Although in college I majored in history, with a focus on 19th century American history, my minor was political science with a focus on the Soviet Union and Russia. So I studied Russian history and culture, took three semesters of Russian language and one of Russian literature, and a variety of courses about the collapse of the Soviet Union, the political reshaping of Eastern Europe (including the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia), and post-Communism Russia. It’s a fascinating country, and has loomed large in the history of Europe, particularly its neighbors in Eastern Europe, like Ukraine. I have admired Russian writers, adored Russian composers, and occasionally tried some Russian food, although frankly I liked the food much less than other aspects of Russian culture. Making Russian friends also gave me the chance to practice my Russian language skills, and my mastery of Russian profanity and idioms made some of my Russian friends laugh and at least one stop in her tracks and say “Where did you learn THAT?” My background in Russian also came in handy a bit when I worked in the defense industry. But after I left the industry in 2009, I just didn’t really get the chance to do much with all that knowledge anymore.
Then in 2013, something happened in Ukraine. The Ukrainian parliament had voted overwhelmingly in favor of an agreement with the European Union that the President of Ukraine (Viktor Yanukovych) then refused to sign, apparently due to influence from Russia. Protests began in Independence Square in Kyiv that quickly grew massive as Ukrainians wanting closer relations with Europe began demanding the resignation of not only President Yanukovych but the entire Azarov government as well. The protests which began in November 2013 became known as Yevromaidan (or more commonly in English, Euromaidan) after a Twitter account appeared with that name and quickly gained popularity. Euromaidan soon became the largest pro-democracy movement in Europe since 1989. Protestors were particularly angry with Yanukovych’s blatant corruption, official malfeasance, and especially human rights violations, which was further emphasized by his crackdown on protesters beginning on November 30th, resulting in dozens of people injured (including several journalists) after numerous excessive force incidents by the Berkut riot police. The response by the public was overwhelmingly in support of the protesters, and more than 500,000 Kyivans (some estimates went as high as 800,000) joined them in the streets. Violence continued to escalate the following day and then on December 11 a government force of about 4,000 Berkut, VV internal troops, and government-paid street thugs (known as Titushky) attacked the protester camp just after 1 AM with the intent to clear it out. People were summoned to the square by the ringing of the bells of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery continuously for four hours. Ultimately the protesters prevailed and pushed the government forces completely out of the square.
The government responded by passing severe laws against public protests. This precipitated violent clashes between protesters and police on Hrushevsky Street not far from Independence Square between January 19 and January 22nd, 2014. This led to the occupation of government buildings by protesters all over Ukraine. The anti-protest laws were repealed (mostly) and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov resigned on January 28th. This, plus an amnesty issued to protesters on February 16th, calmed tensions down briefly before violence again broke out on February 18th. The worst violence was on February 20th, when the outbreak of protests that became known as the Revolution of Dignity led to the deaths of nearly 100 protesters and 13 police officers. Most of the protester deaths were from rooftop police snipers, who began firing on the protesters as they advanced. The following day an agreement was signed between Yanukovych and his political opposition that organized an interim government and created reforms such as changes in the constitution and new elections. Despite signing the agreement, and despite the fact that he would have remained president (with some of his powers limited), Yanukovych fled Kyiv in secret that evening. The next day the Ukrainian parliament voted unanimously to remove Yanukovych since he had abandoned his official duties and also voted to reinstate the 2004 constitution.
