Events led up to this conflict
It was started back in 1922 with the creation of Soviet Union, which was a union of 15 republican states. Then in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed due to a variety political and economical reasons. On August 24th of 1991 Ukraine declared its independence and has since distanced itself from its Russian imperial legacy to ultimately gain closer ties with the westland pursue democracy.
Since their independence there have been two revolutions in Ukraine, one in 2005 and 2014. Both times protesters rejected Russian supremacy and sought joining European union and NATO the North Atlantic treaty organization.
2014 Revolution
In the most recent revolution, in 2014 the Ukraine president at the time Viktor Yanukovych rejected an association agreement with European Union in favor of closer ties with Russia, which led to his removal from office. Russia then responded by annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and supported the separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine and the west accused Russia of sending its troops and weapons to back the rebels. But Russia claims that those who joined the separatists were volunteers. Aproximately 14000 people died in the fighting that took place in Eastern Ukraine.
WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW?
In 2015, a peace agreement was broken between with help of France and Germany to help stop large scale battles. But there has continued to be conflicts in the region. More recently in 2021 and up until today there has been a spike in violations claimed by both Ukraine and Russia to that peace agreement. In addition to a large concentration of 100000 Russian troops placed near the border between Russia and Ukraine .
Amid the accusations, Russia has rejected a four way meeting with Ukraine, France and Germany, saying it's useless. In the views of Ukraine's refusal to abide by the 2015 agreement. Russia has also strongly criticized the US and its NATO allies for providing Ukraine with weapons and holding joint drills, saying that it encourages Ukrainian hawks to try to regain the rebel held areas by force. Since the collapsed of the Soviet Union Russia has been led by three presidents with Vladimir Putin holding office for 17 of the last 30 years and with laws recently put in place, that enables him to stay in power until 2036.
Putin describes Russians and Ukrainians as one people, and claims that Ukraine has received historic Russian lands during Soviet times. Putin has strongly emphasized that Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO, represents a red line that cannot cross. Russian has also expressed concerns about plans by some NATO members to set up military training centers in Ukraine. Putin also seeks legal guarantees with the US and it's allies that excludes NATO from moving any further east. He belives that it threatens Russia security of its western border.
It is possible that the placement of troops is no coincidence as he seeks to energize nationalist support amid the pandemic a stumbling economy and some of the largest anti Putin protests in years. So what is the response from the United States and NATO, President Biden and the Pentagon have put about 8500 US based troops on heightened alert for potential deployment and only if the NATO alliance decides to activate, what it calls the NATO response force, a multinational force totaling about 40000 troops.
Most of the 8500 US troops being put on high alert would be sent as part of that response force. NATO has stated that Putin's demand to bar Ukraine from joining NATO and the other NATO actions be curtailed are acceptable. TUA NATO is taking all necessary measures to protect and defend their allies. This has included military preparations from several countries including Denmark, Lithuania, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Putin critics argue that what really fears is not NATO but the emergence of democratic prospering Ukraine that could offer an alternative to Putin's increasingly autocratic rule.
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/ukraine-russia-news-02-23-22/index.html
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