A Brief History of Events Leading Up to the Russia-Ukraine War

A Brief History of Events Leading Up to the Russia-Ukraine War

This article relates to Looking at Women Looking at War

Victoria Amelina (1986–2023) was a Ukrainian novelist. She spent the last months of her life researching war crimes committed by Russian soldiers during their invasion of her country.

Those of us in the United States probably think of the Russia-Ukraine War as beginning on February 24, 2022, when Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine. As Amelina makes clear in her unfinished war diary, Looking at Women Looking at War, however, those in Eastern Europe date the conflict as having started eight years earlier, in February 2014 during the Maidan Revolution (also known as the Revolution of Dignity).

In 1922, Ukraine became part of what was then the Soviet Union, but by 1991, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. Weary of Moscow's authoritarian rule, Ukrainians took advantage of the USSR's weakened state and joined several other former Soviet Bloc countries in declaring their independence. The country began to gradually adopt more Western ideals, joining NATO's Partnership for Peace in 1994 and two years later adopting a new constitution guaranteeing a separation of powers in the government. Nevertheless, the country's ideology vacillated between pro-Russian and pro-Western doctrines for the next 20 years, with some wanting to re-establish ties with Russia and others preferring to become a member of the European Union (EU).

The issue came to a head on November 21, 2013, when Ukraine's pro-Russian authoritarian president, Viktor Yanukovych, unexpectedly rejected his parliament's vote to sign a free trade agreement with the EU, opting instead to resume talks with Russia on joining the Eurasian Economic Union. Protests broke out almost immediately in Kyiv, largely around Maidan Nezalezhnosti ("Independence Square"). The demonstrations became increasingly violent, leading to rioting by January. Yanukovych signed laws forbidding protest, and "hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Kyiv in response," according to Britannica. Approximately 100 unarmed protesters were killed by police on February 20, and most Ukrainians mark this date as the start of the Russia-Ukraine War; they consider it the day that Ukraine rejected Russian control once and for all. Ultimately, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and the Ukrainian parliament resumed control on February 22, 2014.

Not everyone was pleased with the results of the revolution. The people of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, in the country's south, were largely ethnic Russians, and pro-Russia protests ensued. Masked gunmen who wore no insignia (later identified as Russian troops) began occupying key parts of the territory. Pro-Russian lawmakers dismissed the government and installed a puppet prime minister, and on March 6 voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation. The referendum went to the public 10 days later; 97 percent of the (largely suspect) vote was in favor of joining Russia. Putin's soldiers formally took control of the country and on March 18, 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Western countries and the United Nations condemned the move as a violation of international law, and many imposed sanctions. Putin countered by reminding world leaders his country possessed nuclear weapons, and the rest of the world backed down. Intermittent fighting between the Russian-backed separatists in Crimea and Ukrainian forces to the north continued along the border for the next eight years, however, with no side prevailing.

On April 21, 2019, Ukraine elected Volodymyr Zelensky president with 70 percent of the vote. Running on an anti-corruption platform, Zelensky also pledged to end the war with Russia and deepen ties with NATO. In February 2021, he began a crackdown on pro-Russian oligarchs, including Viktor Medvedchuk—who just happened to be a close friend of Vladimir Putin. Putin denounced the action and began moving troops to Ukraine's eastern border. Over the next year, he wrote articles and gave speeches insisting that Ukrainians and Russians were "one people," and claiming Ukraine's borders were thus illegitimate. He also demanded security guarantees from NATO, including that Ukraine would never be permitted to join the organization; NATO refused. Putin subsequently ordered his army to invade Ukraine on February 24, 2022, escalating the conflict to all-out war between the two countries.

Protestors in Kyiv's Independence Square, December 8, 2013, courtesy of Mstyslav Chernov/Unframe

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to Looking at Women Looking at War. It first ran in the February 26, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.