Early this Thursday morning, Vladimir Putin announced the start of a “special military operation” at eastern Ukraine, starting the war between Russia and Ukraine. Just a few minutes later, explosions have been recorded in several cities in the east of the country, near the border with Russia.. [Siga aquí las últimas noticias sobre la crisis en Ucrania]
With the conflict that began in 2013 entrenched and the area converted on table of world geopolitics in the face of Russia’s refusal to accept the approaches of NATO and the European Union to Ukraine, the situation has finished exploding this February 24.
These are the key dates of a situation that, this Thursday, has reached a point of no return:
NOVEMBER 2013: NO TO ASSOCIATION WITH THE EU
He then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, winner of the presidential elections in 2010, refuses to sign the association agreement with the European Union, scheduled for November 29 of that month. The pressure from Russia, which also offered him significant economic rewards for doing so, such as reducing the price of gas, were key to the decision.
As a consequence, the Euromaidan arises, a movement of demonstrations and protests, mainly in Kiev, with a pro-European and nationalist sense. On November 24, tens of thousands of Ukrainians demonstrate against their country’s government in Kiev. As the months go by, the protests become more and more massive, and the government repression increases. Already in January 2014, the protests spread to other cities in the country while the Ukrainian government approves an anti-demonstration law and the violence intensifies.
FEBRUARY 2014: YANUKOVICH’S FLIGHT
The brutal repression of the Government, which leaves a hundred dead in the protests, generates a wave of popular indignation that forces Yanukovych to flee the country at dawn, taking command of the Party of the Regions and setting the elections on May 25. The demonstrators access the headquarters of the Presidency and the Government and take the residence of the president, where they discover multiple luxury items, which they use as evidence of his corruption.
At the same time, pro-Russian militants are fighting against supporters of Ukraine’s unity in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, and camouflaged Russian soldiers and Kremlin espionage agents enter Crimea to try to force its annexation to Russia.
MARCH 2014: REFERENDUM IN CRIMEA
Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula with a majority of pro-Russian residents, celebrates a referendum on March 16, 2014 that, between accusations of fraud, results in a participation of 82.7% of the population and the victory of the annexation to Russia with 97 % of the votes. The international community and the European Union reject the result. The United States affirms that it will never be accepted, paralyzing NATO its collaboration with Moscow. On March 18, Moscow signs the incorporation of Crimea into its territory.
On March 24, the president of the United States, Barack Obama, convenes the leaders of the G7 (United States, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom and Japan), which suspends the presence of Russia in the Group of Eight (G8) for the annexation of the region.
APRIL 2014: DONBÁS FOLLOWS CRIMEA’S FOOTSTEPS
A pro-Russian armed separatist movement emerges in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, reproducing the events in Crimea. On May 12, separatist groups proclaimed themselves the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk and demanded their integration into Russia. On May 25, the pro-Western businessman Petro Poroshenko wins the presidential elections with an absolute majority.
JULY 2014: SHOOTING DOWN OF A MALAYSIAN PLANE
The plane MH17, of the Malaysia Airlines company, is shot down by a missile while flying over Donetsk, in the territory of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian forces. 298 passengers die.
SEPTEMBER 2014: MINSK AGREEMENTS
Russia, Ukraine and Donetsk separatist representatives sign a peace agreement on September 5 in Minsk. However, just a week later, pro-Russian militiamen break the truce, returning to the previous scenario.
FEBRUARY 2015: PUTIN-POROSHENKO MEETING
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, meet in Minsk to try to agree on a new ceasefire. The meeting, which has the intervention and mediation of the then French Prime Minister, Francois Hollande, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, ends without great progress.
APRIL 2019: ZELENSKY COMES TO POWER
The comedian Víktor Zelenski prevails over Poroshenko in the second round of the presidential elections, obtaining more than 70% of the votes. Two months later, Zelenski’s party, The Servant of the People, also won the legislative elections.
Zelensky wins the elections, promising to put an end to the war in the East of the country.
DECEMBER 2019: NEW MEETINGS
In a new meeting in Paris called the ‘Normandy Format’, organized by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Zelenski and Putin agree to resume the peace process again. That same month, a historic exchange of 200 prisoners takes place between Ukraine and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, which is interpreted as an advance in the intention to end the conflict.
JANUARY-APRIL 2021: DEPLOYMENT OF RUSSIAN TROOPS
Russia transfers 20,000 soldiers to the borders with Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula, in a move by Russia that triggers tension again. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls this move “the largest buildup of Russian troops since the annexation of Crimea and the conflict broke out.”
AUGUST 2021: CRIMEA PLATFORM SIGNED
More than 40 countries and organizations, including NATO, sign the Crimean platform in Kiev, in which they demand that Russia return the peninsula to Ukraine.
DECEMBER 2021: USA ALERT OF MOSCOW’S INTENTIONS
The United States Intelligence services warn that Russia is planning to increase its military presence on the border with Ukraine with the aim of invading the country in early 2022. Said information warns that the number of deployed soldiers may reach 175,000. Days later, the United States, the United Kingdom and the EU threaten Russia with “enormous sanctions” if it invades Ukraine.
JANUARY 2022: UNSUCCESSFUL MEETINGS
On January 11 and 12, 2022, the meetings between Washington and Moscow, first, and between Russia and NATO, later, end again without progress. Two days later, the Ukrainian government claims to have been the victim of a cyberattack that affects government websites, with the message: “Ukrainians! All your data was posted on the network (…) All information about you has been made public”. On January 21, the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and his Russian counterpart, Sergué Lavrov, set up another meeting in Geneva to try to reduce tension, in which both agree to continue with the diplomatic path. Four days later, Josep Borrel, representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, assures that Europe and its security “are in danger” and that the continent is experiencing “the most dangerous moment since the Cold War”.
Meanwhile, the United States orders the relatives of diplomats from its embassy in Kiev to leave the country due to the threat of an imminent invasion by Russia. In addition, it gives the green light to the rest of the non-essential workers to leave, and advises the rest of its citizens in the region to leave the country, since the embassy will not be able to help them.
FEBRUARY 2022: WAR BREAKS
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs follows in the footsteps of the US and asks Spanish residents in Ukraine to leave the country. “Spaniards currently in that country are advised to seriously consider leaving it temporarily through available commercial means, while current circumstances persist.” Three days later, the Russian Parliament urges Putin to recognize the independence of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, self-proclaimed republics eight years ago.
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Putin signs the recognition on February 21, ordering the dispatch of Russian troops to the area, further intensifying tensions. The EU and the US react by announcing sanctions on Russia and Germany suspends the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a response.
On February 24, shortly before six in the morning in Moscow, an hour less in Kiev, Putin announces on television the start of a “special military operation” in eastern Ukraine. With that speech, which came at the same time that the United Nations Security Council held another emergency meeting on the crisis, it enters a new stage, one that several world leaders have warned faces Europe at the risk of its worst conflict since World War II.