Russia and Ukraine, the neighbouring countries, are having conflicts in recent days and the sources are stating that these tensions can lead to World War III. This is not the first time that Russia is trying to invade Ukraine. In 2014 Russia sent its troops to the borders of Crimea which was acting independently then. Russia addressed the media that they were not invading Crimea but were conducting a survey to know about the opinions of the people whether they wanted to remain a part of Ukraine or wanted to join Russia. After a few days Russia declared to successfully take over the control of Crimea and Ukraine till date is determined to liberate it from Russia’s control.
If we look into the history of Russia and Ukraine, both of them were a part of the Soviet Union or USSR but in 1991 USSR was broken into 15 different countries and Russia and Ukraine was one among them. But Russia was always determined to take over Ukraine to be a part of the Russian territory. Hence Russia always had an eye on Ukraine and its activities – whether any military improvements or international relationship, Russia always indirectly controlled Ukraine and its people. In the past when Ukraine wanted to join the European Union, Russia managed to cancel the agreement. But now that Ukraine wants to join NATO, Russia is trying to threaten them to not sign the treaty.
Now Russia is determined to take over Ukraine completely as Ukraine has decided to join NATO (Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation) which is an intergovernmental military alliance which stands in protection for the members of NATO during the times of emergency. Russia has aligned its thousands of its soldiers near the borders of Ukraine who are waiting for the orders to enter Ukrainian territory. Russia is against the decision of Ukraine joining NATO, because the other countries who have joined NATO are all the neighbouring countries of Russia who are rising in power. If Ukraine too joins them, the geopolitical pressure will increase on Russia and hence to stop this, Russia is pressurizing Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Vladimir Putin, the current President of Russia, has made many statements which clearly states that Russia is in the plan to invade Ukraine who wants to join NATO. In a recent social media interaction he has said that the Soviet Union partition is a major Humanitarian tragedy as more than 25 million Russians have been cut off from Russia and have been segregated in different independent countries of the Soviet Union. He also believes that Ukrainians are a part of Russia and its culture and always have made efforts to get Ukraine within Russian territory.
When it comes to Ukrainians, the country is divided into two sets of people. People residing near the border of Russia want to join Russian territory and want to be called as Russians while the other part of the country wants to be a part of Ukraine and remain independent which constitutes more than the half of the majority.
Vladimir Putin declared war against Ukraine recently in a television address and said that the military actions announced by him will ‘demilitarize’ Ukraine very soon and just a few minutes after his announcement loud explosions were heard in different parts of Ukraine. He also said that he is not intending to invade Ukraine but is doing so in self-defense as Ukraine is rising as a nuclear power and may attack Russia. They are attacking Ukraine through land, sea and air.
Civilians have also observed the military tanks from Russia being moving around the borders of Ukraine and also the US satellite has confirmed 1000 of military vans and army tanks are moving towards Ukraine.
NATO has asked the Russian Government to keep its attacks on hold as they will be talking to the other member countries of NATO to prepare themselves to help Ukraine to fight against the Russian army. The neighbouring countries of Ukraine have already kept their refugee ready, but they are not standing in to initiate any war but only to protect their territory and Ukraine’s territory when severely attacked by the Russian army.
After the explosions have started there are a few changes happening in the European countries. One of them is that the natural gas and oil supply that many European countries got from Russia are almost shut now and in the near future people are estimating that there will be no gas supply as well as oil supply and this will affect the prices of natural gas and oil worldwide. Many websites, banks and Governmental websites have been hacked in Ukraine and are resulting in huge losses. The stock prices in the European markets sinks and a huge downfall is observed after the attacks be it the real estate, oil & gas, food & beverages, utilities or media all are facing a downfall. All these sanctions, restrictions and downfall are all signs of huge threat to the world. The US has also warned Russia from doing anything further as they are breaking the International rules by declaring war against Ukraine.
Ukraine has declared that the air missiles Russia is using against Ukraine has resulted in death of 40 soldiers and 10 civilians which is a sign that Russia will further move towards Ukraine and invade them completely.
NATO decided to meet immediately to decide the help that they could extend to Ukraine during the emergency declared by them. They had decided to hold the meeting on 24th February, 2022 but at the last minute they decided to call off the meeting and hold it on the 25th of February, 2022. Ukraine is moving forward to fight against the Russian army believing that NATO will help them but NATO had decided earlier itself that the NATO army will not be present to help Ukraine to fight against Russia but they will help them economically and assure that they will build pressure to weaken Russia and its army. Hence the hope of additional armed forces is despaired for Ukrainians.
The further details given by Ukraine will decide the state of the country and the steps taken by President Putin against Ukraine.
