Why is Russia invading Ukraine?
UKRAINE has been under constant attack since Russian troops pushed forward into the country.
Regions of Ukraine have been contested for many years, with the annexation of Crimea sparking international disapproval.
Why is Russia invading Ukraine?
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Russia was not planning to attack Ukraine in December 2021, as armed forces appeared to be training near the Ukraine border.
The Armed Forces Chief Valery Gerasimov even denounced reports of an impending invasion, saying it was false information.
Gerasimov claimed that more than 95 percent of Moscow's ground-based strategic nuclear forces are "kept in constant readiness for combat use".
These statements were overturned on February 24, 2022, when Russia launched an invasion on Ukraine.
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It is believed that Putin wants to reclaim many territories lost at the fall of the Soviet Union, although he initially called the invasion a "peacekeeping mission."
He first made inroads into Ukraine back in 2014 when Russian troops illegally annexed the Crimea peninsula - sparking international condemnation.
The conflict has raged in Eastern Ukraine ever since as Putin-backed rebels began fighting against the Ukrainian government in the disputed Donbas region.
And on February 21, 2022, Putin signed a decree recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk rebel republic.
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Weeks earlier, British nationals were told to leave Ukraine while commercial routes were still open as tensions in the region rose.
However, nearly seven months into the war, Ukraine has held the country's capital, Kyiv, despite Russia's repeated attempts to seize it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to NATO for help to protect their country.
Although Putin threatened nuclear offense on NATO should the countries intervene, the US and other NATO allies sent Ukraine high-tech weapons that outstripped Russia's outdated aircraft and military tankers.
Ukraine announced it had recaptured 6,000 sq km (2,317 sq miles) of territory in the Kharkiv region of the country.
Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute told the BBC that the Russian opposition in Kharkiv suffered a "total collapse," and their withdrawal from the region was "certainly the most dramatic reverse that we've seen from the Russians since they retreated from Kyiv in April."
Ukraine also made a prisoner exchange with Russia, trading one man for 215 Ukrainian fighters.
Among those who were returned to Ukraine were soldiers, border guards, police officers, and several fighters who were pregnant.
The man, pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk was returned to Russia but the decision was something Zelenskyy's top adviser, Andriy Yermak, said was worth it.
“President Volodymyr Zelensky gave a clear order to return our heroes. The result: our heroes are free,” Yermak said in a statement.
Is President Vladimir Putin mobilizing more troops?
Putin announced he is mobilizing 300k more troops to be sent to Ukraine.
The response from those eligible to be mobilized has been swift as flights from Russia to Armenia and areas of Turkey were booked and the remaining flight prices rose to an astounding 9,200 euros ($9,119).
All flights out of Russia had sold out by the evening of September 21, 2022, the same day Putin announced the mobilization.
The flights were booked to countries that don't have visa restrictions, and those who want to flee the mobilization will not be able to travel to neighboring countries, such as Latvia.
The foreign minister of Latvia cited security concerns and told The Washington Post that his country “will not issue humanitarian or other types of visas to those Russian citizens who avoid mobilization."
The EU has banned Russian flights from their airspace and has made it more difficult and costly for Russian citizens to acquire tourist visas.
Since the war began, Putin has worked to keep Russian life as normal as possible, telling citizens they were on a "peacekeeping mission" against Ukraine and most recently, the Western world.
"Washington, London, and Brussels are openly urging Kyiv to bring the fight to Russian territory and defeat Moscow by any means," Putin said in a speech on September 21, 2022.
In his speech, Putin alleged that Russia is under siege by "the collective West."
The majority of those drafted to join the war in Ukraine do not have military training, and Rob Lee, a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia program said on Twitter that Putin's announcement is “one of the most significant/riskiest political decisions Putin has ever made.”
Lee continued, writing: “... The war will now increasingly be fought on the Russian side by people who do not want to be there."
Are Russian citizens protesting?
His announcement sparked national outrage and protests for the first time since the war began.
The Washington Post reported that more than 1,300 people have been arrested after taking to the streets in protest according to OVD-Info, a human rights watchdog that monitors Russian police activity.
Protestors yelled: “Send Putin to the trenches!” and “Let our children live!” as riot police are seen in videos dragging them away.
Protesting the government and using the word "war" is illegal in Russia and will lead to arrest and up to 15 years in prison.
Prior to the 1,300 arrests, OVD-Info reported that 16,500 people had already been detained for antiwar activity since March 2022.
The protests gathered in 38 cities across Russia, and one man in Novosibirsk was taken away after telling police officers, “I don’t want to die for Putin and for you," The New York Times reported.
Russian citizens are now expressing shock and anger at the mobilization as men are taken from their homes and bussed in droves to a military base for 15 days of training before being sent to Ukraine.
A petition is being passed around and had received 348,333 signatures in less than 24 hours.
The petition says: "We, the citizens of Russia, women, and men, oppose general and partial mobilization. President Vladimir Putin does not have and cannot have legal grounds, balanced and reasoned reasons for announcing it.
"In the current situation of uncertainty, we are not ready to expose the men of our country – brothers, sons, husbands, fathers, and grandfathers – to moral, moral, or physical danger."
Anastasia, a resident of St. Petersburg, is one of the petition's organizers and told The New York Times that people are in shock because they didn't believe a mobilization would happen.
“Even yesterday we thought that it couldn’t happen,” she said, speaking of the day before Putin gave his address to the nation.
She continued: “But it seems to me that today people are still in shock that it is happening. And they finally realized: ‘This concerns me, too.’”
Russia-Ukraine conflict timeline
2014
In February, 77 protesters were killed by security forces in Kyiv.
President Yanukovych fled to Russia and the opposition took over.
In March, Russian forces took over Crimea - causing the biggest East vs West showdown since the Cold War.
As a result, Russia was hit by harsh sanctions.
In April, pro-Russian armed groups seized parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions on the Russian border.
In July, 298 people were killed when pro-Russian forces shot down a Malaysian airliner over the eastern Ukraine conflict zone.
In September, Nato confirmed that Russian troops had entered eastern Ukraine with heavy military equipment.
2015
In February a ceasefire was announced when Germany and France brokered a new Donbas deal at talks in Belarus, known as the Minsk agreement.
2018
In May, President Putin officially announced he was opening a bridge linking Russia to Crimea.
Ukraine called these actions illegal.
2019
Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners who were captured in the wake of Moscow's seizure of Crimea and intervention in the Donbas region.
2021
Putin moved tens of thousands of troops and heavy military equipment to the border with Ukraine.
Russia moved to land ships from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea for the first time since the end of the Soviet era.
During this time Ukraine also conducted military exercises off Crimea and called for Nato membership.
2022
On February 22, 2022, a UK minister confirmed the "invasion of Ukraine had begun" as Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on a "peacekeeping mission."
Hours later tanks were spotted crossing the border as fears mounted that Moscow was poised to move beyond the rebel-held pockets to snatch more territory from Ukraine.
Russia also sent troops into Belarus, a close ally, saying the deployment was part of joint military drills.
On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine and took over several parts of the country including Chernobyl, where the nuclear accident took place in 1986, and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Ukraine has resisted as Nato placed sanctions on Russia and Belarus in an effort to deteriorate the Russian economy.
Visa and Mastercard suspended all Russian business operations while Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson slapped Russian oligarchs with asset freezing sanctions.
Citizens lined up to join the Ukrainian army, including other international volunteers.
One volunteer, Volodymyr Onysko, told Sky News: "We know why we are here.
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"We know why we defend our country. And our guys are actually standing there and fighting Russian military forces.
"We know what we are doing and that's why we will win."