Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present)
On 24 February 2022,, starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II. It is a major escalation of the war between the two countries that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of December 2025, Russian troops occupy almost 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and 6–7 million have fled the country, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
In late 2021, Russia massed troops near Ukraine's borders and issued demands to the West, including a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. After repeatedly denying having plans to attack Ukraine, on 24 February 2022, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation", saying that it was to support the Russian-backed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, whose paramilitary forces had been fighting Ukraine in the Donbas War since 2014. Putin espoused irredentist and imperialist views challenging Ukraine's legitimacy as a state, baselessly claimed that the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis committing genocide against the Russian minority in the Donbas, and said that Russia's goal was to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine. Russian air strikes and a ground invasion were launched on a northern front from Belarus towards the capital Kyiv, a southern front from occupied Crimea, and an eastern front from the Donbas towards Kharkiv. Ukraine enacted martial law, ordered a general mobilisation, and severed diplomatic relations with Russia.
Russian troops retreated from the north and the outskirts of Kyiv by April 2022, after encountering stiff resistance and logistical challenges. The Bucha massacre was uncovered after their withdrawal. Russia launched an offensive in the Donbas and captured Mariupol after a destructive siege. Russia continued to bomb military and civilian targets far from the front, and struck Ukraine's energy grid during winter months. In late 2022, Ukraine launched successful counteroffensives in the south and east, liberating most of Kharkiv Oblast. Soon after, Russia illegally annexed four partly-occupied provinces. In November, Ukraine liberated the city of Kherson and all land west of the Dnipro river. After small but steady Russian advances in the east in the first half of 2024, Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk Oblast in August, where North Korean soldiers were sent to help Russia. The United Nations Human Rights Office reports that Russia is committing severe human rights violations in occupied Ukraine. Russia's attacks on civilians, as well as the policies it has introduced in occupied territories, have led to allegations of genocide. The direct cost of the war for Russia has been over US$450 billion.
The Russian invasion was met with international condemnation. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to halt military operations, and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus while providing large-scale humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. Protests occurred around the world, with anti-war protesters in Russia being met by mass arrests and greater media censorship. War-related disruption to Ukrainian agriculture and shipping worsened the world food crisis; war-related environmental damage was described as ecocide. The International Criminal Court opened an investigation into crimes against humanity, war crimes, abduction of Ukrainian children, and genocide against Ukrainians. The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and five other Russian officials. Peace negotiations have stalled, and Russia has repeatedly refused calls for a ceasefire.
Background
Post-Soviet relations
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia and Ukraine maintained cordial relations. In return for security guarantees, Ukraine signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1994 and gave up its nuclear weapons. Russia, the US, and UK agreed in the Budapest Memorandum to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. In 1999, Russia signed the Charter for European Security, affirming that every country had the right "to choose or change its security arrangements" and to join military alliances. In 2005, Putin said that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO, "we will respect their choice".Ukrainian revolution
In 2013, Ukraine's parliament approved finalising the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement. Russia put pressure on Ukraine to reject the agreement and imposed economic sanctions on the country. Kremlin adviser Sergei Glazyev warned in September 2013 that if Ukraine signed the EU agreement, Russia would no longer acknowledge Ukraine's borders.In November, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych suddenly withdrew from signing the agreement, choosing closer ties to Russia instead. This coerced withdrawal sparked massive protests known as Euromaidan, culminating in the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014. Almost 100 protesters were killed by state forces, most of them shot by police snipers. Despite signing an agreement, Yanukovych secretly fled. Ukraine's parliament then voted to remove him and hold new elections.
Russian invasion of Crimea and Donbas
On 27 February 2014, Russian soldiers with no insignia began to occupy the Ukrainian territory of Crimea, blockading Ukrainian military bases. Russia annexed Crimea in March, after a widely-condemned and disputed referendum. Several scholars have likened the annexation to Nazi Germany's Anschluss of Austria.Pro-Russian protests followed in the Ukrainian cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, covertly funded and organised by Russia. In April 2014, armed Russian paramilitaries seized Sloviansk and other settlements, proclaiming the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic as independent. Their commander, Igor Girkin, acknowledged that this sparked the War in Donbas, as Ukraine soon launched an operation to retake the territory. Russia covertly supported the separatists with troops, tanks and artillery. The International Criminal Court judged that the war was a national and international armed conflict involving Russia, and the European Court of Human Rights judged that Russia controlled the DPR and LPR from 2014 onward. Ukraine's parliament declared the Donbas region to be occupied by Russia.
The annexation of Crimea and Donbas war sparked a wave of Russian nationalism. Analyst Vladimir Socor called Putin's 2014 speech following the annexation a "manifesto of Greater-Russia irredentism". Putin began referring to "Novorossiya", a former Russian imperial territory that covered much of southern Ukraine. Russian-backed forces were influenced by Russian neo-imperialism and sought to create a new Novorossiya.
