What is happening in Ukraine, what does Putin want with this war, how does Ukraine react: the conflict has many facets, but here are the answers to five questions in order to understand the essence of the recently unleashed war in Ukraine.
1. What is happening in Ukraine?
At 5:30 a.m. Moscow time (9:30 p.m. in Quebec), the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, gave a speech while appearing on television. He announced that he had taken the decision for “a special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine, brandishing false accusations of “genocide” by the Kiev government to justify his invasion.
Detonations and sirens began to sound a few minutes later, not far from the Ukrainian capital. The first attacks targeted the strategic ports of Mariupol and Odessa in the south of the country, the city of Kramatorsk in the east, the city of Kharkiv in the north, as well as the capital Kiev, reports Agence France-Presse. less than ten hours after Vladimir Putin’s announcement. The Russian authorities affirm for their part that their attacks were particularly aimed at Ukrainian military sites and that these are now out of harm’s way. In total, 74 military installations were destroyed, including 11 airfields, assures Russia. This information has not yet been independently verified.
In the morning, the Ukrainian authorities reported an initial assessment of fifty dead, including ten civilians. A civil defense spokesman said civilian evacuation operations were hampered by heavy artillery fire and poor communications.
While the Ukrainian army claims to have killed “about 50 Russian occupiers”, the spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense claims that its troops are gaining ground in the east of the country.
Vladimir Putin took advantage of his 56-minute speech to warn those who would like to attack Russia, recalling that his country is one of the greatest nuclear powers. “In this regard, no one should ignore that a direct attack on Russia will bring destruction and disastrous consequences for potential aggressors,” the Russian president said.
Hours before the speech, numerous cyberattacks had already begun to take the websites of major Ukrainian ministries offline.
2. How did Ukraine react?
“Don’t panic, we are ready for anything, we will win,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video message on Facebook dedicated to his fellow citizens, shortly after Vladimir Putin’s Thursday morning speech.
The president, in office since 2019, also indicated that it was necessary to create an “anti-Putin coalition” in order to force peace with Russia. Another post on his profile reads, “Only peace will help us defeat the enemy. »
By then, Ukraine has started to evacuate its civilians. The Polish Minister of the Interior has also announced that the first nine “reception centers” for Ukrainian refugees will soon be opened. However, this is a short-term solution. The Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, indicated live on the radio this morning that Poland was not particularly well equipped to welcome such a large number of people.
The European Union (EU) has also said it is ready to welcome refugees, although some member countries have not confirmed offering this support at this time.
The staff of the Ukrainian army in parallel indicated to have shot down five planes and a helicopter of the aggressor in the morning Thursday. This is a tiny portion of Russian artillery, which is massively larger than that of Ukraine.
Hours earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky gave an emotional speech in Russian, urging civil society in Russia to pressure its leaders to prevent war.
3. How did Russia come to invade Ukraine?
In order to understand how Russia came to invade Ukraine, we have to go back nearly 14 years. Here is a video that summarizes the escalation of conflict in less than three minutes.
4. What is Putin’s will with this invasion?
Although Ukraine has been an independent territory since 1991, the year of the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), it seems that the Russian president wants to reunite the two countries.
On July 12, 2021, Vladimir Putin published a long essay “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians” where he indicated that these two peoples were in fact only one. He also suggested that the West had corrupted Ukraine and forced the country to change its identity.
That same speech was presented to the nation on Monday as the Russian president recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, two pro-Russian breakaway People’s Republics of Ukraine. These two regions in the east of the country declared their independence after referendums, but the international community does not recognize them.
The Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, condemns this decision by Russia. ” [Cela] further jeopardizes Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, undermines efforts to resolve the conflict, and violates the Minsk agreements, to which Russia is a party. »
During his morning speech, the Russian president assured that he did not want the “occupation” of Ukraine, but rather its “demilitarization”.
5. When can we expect a de-escalation?
The duration of this conflict is impossible to predict. Pressure from various powerful governments, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, is great, but so far has not dampened Russia’s enthusiasm.
Some experts fear that this conflict is only the tip of the iceberg of a war that would encompass Eastern Europe. In view of the expansionist visions of Vladimir Putin, suspected of wallowing in his illusions, this scenario is likely.
French President Emmanuel Macron promised in a speech at the Élysée on Thursday that France and its allies will decide on sanctions “without weakness” against Russia, both “militarily and economically as well as in the field of energy. »
At the end of an emergency Defense Council meeting, the French President declared: “The events of this night are a turning point in the history of Europe and our country. They will have lasting, profound consequences on our lives and on the geopolitics of our continent. »
With Jean-Louis Bordeleau