan Revolution, took place in Ukraine in February 2014, at the end of the Euromaidan protests, when deadly clashes between protesters and the security forces in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv culminated in the ousting of elected President Viktor Yanukovych and restoration of the 2004 amendments to the constitution of Ukraine.

On 21st February, an agreement between President Yanukovych and the leaders of the parliamentary opposition was signed that called for the formation of an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. The following day, police withdrew from central Kyiv, which came under effective control of the protesters. Yanukovych fled the city and then the country. That day, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove Yanukovych from office by 328 to 0 (out of the parliament's 450 members).

Russia considered the overthrow of Yanukovych to be an illegal coup, and did not recognize the interim government. Widespread protests, both for and against the revolution, occurred in eastern and southern Ukraine. These protests escalated, resulting in a Russian military intervention, the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and the creation of the self-proclaimed breakaway states of Donetsk and Luhansk. This sparked the Donbas War.

[Donbas War, is an armed conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine, part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War. In March 2014, immediately following the Euromaidan protest movement and subsequent Revolution of Dignity, protests by pro-Russian, anti-government separatist groups took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, collectively called the Donbas.]

5. Crimea:

Crimea is considered by most of the world to be a region of Ukraine that's under hostile Russian occupation. Russia considers it a rightful and historical region of Russia. Geographically, it is a peninsula in the Black Sea with a location so strategically important that it has been fought over for centuries.

From Ukraine 1991 independence up through February 2014, Crimea was a Ukrainian region that had special autonomy and large Russian military bases (kind of like how the US has bases in Japan and Germany).

Crucially, Crimea spent a very long time before 1991 as part of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire, and most of its citizens are Russians themselves. Russians have long felt a special historical connection to Ukraine, which plays a central role in Russian national mythology. Tsarist leaders cultivated the idea that Russia's cultural roots go back to ancient Greeks who settled on the Crimean peninsula, in modern-day Ukraine.

5. Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation:

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. On 23 February, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February, masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Supreme Council (parliament) of Crimea and captured strategic sites across Crimea.

This led to the installation of the pro-Russian Sergey Aksyonov government in Crimea, the conducting of the Crimean status referendum and the declaration of Crimea's independence on 16 March 2014. Russia formally incorporated Crimea as two Russian federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol on 18 March 2014.

Ukraine and many other countries condemned the annexation and consider it to be a violation of international law and Russian-signed agreements safeguarding the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The Russian government opposes the "annexation" label, with Putin defending the referendum as complying with the principle of self-determination of peoples.

[Self Determination: The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a jus cogens rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It states that peoples, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference.]

6. NATO & Warsaw Pact:

NATO and the Warsaw Pact were ideologically opposed and, over time, built up their own defences starting an arms race that lasted throughout the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact embodied what was referred to as the Eastern bloc, while NATO and its member countries represented the Western bloc.

The Western Bloc was led by the United States as well as the other First World nations of the Western Bloc that were generally liberal democratic but tied to a network of the authoritarian states, most of which were their former colonies. The Eastern Bloc was led by the Soviet Union and its Communist Party, which had an influence across the Second World and was also tied to a network of authoritarian states.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), military alliance established by the North Atlantic Treaty on April 4, 1949, which sought to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in central and eastern Europe after World War II. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called the North Atlantic Alliance is an intergovernmental military alliance among 28 European countries and 2 North American countries. The heart of NATO is expressed in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, in which the signatory members agree that

“an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.”

In other hand, the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), officially the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, commonly known as the Warsaw Pact (WP), was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War. The Warsaw Pact was created in reaction to the integration of West Germany into NATO in 1955 as per the London and Paris Conferences of 1954.

For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact never directly waged war against each other in Europe; the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage. These included the Korean War, Vietnam War, Bay of Pigs invasion, Dirty War, Cambodian–Vietnamese War, and others.

Note: End of The Warsaw Pact: The beginning of the end of the Warsaw Pact, regardless of military power, was the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. On 25 February 1991, the Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from remaining Pact countries meeting in Hungary. On 1 July 1991, in Prague, the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991.

