Russo-Ukrainian war

Sides

What happened

After months of protests in Kyiv, President Viktor Yanukovych left the capital in February 2014 and parliament removed him. From 27 February Russian soldiers without insignia took over Crimea; after a referendum held under their control, Russia signed a treaty incorporating the peninsula on 18 March. The UN General Assembly declared the referendum invalid. In April armed groups, including a unit that crossed from Russia, took government buildings and towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and proclaimed two "people's republics"; Ukraine sent its army against them. On 17 July Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over the fighting, killing all 298 aboard; a Dutch-led investigation traced the missile to a Russian army brigade. Russia denied that its forces were fighting in Donbas, while Ukraine and NATO reported Russian troops and equipment there. The Minsk agreements of September 2014 and February 2015 drew a line of contact, but shelling and skirmishes went on for seven years. On 21 February 2022 Russia recognised the two republics; three days later it attacked Ukraine on a far larger scale, which has its own entry.

Outcome: No settlement: by February 2022 Russia held Crimea and the two Russian-backed republics held parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions; the war widened on 24 February 2022.

Key events

Leaders

• Oleksandr Turchynov · Acting President of Ukraine, February–June 2014 · Ukraine
• Petro Poroshenko · President of Ukraine, 2014–2019 · Ukraine
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy · President of Ukraine from 2019 · Ukraine
• Vladimir Putin · President of Russia · Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics
• Igor Girkin · Former Russian intelligence officer who led the armed unit at Sloviansk in 2014 · Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics
• Alexander Zakharchenko · Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, 2014–2018 · Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics

Deaths