A brief refresher on events in Ukraine, 2013-present.

[Tommy Carcetti]

(This is a response to a now locked thread that cited a propaganda piece alleging that there was a US sponsored "coup" in Ukraine in 2014, and therefore everything that is happening now is a result of that supposed "coup." I put a lot of time into setting the record straight, so indulge me for a moment.)

What happened was that in November 2013, then President Viktor Yanukovych--who had ties to various Russian officials as well as Paul Manafort--decided to spurn a proposed trade deal with the EU in favor of a trade deal with Russia.

Soon there were protests against Yanukovych and his decision at Kyiv's central Maidan square. At first small but they grew quite large, but still entirely peaceful. Yanukovych panics, sends in his Berkut special riot police to rough up protesters. That starts a snowball of sorts.

Things grow worse and worse with Yanukovych and Berkut through January 2014. Yanukovych signs laws basically prohibiting all forms of protests. The crowds don't relent. Clashes between Berkut and protesters grow, some are deadly. Even so, the protests don't stop.

By mid February 2014 things are growing worse and worse. Several dozen protesters killed, many more beaten and arrested. The will of the protestors isn't broken. February 19th Yanukovych starts to pack up his opulent mansion outside of Kyiv. He packs up oil paintings, antique furniture, guns, palates of cash, all sorts of luxuries. Truck load after truck load gets packed up and pulled away.

Between February 19 and February 21st two other notable things happen. First, snipers at Maidan shoot nearly 100 people dead. Secondly, Yanukovych (who is already packing up all his goods) says he's agreed to an EU plan that would leave him in power now but call for new elections in the fall.

Protesters aren't all that thrilled about that plan, but in the end it's a moot point. Early in the morning of February 21st, Yanukovych is done packing, walks out to his own waiting helicopter, and takes off and abandons Kyiv. After a short stopover in Kharkiv, he ends up in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, where he lives to this day.

The Ukrainian parliament--seeing that Yanukovych has abandoned the country--votes to officially remove Yanukovych from office and hold new presidential elections in May. A provisional government takes over until then.

Within a couple of days of Yanukovych leaving, Putin--knowing that Ukraine has just gone through a period of major upheaval and that the country's military is in no shape to respond to anything--makes his move. He sends in unmarked troops to seize government installations in the Crimean peninsula. The justification is supposedly a proposed bill that would have made the Ukrainian language the official language of Ukraine, but really it was nothing more than an opportunistic power grab to claim Crimea for Russia based on Russia having once controlled the peninsula during the earlier Soviet years and Russian Empire years. A highly dubious plebiscite is held with a ridiculous result (96%) supposedly wanting annexation of Crimea into Russia, and as such Russia claims Crimea for itself.

Meanwhile, in the eastern regions of Ukraine ("Donbas", which covers the areas around the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk) where the residents are primarily Russian speaking as opposed to Ukrainian speaking (although most still consider themselves Ukrainian) Putin goes to work in a different manner. He frames "protests" which are actually militant fighters who seize various government installations throughout the Donbas region, and proclaiming themselves independent from Ukraine based on events in February. These militants are actually heavily infused with Russian weaponry and members of the Russian military itself. Ukraine attempts to put down these insurrections with its military. They take back some of the seized ground but the areas around Luhansk and Donetsk remain in the hands of these proxy fighters for Russia.

Since then Ukraine has held two free and fair Presidential elections, with two democratically elected Presidents. They signed a rather shaky cease fire agreement in Minsk that said the Donbas "republics" would be returned to Ukrainian control but given more semi-autonomous authority. Nothing was agreed with Crimea, which remains under de facto Russian control. However, the Russian proxy fighters in the East would frequently break the cease fire, and that's how it remained all the way up until this month when Putin insisted he had to send "peacekeepers" into protect the Donbas "republics" which he now recognized as separate from Ukraine. And obviously the subsequent invasion has stretched far beyond Donbas itself, as it was really never just about Donbas or NATO in the first place.

Putin simply wants Ukrainian for itself. He views it as illegitimate and not separate from the Russian people based on centuries old common ancestors from the ancient Kyivan Rus empire which brought forth--among others--the Russian Empire.

[SheltieLover]

1. He is after their neon for chip mfg!

[AlexSFCA]

2. excellent and concise summary

there is probably some history prior to 2013 that I’d like to read in a similar concise format. Please share if possible.

And by the way, we can talk about how russian citizens do not support current war. Let’s not forget that annexation of crimea was supported (and still is) by the vast majority of ordinary russians.