Ukraine Versus Russia

Echarine Joy M. Alciso

As war rages on in Europe, the world is experiencing economic, social and political disarray.
Here are the accounts of how Russia-Ukraine War has started and still is going on.

 Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted in the early 2014; Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The protest in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv against Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s
decision to reject a deal for greater economic integration with the European
Union (EU) were met with a violent crackdown by state security forces.

 February 2015 France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine attempted to kick start
negotiations and broker a cessation in violence through the  Minsk
Accords. Including the agreement cease-fire and heavy weaponry withdrawal and
the full control Throughout the conflict zone by the Ukrainian government.

 April 2016, NATO announced that the alliance would deploy four battalions to

Eastern Europe, rotating troops through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland to
deter possible future Russian aggression elsewhere in Europe, particularly in the
Baltics.

 In September 2017, the United States also deployed two U.S. Army tank brigades
to Poland to further bolster NATO’s presence in the region.

 January 2018, the United States imposed new sanctions on twenty-one

individuals–including a number of Russian officials–and nine companies linked to
the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

 In March 2018, the State Department approved the sale of anti-tank weapons to

Ukraine, the first sale of lethal weaponry since the conflict began.

 In October 2018, Ukraine joined the United States and seven other NATO
countries in a series of large-scale air exercises in western Ukraine.
 The exercises came after Russia held its annual military exercises in September
2018, the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union. 

 In October 2021, Russia began moving troops and military equipment near its border
with Ukraine, reigniting concerns over a potential invasion. Commercial
satellite imagery, social media posts, and publicly
released intelligence from November and December 2021 showed armor, missiles, and
other heavy weaponry moving toward Ukraine with no official explanation.

 Since Russia launched a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine on February 24,

2022, fighting has caused nearly three thousand civilian  deaths and internally
displaced more than seven million people, according to the United Nations. The
conflict has forced another five million Ukrainians to flee to neighboring countries
—the majority of whom have arrived in Poland, a NATO country where the United
States and other allies are helping to accommodate the influx of refugees.

 In late March 2022, Russia announced that it would “reduce military activity”
near Kyiv and Chernihiv. As the initial Russian invasion slowed,  long-range missile
strikes caused significant damage to Ukrainian military assets, urban residential
areas, and communication and transportation
infrastructure. Hospitals and residential complexes also sustained shelling and
bombing attacks. By April 6, Russia had withdrawn all troops from Ukraine’s
capital region. In the aftermath of the Russian withdrawal from Kyiv’s
surrounding areas, Ukrainian civilians described apparent war crimes committed
by Russian forces including accounts of summary executions, torture, and rape.

 On April 18, Russia launched a new major offensive in eastern Ukraine following

its failed attempt to seize Kyiv.
 In the past few days, Ukraine is now gathering evidence of war crimes committed by
Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians. This war has pushed Sweden and Finland to
officially apply as NATO member. Though there are world leaders who opt for diplomacy by
convincing Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, several countries have
now stop importing Russian oil to show opposition against this war and refusing to fund the
“blood money” of Putin.

The world is in a stand still as we only hope that this war will soon be over and not
escalate into something more menacing.