Russia: Russo-Ukrainian War

In an effort to resolve the conflict in E Ukraine over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, an international group of negotiators along with representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the E regional leaders met in Misk, Belarus. The resulting Minsk Accords (Misk Protocol, signed Sept., 2014 and Minsk II, signed Feb., 2015) reduced the intensity of intermitent fighting in the region, but were never fully implemented.

In 2021, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy began appealing to Western nations and Europe to allow Ukraine to join the NATO alliance, an action strongly opposed by Russia. In response, Russia began massing troops along Ukraine's E border throughout the year. In late 2021, Russia issued demands that Western nations bar Ukraine from NATO, which were rejected by the alliance. In Feb., 2022, the United States announced a reinforcement of troops to Poland and Romania and on Feb. 24, 2022, Putin authorized "special miliary operations" in Ukraine, followed by missle and artillery attacks on Ukrainian cities and the movement of Russian troops into Ukraine.

The West responded with broad sanctions against Russin, including the international banking system and with shipments of arms and ammunition to Ukraine. In the early stages of the conflict in Mar. and Apr. saw rapid Russian advances into Ukraine, including areas outlying the capitol Kyiv, but after securing the breakaway E regions in Donbas, Russian combat efforts faltered and were pushed back by Ukrainian counterattacks over the summer. For the next year, fighting in E Ukraine settled into a stalemate, with neither side seeing an advange in what quickly became trench warfare. In Sept. 2022, Russian announced the unilateral annexation of much of the Donbas region.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine caused a humanitarian crisis as millions of Ukrainians were displaced internally and millions more fled the country for Western Europe.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Russo-Ukrainian War
• Post-Soviet Russia
• War and Revolution
• Reaction, Reform, and RevolutionExpansion
• Empire and European Eminence
• Consolidation of the Russian State
• Early Russia
• History
• Government
• Russian Far East
• Northern and Northeastern Siberia
• Eastern Siberia
• Western Siberia
• Ural Area
• North Caucasus
• Volga
• North and Northwest European Area
• Central European Area
• General
• Religion and Education
• Political Subdivisions and Major Cities
• Population and Ethnic Groups
• Major Geographic Features
• Bibliography

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