Russia invasion of Ukraine is about what dictator Vladimir Putin wants, it has nothing to do with Ukraine being a threat to Russia’s security which has been touted as the reason for the invasion.
Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine early on Thursday February 24th 2022, attacking from three fronts – the north (Belarus), south (annexed Crimea) and east (Russia’s border with Ukraine).
Putin says that he was left with no option but to invade Ukraine because the country wanted to join NATO – an alliance of Western military powers that pose the greatest threat to Russia’s military supremacy.
In January last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged US President Joe Biden to let Ukraine join NATO but the American leader declined to avoid tensions with Russia.
In September 2021, Putin capitalized on Ukrainian request to join NATO to start sending troops near its border with Ukraine for “training exercises”.
The West (US, UK and allied European countries) was alarmed by Russia troop mobilization near Ukrainian border and warned of severe sanctions if Putin invaded.
Russia demanded that the West gives a legally binding guarantee that NATO will not hold any military activity in eastern Europe and Ukraine.
Putin gave the West a list of outrageous demands which he knew they would not agree to. They included;
- Putin demanded that NATO stop expanding eastward in Europe towards Russia, not to admit any new state more so countries that were in the former Soviet Union.
- He also demanded that NATO not to deploy forces or weapons in countries that joined the alliance after May 1997.
- Putin also demanded that NATO not to deploy intermediate-range missiles in areas where they could reach Russian territory.
NATO member states rejected Putin’s ultimatums because it would basically reduce the military alliance to cheerleaders unable to defend member states especially in eastern Europe.
After NATO rejected his outrageous demands, Putin continued amassing troops on Ukrainian border until February 24th when he finally attacked.
The excuse for the invasion of Ukraine is that Putin is creating a buffer zone between Russia and NATO to guarantee the security of his country.
But that is one fat lie, NATO can’t even invade Russia because they have nuclear weapons. Thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on earth, radioactive fallout could potentially cause extinction of humanity and/or termination of life on earth.
So why did Putin really invade Ukraine? ….It starts in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed. When it all happened Putin was a KGB agent (spy) stationed in Berlin, Germany.
Putin literally watched Soviet Union collapse before his eyes, he tried phoning home for instructions but Moscow didn’t respond.
Putin returned home in Russia and started climbing the political ladder. On 9th August 1999, Putin was appointed one of three First Deputy Prime Ministers, and later on that day, was appointed acting Prime Minister by President Yeltsin.
Yeltsin also announced that he wanted to see Putin as his successor. He later resigned as president leading to a general election on 26th March 2000 which Putin won, and was inaugurated on May 7th 2000.
With Putin as Russia’s president, he encouraged Soviet imperial nostalgia and promoted autocracy driving his country into a one-man show dictatorship
In his annual state of the nation address in 2005, Putin called the collapse of the Soviet empire as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.
So here is why Putin attacked Ukraine… Ukraine was the most precious possession of the Soviet Union just like India was the crown jewel of the British empire.
Putin’s mission since he became president is to resuscitate Soviet Union. And he can’t do that without Ukraine not being part of it.
So in 2014, Putin got the shock of a lifetime when Ukrainians took to the streets in a revolution that saw pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych removed from power.
Ukrainians wanted and still want to join European Union (EU), they want closer integration with Europe and not Putin’s pipe dream of resuscitating Soviet Union with Ukraine as the crown jewel.
An angry Putin decided to punish Ukraine by annexing Crimea through a sham referendum in 2014 and declaring it part of Russia.
The annexation of Crimea received the packing of most Russian citizens, and this encouraged a dictator.
Putin then started destabilizing Ukraine by funding and arming separatists groups in eastern part of the country which has sizable Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
The tyrant shared his Soviet imperial nostalgia in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine which have witnessed a bloody civil war that has killed over 14,000 people.
In a lengthy televised address in 2015 after brokering a ceasefire in the troubled Ukrainian regions, Putin described Ukraine as an integral part of Russia’s history and said eastern Ukraine was ancient Russian lands and that he was confident that the Russian people would support his decision. (Most Russians don’t support invasion of Ukraine)
He said that Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood and complained that post-Soviet Ukraine had wanted everything it could from Moscow without doing anything in return.
Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine’s armed forces continued fighting each other, albeit not in an all out war, until February 22nd 2022 when Putin declared the rebel regions ‘independent states’.
Two days after Putin declared Donetsk and Luhansk ‘independent states’, he ordered the Russian military to invade the whole of Ukraine.
The dictators is using the Russian military might to crash the Ukrainian government, the mission is to depose the democratically elected government and replace it with a pro-Russia puppet regime that will be controlled from Kremlin (State House) in Moscow.
As a former Soviet republic, Ukraine has deep social and cultural ties with Russia and Russian is widely spoken there, but ever since Russia invaded in 2014 those relations have frayed.
Putin’s dream of reviving the collapsed Soviet Union can only begin to appear real if he has a firm grip on Ukraine, the real reason why he invaded Ukraine on Thursday February 24th 2022.
Watch the video below for more information on why Putin really invaded Ukraine;
