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Ground Report | New Delhi: Why Russia attacks Ukraine; On Thursday 24 February 202, President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukrainian territory. Both Russia and the West see Ukraine as a buffer against the other.
Russia considers Ukraine within its natural sphere of influence. Most of the country was part of the Russian Empire for centuries, many Ukrainians speak Russian as their native language, and the country was part of the Soviet Union until gaining independence in 1991.
Following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Ukraine became a Soviet republic; but, after its independence in 1991, tensions with Russia increased, although they culminated in 2014 with a pro-Western revolution (also called "colour revolution"), which is characterized by the use of non-violent direct action, according to its supporters, and also marked by a discourse of the West.
Russia was taken aback when an uprising in 2014 saw Ukraine's president, on good terms with Russia, replaced by a government with clear Western leanings led by Volodomir Zelensky. After the end of the government of Viktor Yanukovych, various pro-Russian groups expressed their desire to reintegrate into the Russian Federation.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, a 44-year-old former comedian with no political experience, came to power in 2019 promising zero tolerance for corruption.
In 2014, Russia decided to annex the Crimean peninsula and has since supported separatist rebels based in eastern Ukraine. This caused Russia to concentrate thousands of soldiers on the borders with Ukraine this year. In addition, another element that unleashed the conflict was that Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk on February 21, announcing the deployment of troops in those areas.
Putin now maintains that Ukraine is a Western puppet and was never a proper state anyway.
His main demand now is that the West guarantee that Ukraine will not join NATO, a 30-nation defensive alliance. "It is absolutely mandatory for us to ensure that Ukraine never ever becomes a member of NATO," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
NATO is a defensive alliance with an open door policy to new members and its 30 member states are convinced that it will not change.
The reasons for the war between Russia and Ukraine intensified when Ukraine pressured NATO to become part of the conglomerate of member states. However, this option is not viable for the Kremlin, which considers that its national security will be in danger if Ukraine finally joins the organization.
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