By invading Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has provoked one of Europe’s worst security crises since World War II, with missiles and artillery barrages accompanying troops as they entered the nation from various directions. In a video by WION YouTube Channel, Palki Sharma Upadhyay pointed out her view point about the matter ‘Why putin wants Ukraine’.
The Ukraine-Russia problem does not begin in 2021 or 2014; rather, it begins in the ninth century. Once upon a time, the two countries were united. Ukraine used to hand over its nuclear weapons to Russia. But what happened now that they ready for the war.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a military assault against Ukraine. The armies entered Ukraine from multiple routes, sparking fears of a European conflict over Russia’s demands for a stop to NATO’s eastward expansion.
WHAT IS NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, often known as the North Atlantic Alliance, is a military alliance made up of 28 European and two North American countries. The organisation was founded in the aftermath of World War II to carry out the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on April 4, 1949.
For months, Putin denied that he was plotting an invasion. In a televised statement, he said he had ordered “a special military action” to safeguard Russian citizens who had been victims of “genocide” in Ukraine.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have existed for many years. Tensions rose in 2021, however, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to join NATO. Ukraine is a democratic country with a population of 44 million people and a history dating back over 1,000 years. It is also, after Russia, the largest country in Europe by area.
It voted for independence from Moscow after the demise of the Soviet Union. Putin sees Ukraine as a man-made country ripped out of Russia by adversaries. He has also referred to Ukraine as a Western puppet. Russia was enraged by Zelensky’s request to join NATO, and it began stationing troops along the Ukraine border. The US observed unexpected Russian army movements near the Ukrainian border on November 10, 2021. On November 28, Ukraine announced that Russia has amassed about 92,000 troops in preparation for an attack in late January or early February.
Moscow, on the other hand, denied it and accused Kyiv of conducting its own military build-up. President Biden warned in December that if Russia invaded Ukraine, he would face heavy consequences. Putin has insisted on assurances from the West and Ukraine that the country will not join NATO.
This isn’t the first time that relations between Russia and Ukraine have risen. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine and occupied the Crimean peninsula. President Putin’s backed rebels captured significant swaths of eastern Ukraine and fought the army. When its pro-Russian president was overthrown, the attack began. Since then, the battle has taken the lives of over 14,000 people.
He claims that contemporary Ukraine was totally built by communist Russia and that it is now a puppet state under Western influence. President Putin has also said that if Ukraine joins NATO, the alliance will attempt to reclaim Crimea.
Pic Courtesy: google/ images are subject to copyright