Since Thursday, February 24 at dawn, Russia has started a war once morest Ukraine. The tension continues to rise: sanctions and measures are increasing abroad, while Vladimir Putin brandishes the nuclear threat. Where is the situation and how did we get here? To see clearly, a point on the context and some of our comments and analyzes taken from the foreign press.
Article updated February 28 at 11 a.m.
Latest events:
Kiev and Moscow agreed on Sunday on the holding of talks, in which the Ukrainians do not believe very much; the negotiators arrived this Monday morning at the agreed place, on the Belarus-Ukraine border. The Russian offensive continues but encounters a resistance that Moscow had probably not expected. The Ukrainian capital Kiev, in particular, continues to resist. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday the putting the Russian deterrent forces on alert, and in particular their nuclear component, in response to “aggressive statements” of NATO countries. You will read here how the Russian press deciphers these declarations.
Western countries are increasing the announcements of airspace closures andsending arms to Ukraine ; notable fact, the European Union will for the first time finance arms supplies. On Saturday 26, Western countries decided to exclude part of Russian banks from the Swift network and to prevent the Russian Central Bank from using its foreign currency holdings, which caused a rush on the counters in Russia and a tumble ruble, Monday morning.
According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, 422,000 people have already fled Ukraine to neighboring countries. The Agency expects to reach 4 million “if the situation continues to deteriorate”. Ukraine’s Interior Minister announced on Sunday that 352 Ukrainian civilians had been killed, including 14 children.
- The offensive began on Thursday February 24, shortly before 6 a.m., when Vladimir Putin announced the outbreak of a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Missiles, bombings, tanks: at the end of this first day, Russian troops had taken control of the Chernobyl nuclear site and the death toll reached 137 according to Ukrainian President Zelensky. More details in our Thursday 24th live.
- On Monday 21, the Russian president had already taken a decisive step by announcing the recognition of the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, ordering at the same time the dispatch of troops to these territories. The Guardian observed that Putin’s reign had changed.
- The situation had been tense for several months and that an intense diplomatic ballet was at work to avoid a war. Russia has massed significant military resources on the border and demanded guarantees for its national security, in particular the commitment that Ukraine will never join NATO or the European Union and be assigned the status of a country neutral. Refusal of the Western camp, and in particular of Washington, which deployed troops in Eastern Europe.
- If the tension has risen several times, such as in the spring of 2021, the fighting has actually been taking place for eight years in the Donbass (east). They caused more than 14,000 deaths. In 2014, the mobilization on Maidan Square was welcomed by the West, which saw in it the aspiration of Ukrainian society to a rapprochement with Europe and a rejection of the corruption of Viktor Yanukovych’s power. For Moscow, it is an imperialist operation of the West, on its doorstep. Very quickly, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and supported the pro-Russian separatists in the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, which declared themselves autonomous republics.
But the foundations of this crisis are much older. To understand everything in a few minutes, our video Cards on the table, carried out in May 2021:
Video of ynGCGIWoTz4
For Kyiv
It was inevitable. Despite recent Russian denials, it was clear that Russia would eventually attack, writes the Ukrainian newspaper The, in this editorial which opens our dossier. “As long as in the Kremlin the doctrine of Russian imperialism and the reconstitution of the Soviet Union dominates, we will live under this permanent threat!”
For USA
It is the end of the world order which prevailed since the end of the cold war. In an editorial (which is also in our newsstand file), the Washington Post sweeps away Putin’s justifications: “Ukraine is not waging a ‘genocide’ once morest a Russian-speaking minority as Putin claimed, but defended itself once morest a campaign of destabilization organized by Russia in 2014 and 2015.” For the newspaper of the American capital:
The real reason he is attacking Ukraine is not Russia’s security, but the protection of his own power in Moscow, which would be threatened by another successful democratic experiment in a former Soviet republic of the size and the cultural significance of Ukraine.”
For Russia
The operation launched on February 24 is a way of bringing peace to Europe, as expressed by the Russian press. “Currently we observe the agony of a territorial formation called Ukraine, very soon the era of peace awaits Europe”, writes in particular the pro-Kremlin daily Vzgliad by evoking a return to the “stability, lost thirty years ago”, with the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian magazine Expert explains why, from Moscow’s point of view, an offensive was urgent: it would depend on the balance of nuclear forces.
For neighboring countries and elsewhere abroad
The three Baltic countries, concerned for weeks, are calling for a reinforced allied presence on their territory.
For Slovakia, supporting its neighbor Ukraine is a matter of principle and respect for its European values, says the newspaper Denník N.
Hungary is concerned regarding the fate of the Magyar minority in Ukraine and a probable influx of refugees.
Bosnia and Herzegovina sees a sad parallel between its own fate and that of Ukraine.
Germany announced that it was suspending the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Then it accepted the exclusion of Russian banks from the Swift network, announced the delivery of arms to Ukraine and decided to increase its military budget sharply – either significant reversals for the country and the anti-militarist tradition it has inherited from its history.
The European Union announced a first salvo of sanctions on Tuesday 22 February. Sunday 27, it decided to finance the sending of weapons to Ukraine, for the first time.
China stands out by not condemning Russia’s attitude and by accusing Washington of being responsible for the escalation. Drawing a parallel between Beijing and Moscow, The weather wonders if, following the Russian offensive, we will not witness a Chinese attack on Taiwan.
Cuba has clearly shown its support for Russia, “brother country”.
For further
In our file, you will also read the story of the Ukrainian writer Andrei Kurkov, who describes the strange atmosphere that prevailed in a country living under threat. But also a reflection of the historian Yuval Noah Harari on the war and a long interview of the magazine The mirror with writers Svetlana Alexievitch and Herta Müller.
In this reflective article from The Atlantic,a British journalist wonders what the populations of Western countries are ready to sacrifice of their material comfort to fight once morest the destabilization of the world order.