7. Cold War (United States and Soviet Union):

The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, which began following World War II. The term cold war is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, US and Soviet Union, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars.

The US government supported anti-communist governments and uprisings across the world, while the Soviet government funded left-wing parties and revolutions around the world. As nearly all the colonial states achieved independence in the period 1945–1960, they became Third World battlefields in the Cold War.

The first phase of the Cold War began shortly after the end of the Second World War in 1945. The United States and its allies created the NATO military alliance in 1949 in the apprehension of a Soviet attack and termed their global policy against Soviet influence containment. The Soviet Union formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955 in response to NATO.

Major crises of this phase included the 1948–49 Berlin Blockade, the 1927–1949 Chinese Civil War, the 1950–1953 Korean War, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The US and the USSR competed for influence in Latin America, the Middle East, and the decolonizing states of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

8. The Growing Relationship Between Ukraine & Nato

In January 2008 : "Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Parliamentary Chairman Arsenii Yatseniuk have signed the statement calling for consideration on Ukraine's entry into the NATO membership action plan at the Bucharest summit. US President George W. Bush and both nominees for President of the United States in the 2008 election, U.S. senator Barack Obama and U.S. senator John McCain, did offer backing to Ukraine's membership of NATO.

Following the election, on 14 February 2010, the newly elected President Viktor Yanukovych said that Ukraine's relations with NATO were currently "well-defined", and that there was "no question of Ukraine joining NATO". He said the issue of Ukrainian membership of NATO might "emerge at some point, but we will not see it in the immediate future. NATO officials vowed support for Ukraine and worked to downplay tensions between the bloc and Russia, which refused to recognize the impeachment of Yanukovych or the Yatseniuk Government.

On 29 December 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed to hold a referendum on joining NATO. A number of military exercises were planned between NATO members and Ukraine in 2015. In September 2015, NATO launched five trust funds for €5.4 million for the Ukrainian army. €2 million are planned to be sent for the modernization of communication systems, €1.2 million – to reform the logistic and standardization systems, €845 thousand – for physical rehabilitation and prostheses, €815 thousand for cyber defense, and €410 thousand for retraining and resettlement.

On 8 June 2017, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed a law making integration with NATO a foreign policy priority. In July 2017 Poroshenko announced that he would seek the opening of negotiations on a Membership Action Plan with NATO. On the 10th of March 2018, NATO added Ukraine in the list of NATO aspiring members (others including Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia).

On September 20, 2018, the Ukrainian parliament approved amendments to the constitution that would make the accession of the country to NATO and the EU a central goal and the main foreign policy objective. On 12 June 2020, Ukraine joined NATO enhanced opportunity partner interoperability program.

On 14 September 2020, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approved Ukraine's new National Security Strategy, "which provides for the development of the distinctive partnership with NATO with the aim of membership in NATO.

At the June 2021 Brussels Summit, NATO leaders reiterated the decision taken at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process and Ukraine's right to determine its own future and foreign policy course without outside interference. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also stressed that Russia will not be able to veto Ukraine's accession to NATO, as we will not return to the era of spheres of interest, when large countries decide what smaller ones should do.

On 28 June 2021, Ukraine and NATO forces launched joint naval drills in the Black Sea codenamed Sea Breeze 2021. Russia had condemned the drills, with the Russian Defence Ministry saying it would closely monitor them. On January 11, 2022, it became known that a group of Republican congressmen intended to introduce a bill declaring Ukraine a NATO-plus country and initiating a review of the advisability of declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.

9. Russia’s Aggression on NATO’s Alliance of Ukraine :

Russia is strongly opposed to any eastward expansion of NATO. On February 12, 2008, then Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia may target its missiles at Ukraine if its neighbour joins NATO and accepts the deployment of a US missile defence shield. Along with Russia, China also strongly opposed to any eastward expansion of NATO. Prime Minister Putin reportedly declared at a NATO-Russia summit in 2008 that if Ukraine joined NATO his country could contend to annex the Ukrainian East and Crimea.

