B2-41 · A Country at War: Ukraine Since 2014

A Country at War: Ukraine Since 2014

For many young Ukrainians, the war is not a chapter in a history book. It is their own story: a home they had to leave, a father or a brother at the front, a new school in Poland or Czechia. This text tries to explain how the war began and what has happened since, as fairly as possible – including the parts that are uncomfortable for every side.

Crimea, 2014

In the winter of 2013–2014, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested on the Maidan in Kyiv after President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement with the European Union. More than a hundred protesters were shot, and in February 2014 Yanukovych fled to Russia. Within days, soldiers without insignia, soon nicknamed "little green men", took over the parliament and the airports of Crimea. In March, a "referendum" was held while these soldiers controlled the peninsula, and Russia annexed Crimea. Ukraine and most countries of the world have never recognized it. Vladimir Putin later admitted that the soldiers had been Russian.

Many Ukrainians felt betrayed for another reason, too. After the end of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had the third-largest nuclear arsenal in the world. In the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, it agreed to give up these weapons. In return, Russia, the United States and the United Kingdom promised to respect Ukraine's independence and its existing borders. The memorandum gave assurances, not a promise to defend Ukraine with soldiers, but few Ukrainians today believe the deal was worth it.

The war in the Donbas

In the spring of 2014, armed separatists took over government buildings in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and declared "people's republics". They were supported with weapons, officers and, later, regular troops from Russia. Ukraine sent its army in what it called an "anti-terrorist operation". No state willingly lets part of its territory break away: Spain did not accept the Catalan independence referendum of 2017, it fought the armed Basque group ETA for decades, and Britain sent soldiers to Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The difference in the Donbas was that the separatists were armed and led with the help of a powerful neighbor. In July 2014, a passenger plane, MH17, was shot down over the area by a Russian missile, and all 298 people on board were killed. By 2021, about 14,000 people had died in the conflict, roughly a quarter of them civilians.

Ukraine's side was not always innocent. In the chaotic first months, some volunteer battalions were accused by the United Nations and human rights groups of looting, illegal detention and the mistreatment of prisoners, and the Azov unit was criticized for its far-right roots. Ukrainian shelling also killed civilians in towns held by the separatists. In Odesa, on May 2, 2014, street fights between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian groups ended with a fire in which more than forty people, most of them pro-Russian activists, died; the police did little to stop it, and the investigation was slow.

February 24, 2022

Early on February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion from the north, the east and the south. Many experts expected Kyiv to fall within days. It did not. On the first morning, Russian paratroopers landed at Hostomel airport near Kyiv; Ukrainian soldiers fought back and damaged the runway so badly that Russian transport planes with more troops could not land. On tiny Snake Island in the Black Sea, the border guards were ordered to surrender by the Russian warship Moskva. Their answer – "Russian warship, go f*** yourself!" – went around the world. The guards were captured, but they survived and were later exchanged, and the Moskva sank in April after a Ukrainian missile attack. Near Henichesk, the marine engineer Vitalii Skakun blew up a bridge from Crimea to slow down Russian tanks. He had no time to get away and died in the explosion.

When Russian troops left the area around Kyiv at the end of March, the world saw the streets of Bucha, where hundreds of civilians had been killed. Millions of people fled abroad; Poland and Czechia took in more refugees per person than almost any other country. At the same time, honest reporting has to include problems on the Ukrainian side too: UN investigators have documented cases of Ukrainian soldiers mistreating Russian prisoners, although far fewer than the reverse, corruption scandals over army supplies have angered many Ukrainians, and the way some men were taken to recruitment offices has caused bitter arguments.

Why it matters

How and when the war will end is still uncertain at the time of writing. What is certain is that it has changed millions of lives, including those of many readers of this book. Learning to talk about it calmly and honestly, with facts and without hatred, is one of the hardest and most important things anyone can do.