The origin of this conflict dates back to the spring of 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and led to the secession of Donetsk and Lugansk.
It has been 60 days since the beginning of large-scale hostilities unleashed by Russia against Ukraine. The origin of this conflict dates back to the spring of 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and led to the secession of Donetsk and Lugansk, an event that already caused a war with almost 14,000 deaths.
It was hoped that the Minsk agreements, whose second and final version was signed in February 2015, would have resolved the territorial issue by returning to kyiv at least control of the Donbass, since Russia considers Crimea a “closed” issue with no possible negotiation.
But the clash between Moscow and kyiv due to their different interpretations of what was agreed in Minsk prevented the dispute from being resolved for the last eight years. So, on February 21, Russia recognized the self-proclaimed “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states on their actual administrative borders, not on those established in Minsk within the so-called “line of contact”.
It meant the burial of the only existing peace agreement between kyiv and the pro-Russian separatists. Three days later, under the pretext that Ukrainian troops were allegedly causing “genocide” in Donbass, Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine. Now, 60 days later, the balance on the battlefield, despite the Russian superiority in troops and weapons, does not end up leaning to one side or the other. What there is is a lot of death, destruction, a huge exodus of refugees and casualties on both sides, especially in the Russian ranks. The West has unleashed several rounds of sanctions that threaten to sink the Russian economy.
the war begins
President Vladimir Putin announces at dawn the beginning of a “special military operation” to “protect” the population of Donbass, “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine. He threatened the West with nuclear weapons to try to prevent it from getting involved in the conflict. That same morning, the media reported the beginning of aerial bombardments against kyiv, Kharkov and Kherson while the rebel forces of Donbass began an offensive to seize ground from the kyiv Army.
Russia intensifies its deployment
Russian troops combined their air raids with attacks by their ground forces, which entered Ukraine from Belarus, Crimea and the Russian regions of Bryansk, Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov-on-Don. They seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the Antonov airport in Hostomel, on the outskirts of kyiv, began to encircle Sumy and Kharkiv to the northeast, and entered the Kherson region from the south. This same day the offensive began to take Mariupol, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, and there was already some progress in Donbass.
First negotiating attempt
The Russian and Ukrainian delegations met for the first time in Belarus with the intention of reaching a peace agreement, but nothing was achieved, since the manifest intention of Moscow was to achieve the capitulation of Ukraine. After five hours of talks, the only thing that was agreed was to continue the negotiations three days later also in Belarus. That was when it was decided to open “humanitarian corridors” to evacuate the civilian population from the conflict zones, a mechanism that still does not work effectively.
The battle for kyiv rages on
The rejection of the Ukrainian authorities to the capitulation makes the Kremlin decide to increase the bombings and the efforts to seize kyiv, the capital of the country. But the Russian forces arriving from the northwest side are attacked in their rear, thus being deprived of supplies. After destroying several bridges, their tanks are trapped at the mercy of Javelin rockets. Thus an entire column of Russian armor is disarmed. The siege of kyiv has not been closed, but Sumy, Kharkiv and especially Mariupol have.
Europe’s largest atomic plant attacked
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was hit by missiles and tank fire from Russian troops to put an end to a focus of resistance inside by the Ukrainian military. A fire broke out and one of the reactors had to be shut down. The event triggered all the world alarms due to the fear of a radioactive leak and led to a meeting of the UN Security Council. But nothing serious happened. The plant is still in the hands of the Russians. However, Chernobyl was evicted.
Moscow announces leaving kyiv to focus on Donbass
After a month of unsuccessful attempts to storm kyiv and thousands of casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the completion of the “first phase” of the operation in Ukraine “whose main tasks have been completed” as “the combat potential” was reduced. ukrainian The Russian military leadership assured that, in this way, efforts will be focused “on achieving the liberation of Donbass.” It was later declared that the Russian troops would withdraw from the area around kyiv as a “goodwill gesture”.
Final failure of the negotiating attempts
The last negotiating attempt carried out by Russia and Ukraine to find a solution to the conflict took place in Istanbul at the request of Turkey, a country that constantly offers itself as a mediator and as the venue for a very unlikely meeting between Putin and Zelensky. But it was a failure, since it again left out the thorny territorial question. The next day, to dispel doubts, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinski, warned that Moscow would never give up Crimea and Donbass, thus giving up any possibility of an agreement.
Bucha massacre uncovered
After the withdrawal of Russian troops from the kyiv area, the Ukrainian Army found a truly hair-raising sight upon arrival. In Hostómel, Irpin and, above all, Bucha, the streets were littered with the corpses of civilians. Also in Borodianka. There were also dead people in the houses and many with their hands tied and with obvious signs of torture. Other bodies were found in mass graves. Ukraine and other countries have filed lawsuits with the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
Massacre at the Kramatorsk railway station
While the echoes of what happened in Bucha had not yet died down, a missile attack caused another slaughter of civilians at the Kramatorsk railway station, in the part of Donetsk under Ukrainian control. 57 people lost their lives and 109 were injured. They were mostly women, children and the elderly who were trying to flee the area in the face of the imminent start of the Russian offensive in Donbass. The episode is being documented to possibly also be classified as a war crime.
Sinking of the Russian flagship in the Black Sea
Although the Ukrainian forces have already managed to disable the Russian ship «Saratov» on the same quay in the port of Berdyansk, the sinking off the coast of Odessa of the «Moskvá» (Moscow), the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, It has been a very demoralizing blow to Moscow. kyiv maintains that it used two Ukrainian-made Neptun missiles while Russia still hides the true magnitude of the catastrophe and continues without providing reliable figures of what happened to the sailors.
Russian offensive in Donbass begins
The Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, warns of the beginning of the Russian offensive to take control of the entire Donbass. The next day the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed it. Indeed, in recent days the bombardments have intensified to prepare the ground. But almost a week has passed and, except in Mariupol, the advances of the Russian ground forces are minimal. In kyiv, they believe that their adversaries are studying the weak points of their defenses in order to launch a large-scale attack soon.
Mariúpol falls but the redoubt of the Azovstal steelworks remains
On Thursday, Putin and his Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, appeared unexpectedly before the cameras to give an account of the “success” obtained by their troops in taking Mariupol, the only one attributable so far, in addition to the almost total occupation of the region of Kherson. Shoigu said that “in days” Azovstal would also fall, but the president corrected him by ordering him to stop the assault in order to avoid further Russian casualties. Of course, he ordered him to keep the steel mill fenced so that “not a fly” gets out of there, unless its defenders lay down their weapons.
Topics
Volodimir Zelensky, Belarus, Chernobyl, Kharkov, kyiv, Minsk, Moscow, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, War in Ukraine
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