Europe is witnessing its first major war in decades (Vox)

 

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a military invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin called it a “special military operation.” But the scale of the attack shows this is a war — after a week of fighting, it has already caused hundreds of civilian casualties and forced more than half a million Ukrainians to flee their homes.

Ukraine and Russia’s conflict goes back at least to 2014, when Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces took over parts of southeastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. But to understand the full context behind the invasion, it’s important to go even further back, to the time when Europe’s current divisions began, and see how that shaped Europe’s power balance today.

Russia is bombarding major cities in Ukraine, a week into a war where Moscow has faced setbacks on the battlefield — yet seems undeterred from its campaign to take Ukraine.

Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, remains under heavy Russian fire, with Russian air strikes falling in residential areas. Russian troops are advancing on Kyiv, and missile strikes hit the city, including one in the city center that took out Ukraine’s TV tower. There is fierce fighting for other cities; Kherson, a port city on the Black Sea, is among those whose control is contested right now. Ukraine’s emergency services have said that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed in the fighting so far.

The intensification in the fighting this week came after Ukrainian and Russian officials at the Ukraine-Belarus border to discuss a possible ceasefire, but yielded no resolution. “For a week, Russian bombs have fallen overhead. Despite the constant barrage of Russian fire, we stand firm and united in our resolve to defeat the invaders,” Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote in a March 2 opinion article published in the New York Times. “We will fight to the last breath to protect our country.”

Putin’s attempt to redraw the map of Europe risks becoming the most devastating conflict on the continent since World War II. Already, it is causing an astounding humanitarian crisis: Hundreds, perhaps thousands of civilians have died, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled the violence.

The battle for Ukraine began in the early morning hours local time on February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a “special military operation” into the country of about 40 million. He claimed the Russian military seeks “demilitarization and denazification” but not occupation; attacks shortly followed from multiple fronts and targeted toward multiple cities.

Ukraine’s resistance has complicated Russia’s efforts to seize the country. Russian forces have not made the progress they likely thought they would at the start of the campaign. The Russian military’s early strategy has perplexed some experts and observers. But the more protracted this war becomes, the more catastrophic it will be. Russia’s move into cities has opened up a deadlier chapter, as the urban warfare threatens civilians, and experts said that Ukraine’s defiance may only push Russia to intensify its assault.

The United States and its allies in Europe and the United Kingdom imposed the toughest financial sanctions ever on Russia after the first incursion, and have only built on these penalties since. On February 26, the United States and European countries agreed to block some Russian banks from SWIFT, a global messaging system, which will essentially prevent those institutions from doing any global transactions, a punishment that allies had previously hesitated to pursue. Already Russia’s economy is reeling from the impact of these penalties.

This sustained international pressure, and Ukraine’s resistance, may still not be enough to force Russia to end its military campaign. That leaves Ukraine — and the world — in a perilous and unpredictable moment.

 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, explained - Vox

 

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