Browsing: Russia-Ukraine crisis

Russia-Ukraine crisis

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, marking a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014 following the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. 

The invasion triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis since WW2, with millions leaving the country and millions more displaced. 

Russia invades Ukraine 2022 

In 2014, at the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatists seized part of the south-eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, sparking a regional war there. 

In 2022, Russia began a large military build-up along its Ukrainian border – over 190,000 armed troops. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had continued to deny Russia was planning an invasion until shortly before the invasion. 

In a broadcast shortly before the invasion, Putin espoused irredentist views, questioned Ukraine’s right to statehood and falsely claimed the country was being governed by neo-Nazis. Putin also claimed NATO constitutes a threat to Russia’s national security by expanding eastward since the early 2000s, which NATO disputed. Russia demanded NATO cease expansion and bar Ukraine from ever joining. The UK, USA and allies all accused Russia of planning to attack or invade Ukraine, Russian officials and state media continued to deny it up until 23 February 2022. 

The invasion began on 24 February – Putin announced it was a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine. Russia then started missiles and airstrikes across Ukraine as well as a large ground invasion from multiple directions. 

The invasion has been widely condemned by the international community.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine hasn’t gone entirely to plan as the Russians underestimated the Ukrainian people’s will to fight for their country. 

Kyiv claims Moscow used chemical weapons near Zaporizhzhia EU

Russian forces used used chemical munitions in the area of Novodanylivka in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Sunday, the Ukrainian military said on Monday. “The enemy continues to use chemical munitions, violating all conventions,” said General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, the commander of the Tavria operational-strategic group of troops. FRANCE 24 correspondent Emmanuelle Chaze explains, adding that this is “nothing new”.

Explosions from thwarted drone attack rock Moscow business district EU

Explosions from a thwarted drone attack rocked a Moscow business district on July 30, 2023. In Ukraine, an overnight Russian missile strike killed at least one person in the northeastern city of Sumy; a Russian missile strike on Saturday killed two people in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Aftermath of the drone attack on Moscow (Picture: Reuters/east2west)

A skyscraper located near Russia’s Defence Ministry went up in flames after a strike in the early hours of this morning.

Drones struck two non-residential buildings in Moscow, with authorities accusing Ukraine of launching a ‘terrorist’ attack.

Footage showed the top of the high-rise burning with grey smoke rising in the sky.

Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin confirmed no one was injured in the incident as the military jammed both drones, forcing them to crash.

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One fell on Komsomolsky Prospekt near the city centre, close to the main defence ministry building, Russian media reported.

Another hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting its upper floors.

‘On the morning of July 24, an attempt by the Kyiv regime to launch a terrorist attack using two unmanned aerial vehicles against facilities on the territory of the city of Moscow was thwarted,’ the ministry said on Telegram.

‘Two Ukrainian UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) were suppressed by electronic warfare means and crashed.’

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Live: Russia says it thwarted two drone attacks on buildings in Moscow EU

Two Ukraine-launched drones attacked Moscow early on Monday, but were intercepted and destroyed, Russia’s defence ministry said. State news agencies reported that drone fragments were found 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the ministry’s buildings. Calling it a “terrorist attack,” the defence ministry said on its Telegram messaging app that there were no casualties in the attack. Read our live blog for all the latest developments in the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).