On 30 November 2021, Russian President Putin stated that an expansion of NATO's presence in Ukraine, especially the deployment of any long-range missiles capable of striking Russian cities or missile defense systems similar to those in Romania and Poland, would be a "red line" issue for Russia. Putin asked U.S. President Joe Biden for legal guarantees that NATO wouldn't expand eastward or put "weapons systems that threaten us in close vicinity to Russian territory."

According to Putin, "If some kind of strike systems appear on the territory of Ukraine, the flight time to Moscow will be seven to 10 minutes, and five minutes in the case of a hypersonic weapon being deployed." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg replied that "It's only Ukraine and 30 NATO allies that decide when Ukraine is ready to join NATO. Russia has no veto, Russia has no say, and Russia has no right to establish a sphere of influence to try to control their neighbors."

On December 1, 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he wanted to receive guarantees from the West that Ukraine would not join NATO. On 16 December, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that the Alliance would not make concessions to Russia on the issue of Ukraine's accession. According to him, Ukraine has the right to protection and together with NATO will determine the issue of membership in the Alliance.

On December 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry unveiled a draft agreement between Russia and the United States on "security guarantees" and a draft agreement on measures to ensure the security of Russia and NATO member states. In particular, Russia proposes that NATO renounce the admission of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO, as well as "any military activity on the territory of Ukraine." Russia also urges the United States not to establish military bases in the former Soviet Union and not to accept these countries into NATO.

In this regard, on January 10, 2022, US and Russian diplomats held security talks in Geneva to discuss the military activities of both countries and growing tensions around Ukraine. The head of the Russian delegation at a meeting in Geneva between the United States and Russia said that Russia needed "concrete guarantees" that Ukraine and Georgia would never become members of NATO, enshrined in the decision of the Madrid Summit of 2022. Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said that "the risks of military confrontation should not be underestimated" and that the American side, refusing to not expand NATO, underestimates the seriousness of the situation.

In turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO will not compromise with Russia on Ukraine's membership and that Ukraine's membership in NATO will be decided by Ukraine and its allies. He assured that the Alliance helps Ukraine to meet the criteria necessary for membership in the organization. The Alliance continues to provide Ukraine with political support for its territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as practical assistance. It is also a clear signal that Ukraine has the right to defend itself.

10. Nuclear Super Power Race:

The nuclear arms race was an arms race competition for supremacy in nuclear warfare between the United States, the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War to become World’s Superpower. The term superpower was first applied in 1944 during World War II to the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, the British Empire dissolved, leaving the United States and the Soviet Union to dominate world affairs. At the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States became the world's sole superpower and Russia becomes the successor to Soviet Union’s nuclear power.

[A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural strength as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers.]

At present, Russia maintains the highest number of nuclear weapons, with an estimated 6,257 total warheads. Of these, 1,458 are actively deployed (current START II treaty limits both the U.S. and Russia to 1550 deployed total), 3039 are inactive but available to be made active, and 1,760 are retired and awaiting dismantling. The United States follows closely behind with 5,550 total nuclear weapons: 1,389 active, 2,361 inactive but available, and 1,800 in line to be dismantled. The United States has the second-largest number of nuclear weapons in the world, after the Russian Federation.

The alliance between Ukraine and US led NATO is a clear threat to Russia’s power and close checkmate for its nuclear arms security. The indirect fight between Russia and US, through middle man Ukraine is nothing but the nuclear power’s supremacy.

EndPoint:

Though we are staying in an ultra modern world, still we are not able to avoid the deadly war. “War is a threat to humanity where many innocent civilians, women, children and youths were mercilessly killed. But still we are very far from negotiating War and establishing “World Peace.”In the case of the Ukraine and Russia War, NATO played a great role. Instead of agitating the situation between the two neighboring countries, the World Superpower US and NATO should have come forward to settle down the animosity between “Russia'' and “Ukraine.” All EU countries should try to stop the War between “Russia '' and “Ukraine '' rather than upsetting the border enmity.

War is the very worst form of taking revenge in which millions of innocent people killed mercilessly. Say always “No to War.”