When the conflict began in 2014, Ukraine was officially neutral and said it was not seeking NATO membership. Following Russia's occupation of Crimea and invasion of the Donbas, Ukraine's parliament voted in December 2014 to revoke the country's neutral status and seek NATO membership.
The Minsk agreements aimed to resolve the conflict, but ceasefires and further negotiations failed. The West's weak response to Russian actions led Russia to believe the West would not react strongly to the 2022 invasion. Several political scientists said this encouraged further Russian aggression.
Economic aspects
Economic interests were also a motive for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of the southeast.Ukraine holds Europe's second-largest reserves of natural gas, coal, and titanium, and some of the world's largest reserves of iron ore and uranium. Ukraine is also thought to hold Europe's largest supply of recoverable rare-earth minerals, and one of Europe's largest reserves of lithium. Furthermore, Ukraine is one of the world's biggest suppliers of wheat, corn and other grains. Control of lithium deposits in the Donbas, and Ukraine's grain wealth, would give Russia a "monopoly on the world market". In 2022, Russian General Vladimir Ovchinsky confirmed that one of the goals of the invasion was to seize Ukrainian lithium deposits. About 80% of Ukraine's oil, natural gas and coal fields are found in the Donbas-Dnipro region.
The Russian elite, especially Russian generals, had invested assets and property in Ukraine for money laundering purposes before the invasion.
Prelude
Russian military buildup and demands
There was a Russian military build-up near Ukraine's borders in March and April 2021, and again in both Russia and Belarus from October 2021 onward. Russia said it was only holding military exercises. Members of its government, including Putin, repeatedly denied having plans to invade Ukraine, issuing denials up until the day before the invasion.While Russian troops massed on Ukraine's borders, Russia's proxy forces launched thousands of attacks on Ukrainian troops in the Donbas. Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe reported more than 90,000 ceasefire violations throughout 2021, most in Russian-controlled territory.
In July 2021, Putin published "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians". Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism and disinformation.
The December 2021 Russian ultimatum to NATO, included demands that NATO end all activity in its Eastern European member states and ban Ukraine or any former Soviet state from ever joining the alliance. Russia's government said NATO was a threat and warned of a military response if it followed an "aggressive line". A US official said the US was willing to discuss the proposals, but there were some that "the Russians know are unacceptable" and had already been ruled out. NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg replied that "Russia has no veto" on whether Ukraine joins, and "has no right to establish a sphere of influence to try to control their neighbours". NATO underlined that it is a defensive alliance, and had co-operated with Russia until the Crimea annexation.
Several Western political analysts suggested that Russia knew its "unrealistic demands" would be rejected, giving it a pretext to invade. No countries bordering Russia had joined NATO since 2004. Ukraine had not yet applied, and some NATO states would likely veto its membership. Analysts Taras Kuzio and Vladimir Socor agree that "when Russia made its decision to invade Ukraine, that country was more remote than ever not only from NATO membership but from any track that might lead to membership". Political scientists Michael McFaul and Robert Person said Russia's occupation of Crimea and the Donbas had already blocked Ukraine's NATO membership; they suggested Putin's real aim was to subjugate Ukraine.
NATO offered to negotiate some of Russia's demands and to improve military transparency, as long as Russia stopped its troop buildup. The alliance rejected Russia's demand to keep Ukraine out of NATO forever, pointing out that Russia had signed agreements affirming the right of Ukraine and other countries to join alliances. The US proposed that itself and Russia sign an agreement not to station missiles or troops in Ukraine. Putin replied that Russia's demands had been "ignored", and the Russian troop buildup continued.
Western leaders vowed heavy sanctions should Putin invade rather than negotiate. French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz met Putin in February 2022 to dissuade him from invading. Putin told Scholz that Ukraine should not be an independent state. Zelenskyy said Putin had broken agreements and could not be trusted to respect Ukrainian neutrality. Ukraine had been a neutral country in 2014 when Russia occupied Crimea and invaded the Donbas. At the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy called for Western powers to end their "appeasement" of Putin and give a timeframe for when Ukraine could join NATO.
Shortly before the invasion, Russia's proxy forces stepped up attacks on Ukrainian forces and civilians in the Donbas. Separatist leaders warned that Ukraine was about to launch an offensive, but they gave no evidence, and The Guardian noted it would be "exceedingly risky" for Ukraine to assault the Donbas while Russian troops were massed on its borders. Ukraine and Western leaders accused Russia of staging false flag attacks and trying to provoke retaliation, to give Russia a pretext for invading. On 17 February, Russian proxy forces shelled a kindergarten in Ukrainian-held territory, then blamed it on Ukraine. Zelenskyy said his military would not respond to the provocations.