Yanukovych had fled to Russia, where he had a press conference on February 28th. He declared the planned elections in Ukraine “illegal.” In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared what happened in Ukraine a “coup” while at the same time ordering the Russian military to make plans to seize Crimea. Beginning on February 27, 2014 Russian spetznaz (they had removed all Russian insignia but weren’t fooling anyone) seized control of most of the Ukrainian military bases in Crimea, the Simferopol Airport, and government buildings in Crimea. Putin and Russian media pretended that these “mysterious” troops were locals who had “spontaneously” risen up and uniformed and equipped themselves from military surplus stores and the Ukrainian military. But of course, it was utter bullshit – they were Russian troops seizing Ukrainian territory. Russia’s bald-faced seizure of Crimea was followed by a “referendum” on March 16, 2014 in which local voters were given two choices, neither of which was to remain Ukrainian. The campaign before the election was in essence pro-Russian, with posters accusing the new Ukrainian government of being fascists and Neo-Nazis and featuring crossed-out swastikas. Ironically, the Russians invited election observers from Europe who were entirely from European far-right political parties and groups, some of which were almost certainly actual neo-Nazis. Unsurprisingly, the observers said everything was fine with the referendum, with between 95 and 98% of votes cast in favor of becoming part of Russia. This was the first time a European country had annexed another European country’s territory since World War Two. At the same time that Russia took Crimea, protests that were pro-Russian and anti-Maidan began in parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, the parts of Ukraine where ethnic Russians were concentrated and Russian was more commonly spoken. In the eastern Donbas, this became an active conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the new Ukrainian government. Again, the Russians secretly fed the conflict with men and materiel. By August, 2014 Ukraine had regained much of its territory, which in turn led the Russians to step up their military intervention and help the pro-Russian forces take back most of the lost territory.
An agreement was signed in Minsk in September 2014 that implemented a cease-fire and was supposed to lead to elections in December. But the separatists preempted this with their own elections in November, which of course the Russians embraced, in defiance of the Minsk agreement they had signed. In January 2015 the Russians sent another sizable military force into the war to help the separatists and Ukraine lost control of Donetsk and Debaltseve by the end of the month. So in February a second attempt at peace was made in Minsk with the participation of Belarus, Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine. Ukraine was struggling. Russia was pouring weapons and soldiers into the area while still pretending that they weren’t, even arguing that they couldn’t help with the implementation of the new Minsk agreement because they weren’t really involved in the war. This absurdity was further complicated by repeated violations of the ceasefire and also by the arguments between the combatants over local elections in the two Ukrainian Oblasts where the separatists were concentrated: Donetsk and Luhansk. After being postponed from the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, the elections were postponed to July and then postponed again to November 2016.
This mess continued, more or less, until 2019 when a new agreement was signed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ukraine, Russia, and the Russian-controlled oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk with their weird Russian-controlled-but-pretending-not-to-be governments. I am not going to try to coherently explain that whole period because frankly, it’s a huge mess. I don’t understand everything, and I have studied it closely. By this time Volodymyr Zelenskyy had been elected President of Ukraine, and his whole story (though fascinating) is beyond the scope of this post. But just know that Zelenskyy tried in good faith (I believe) to end the war in Donbas through the Minsk agreements and probably still thought he could have talks with Putin and achieve peace as late as 2021 or possibly early 2022. But Putin has never, ever, ever, in my opinion, negotiated in good faith. Even after massive troops buildups near the Ukrainian border, Russian officials kept insisting that Russia did not have plans to invade Ukraine as late as February 23, 2022. And so naturally they invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
That brings us up to the war as it currently taking place. It is the largest and bloodiest (by far) war in Europe since World War Two. And the reason it is happening at all is entirely due to Vladimir Putin and Russia. Russia seems to have thought it would be able to capture Kyiv within a few days, and basically control the country within less than two weeks. Putin’s speech he gave on Russian media at the start of the invasion was full of all sorts of ridiculous and totally baseless claims: Russian troops were “peacekeepers” coming in to save the people of Donetsk and Luhansk from Ukrainian “neo-Nazis” that were controlled by the West. He also claimed that Ukraine was committing genocide against ethnic Russians, that Ukraine was trying to build nuclear weapons, and that they were allowing NATO to build secret bases on their territory or some shit. He also claimed Russia just wanted the “demilitarization and deNazification” of Ukraine. The amount of horseshit that is flowing out of Russia concerning Ukraine and the war is enough to fertilize the Sahara Desert. People pushing the Russian talking points CANNOT BE TRUSTED. Sadly, that includes a lot of westerners, including Americans from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum. If you think that they aren’t doing it for the money (and I am willing to bet a lot of them are in fact being paid by Russia), you are probably wrong.
I still love much about Russian history and culture. But Russia is led by one of the most awful people on the planet, and nothing and no one will convince me otherwise, ever. The day he is gone will be a joyous day for humanity, kind of like a certain orange person we all know and hate.
So, anyway. Whew. That was a lot of work. Hopefully a good summary. My apologies for the preponderance of Wikipedia links, but since most media is now stuck behind paywalls, my options are much more limited.
-Geoff
