WHY DID RUSSIA INVADE UKRAINE? HISTORICAL INSIGHTS AND CONFLICT ANALYSIS

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine erupted on February 24th, 2022,
and has brought huge devastation to the Ukrainian people. In early
2014, the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis brought an end to the postCold-War status quo in Eastern Europe. Since, the region remained
under crisis and is mainly over Russia’s demands for an end to the
NATO’s eastward expansion. Russia’s annexation of Crimea (a part of
Ukraine) remained a major bone of contention between the two sides.
Hence, Ukraine’s inclination toward the western camp created insecurity
for Russia as it would be no more an arduous task for the US to contain
the communist country. Thereby, to break such an occurrence Russia
invaded Ukraine. Later on, Russia affirms the withdrawal of its troops
from Ukraine and guaranteed to restrain future attacks and aggressions
only on the terms of the ceasefire talks. This paper mainly aims at
providing an in-depth analysis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and
shed some light on the western response to the entire scenario.