Russo-Ukrainian War

The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014, when Russian forces seized Crimea following the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych during the Euromaidan protests. Russia formally annexed the peninsula in March 2014 after a referendum widely rejected as illegitimate by the UN General Assembly in Resolution 68/262. Shortly afterward, Russian-backed separatist movements declared the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" in the Donbas region, triggering a prolonged low-intensity war.

Two ceasefire frameworks — the Minsk I (September 2014) and Minsk II (February 2015) agreements, brokered with French and German mediation under the Normandy Format — failed to produce a durable settlement. Fighting continued along the line of contact for nearly eight years.

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, opening fronts from Belarus, Russia, and Crimea. President Vladimir Putin framed the operation as a "special military operation" aimed at "denazification" and "demilitarization," claims rejected by Ukraine and most UN member states. The UN General Assembly condemned the invasion in Resolution ES-11/1 (2 March 2022) by 141 votes to 5.

Key developments have included:

• The Battle of Kyiv (February–April 2022), in which Ukrainian forces repelled the Russian advance on the capital.
• The discovery of civilian killings in Bucha in April 2022, prompting war crimes investigations by the International Criminal Court.
• Russia's claimed annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts in September 2022, condemned by UNGA Resolution ES-11/4.
• An ICC arrest warrant issued in March 2023 against Putin over the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
• Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO (2023 and 2024 respectively), reversing decades of non-alignment.

The war has reshaped European security, triggered the largest refugee flow in Europe since World War II, and prompted unprecedented Western sanctions on Russia.