With as many events going on around the world as there are, news is hard to keep up with. The Russo-Ukrainian war has become one of those things.
The Russo-Ukrainian war started on February 20th, 2014, when the Russian Federation invaded Crimea following the collapse of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s government. On February 24th, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, announced that the goal of the invasion was to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and not to occupy it by force on the same day.
“I think that the invasion was done over a pretty stupid reason,” Senior Darren Elmore said. “They invaded Ukraine because the people from little breakaway Russian populations were getting oppressed by Ukrainians. Obviously that’s something to be upset over, but to invade their entire country is crazy.”
The war in Ukraine has been going on for so long, yet due to the recent Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, the Russo-Ukrainian war hasn’t been getting as much coverage. The war still rages on with the Ukrainian civilian death toll rising to over 10,000 as of November 2023 according to Reuters World News.
“It’s definitely illegal to just invade a neighboring country with no real reason,” Junior Dayton Impellizzeri said. “Russia never formally declared war on Ukraine and that makes their invasion a war crime, along with the fact Russia intentionally targeted civilian plazas with missiles.”
Since the start of 2024, moves have been made by both belligerents. On January 12th, the United Kingdom’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, met with current Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to provide military funding. It was the largest package the UK has provided Ukraine, coming in at a little over $2.5 billion.
As the harsh winter approached the 930 mile front line across eastern Ukraine, drone, missile, and artillery strikes became more common. On January 16th, Russian forces fired two ballistic missiles into Kharkiv, injuring 17 people and badly damaging homes, one of which had previously been a medical center.
“It could be justified as fair I guess,” Sophomore Lincoln Stevens said. “The Russian population of Ukraine gets bullied and vice versa, but invading their country and trying to take it over was a little much.”
Despite all the fighting within Ukrainian borders, there are small amounts of conflicts that take place in Russia. According to CNN News, Ukrainian forces shelled their own people in Russian controlled and primarily populated Donetsk on January 21st. Russian forces are blaming Ukrainian forces, though they deny the attack. Donetsk is part of the four regions illegally annexed by Russia in 2022.
Even though the war is at a standstill with very minor moves being made across front lines as of the start of 2024, Ukrainian citizens have a lot of confidence in their soldiers and their president, as a poll recorded a 95% approval rate of the military and an 81% approval rate of Zelenskyy, per VOA News. The Ukrainians are sure that winning the war will give them back all the land they have lost to Russian annexation, which includes Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya.
