But these ties do not make them historically identical, as Putin has repeatedly claimed in his public rhetoric. Ukraine and Russia have significant, deep, and longstanding cultural and historical ties both date their political origins back to the ninth-century Slavic kingdom of Kievan Rus. Why he would want to do this is a more complex story, one that emerges out of the very long arc of Russian-Ukrainian relations.
Though the claims of genocide and Nazi rule in Kyiv were transparently false, the rhetoric revealed Putin’s maximalist war aims: regime change (“de-Nazification”) and the elimination of Ukraine’s status as a sovereign state outside of Russian control (“demilitarization”). In a televised speech announcing Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the invasion was designed to stop a “genocide” perpetrated by “the Kyiv regime” - and ultimately to achieve “the demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.” It is a comprehensive guide to understanding what is happening in Ukraine and why it matters. What follows is an attempt to make sense of all of this: to tackle the biggest questions everyone is asking about the war. Around the world, from Washington to Berlin to Beijing, global powers have reacted in striking and even historically unprecedented fashion.
As the war has progressed, the widely predicted Russian victory has failed to emerge as Ukrainian fighters have repeatedly fended off attacks from a vastly superior force. The Russian war in Ukraine has proven itself to be one of the most consequential political events of our time - and one of the most confusing.įrom the outset, Russia’s decision to invade was hard to understand it seemed at odds with what most experts saw as Russia’s strategic interests.
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