Russia vs. Ukraine

As you may have heard, Russia has officially invaded Ukraine. I decided to share my thoughts on this, because what else is this blog for? Anyways, here we go.

How it started

You may have heard of a small country that existed until 1991… the USSR? AKA the Soviet Union?

So, back in the day, the USSR was this massive country/union, that was made up of a bunch of smaller countries, including present-day1 Russia and Ukraine. After World War 2, things moving right along in this country. They had helped save the world, they founded the UN Security Council, and things were just jolly fine… until they weren’t. Now, you can read the whole story here, but in short, some republics (nations in the USSR) started getting this idea in their heads that they could exist independently of Big Daddy. In 1990, six republics2 elected their own local parties instead of the soviet communist party, which effectively made them into separate states. The USSR was already falling apart by that point, and that just made it worse.

Things kept going south for the USSR, until the end of 1991, when, and I quote from Wikipedia, “the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body, voted both itself and the country out of existence.3“
That’s kinda cool, if you ask me.

Ukraine, with their newfound independence, settled into its own, unique role in the myriad of small Eurasian countries as one of the world’s largest grain exporters. Ironically, they’re also the poorest country in Europe. Go figure.

Anyways, that’s not important. What is, is that Ukraine was a jolly little country, just trying to get along with everybody. They formed alliances with Russia and Western countries, partnered with NATO, and had a great time being an independent country like everybody else.

Until 2014.

How it’s going

For 23 years, Ukraine seemed mostly fine on the surface. Underneath, however, troubles lay. Russia was mixed in to Ukraine in ways it shouldn’t have been, meddling with elections and stuff. It was all pretty quiet though, with both sides taking the tensions in stride, you know, just neighborly stuff.

But in November 13, the Ukrainian president refused to sign a trade agreement with the EU. That sparked massive protests, which went on for months, until the president ditched from the capital. The protestors took control, and parliament voted the president out. He then went crying to Daddy Russia, who decided to step in and take control of what they considered to be an illegal coup.

Most of Ukraine obviously wanted nothing to do with Russia, and fought and protested accordingly. However, a few areas, namely Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk, were more Russian-leaning. In the aftermath of the protests, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, and decided they were now independent from Ukraine and a subject of Russia. They were alone in that decision, as most countries (and Ukraine, obviously,) said it was all complete nonsense.

A month or so later, Luhansk and Donetsk decided (with Russian…encouragement) that they, too, were sovereign states, more Russian than Ukrainian. Russia obviously welcomed them with open arms, while Ukraine considered them terrorist organizations.

Now they were no longer friendly neighbors. Russia kept causing problems, especially with its little pseudo-states, and Ukraine tried to join the EU and NATO, to get some support from the big Western countries. While there wasn’t really any overt fighting between them, things were heating up. Borders became restricted, trade slowed, and skirmishes proliferated.

How it went down

This whole not-ideal situation kept going, with the pseudo-states driving Ukraine nuts, for about 8 years.

Then towards the end of 2021, Russia started amassing an army.
Troops rolled in and surrounded every part of the border Russia shared with Ukraine, and more – Belarus allowed Russia to use their land as a staging ground. The threat of war loomed large4.

At the same time, Russia publicly derided NATO, and Ukraine’s desire to join. They started saying some very not nice things about where they thought Ukraine belonged. Putin, in particular, piled on the accusations, including that Ukraine was committing “genocide” and that they were “neo-Nazis”.

And then, well, stuff hit the fan.

Russia started fighting, using the pseudo-states (known as the Donbas region), against Ukraine. Russia claimed that Ukraine was killing people and sending saboteurs into Russia, and said that the fighting was simply to keep the peace.
Until this point, the “real” war hadn’t officially started, because Russian troops from Russia hadn’t started fighting Ukraine yet.

But on February 24, 2022, a UN Security Council5 was called to basically beg Russia to stop the escalation. During the meeting, though, Putin made the announcement – Russia officially declared war, and sent troops rolling in to Ukraine. Simultaneously, they started bombing all across the country. The meeting ended with the Ukrainian representative begging Russia to stop before it was too late.

There’s one incident in particular which is chilling, but also proud. There’s a little island south of Ukraine, and owned by them, called Snake Island in english. There were exactly 13 soldiers guarding this little island when a Russian warship came upon them. The ship announced on the radio, “I am a Russian warship. I ask you to lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise, you will be bombed.”
The Ukrainians response?
“Russian warship, go f*** yourself.6“
The ship went and bombed the island, killing the 13 brave soldiers.

The whole war is certainly terrifying and devastating for the Ukrainians, but there are some comical moments, such as when a citizen passes by a Russian tank on the road, that had run out of gas, and offered to help. Or when an older woman gives Russian soldiers sunflower seeds, so “at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here”.

There’s also the cool move by Elon Musk, where he gave tons of Starlink satellite dishes to Ukraine, so they could have internet coverage when Russia shut their internet down.

But I’m not going to go into the whole war play-by-play7. Instead, here’s a more macro perspective on things.

Russia wants Ukraine. One thing they know, is that the world essentially can’t stop them, due to the threat of nuclear war. If any nuclear country joins in the fighting, Russia will retaliate, and in a significant manner. They have actually said as much.
So, instead, the countries of the world have resorted to sending funds and weapons to Ukraine, and sanctions – cutting Russia off from the world economically. They’re no longer allowed to use Swift (a global banking system), and companies have ceased business with them, like AMD and Intel, who have stopped selling computer chips to them.

The problem is, Russia, frankly, doesn’t care. They seem perfectly fine letting the whole world reel in shock and scramble while they pillage and plunder. All this gives off the perception that the world doesn’t care about what’s going on. I wouldn’t say that’s true, but it’s not exactly unfounded either. We’re not actually going in and helping Ukraine out in the ground combat, but our hands are kinda tied. This is the sort of situation that needed to be stopped before it happened.8

It’s interesting to note that there seems to be a significant portion of the Russian populace were either unaware of the true nature of the attack, or opposed to it. There are protests happening in Moscow, against the war, even after the Kremlin outlawed protests. And there are stories coming out that soldiers were told they were going simply for a training mission in Ukraine.

So, anyways…

Russia might be winning as of now against Ukraine, but they are holding up surprisingly well. Many have predicted that Kyiv, the capital, would fall pretty quick, but as of now it’s still under Ukrainian control.

It’s kinda crazy that, in the 21^st century, we can still have countries fighting it out over land. It almost feels like the world is set in stone, in this age where all the expansion is digital, and all land is claimed by someone or another. But this just goes to show, that isn’t the case.

Anyways, who knows how this will end?
Ceasefire?
Russia backs down?
Nuclear war?

Only time will tell.

Until then, hold on, Ukraine! The world is on your side.