10 years ago, in February 2014, the russian federation unleashed a war against Ukraine. The enemy occupied the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Until February 24, 2022, the main events of the current russian-Ukrainian war with varying intensity of hostilities took place in the east of our country. However, the confrontation with russia's hybrid aggression and influence in various spheres took place not only on the front line, but also throughout Ukraine.
By launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the kremlin sought to completely destroy the Ukrainian state and identity by military means. This attack dealt a treacherous blow to the international world order established after World War II, undermining the stability of not only Europe but global security as a whole.
With its armed aggression against Ukraine, russia has unleashed the first continental war in Europe in the 21st century, undermining the system of collective global security established after World War II. The world is once again confronted with a regime that seeks to revise borders by force and is heading toward a new kind of totalitarianism. This regime has been dubbed "rushism" to describe a pseudo-ideology based on a combination of the ideas of fascism and bolshevism, nazism and eurasianism, revanchism and xenophobia, which are hiding behind "orthodoxy" and the "greatness of russian culture."
On February 20, 2014, the modern russian-Ukrainian war began. It was the first time that the armed forces of the russian federation crossed the state border of Ukraine through the Kerch Strait. This is recorded in the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "On the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine "On Repulsing the Armed Aggression of the russian federation and Overcoming its Consequences"" of April 21, 2015, No. 337-VIII.
At the end of February 2014, the russian leadership took advantage of the temporary power vacuum in Ukraine and the demoralization of the security forces and began to seize Ukrainian territory.
russia had been preparing for the attack in advance. For many years, it has been carrying out information and economic aggression against Ukraine, recruiting traitors in various echelons of the Ukrainian government, creating and financing a powerful network of agents in Ukraine, especially on the Crimean peninsula.
Crimea was the first target of russian aggression against Ukraine. In March 2014, the enemy occupied the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, and in April 2014, it began an invasion of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In 2014, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reinforced by volunteers, stopped the advance of the occupation, liberated some of the occupied territories from the invaders, and until February 24, 2022, the main events of the modern russian-Ukrainian war took place in the east of our country.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine by russian troops has finally ripped the mask off the aggressive putin regime, which for 8 years pretended to be a "peacekeeper" and a "third party" in the war in eastern Ukraine. All this time, the enemy has been spreading disinformation and lies about the "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics", which in fact were and remain occupation regimes controlled by Moscow in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. putin tried to convince the world that a "civil war" was going on in Ukraine.
The large-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, brought war to the entire territory of Ukraine. In resisting the russian aggressor, the Ukrainian people have demonstrated to the world examples of courage, resilience, bravery, ingenuity and unity in the face of a brutal and numerically superior enemy.
The russian federation has unleashed an imperialist, aggressive and existential war against Ukraine, aimed not only at seizing territory, but also at destroying Ukrainian statehood, our national identity, and the genocide of the Ukrainian people. The russian state and the ideology of racism, professed by the russian political elite and supported by the majority of ordinary russians, officially deny the existence of Ukrainians as a separate nation, and those who disagree with this are subject to physical destruction.
vladimir putin, who is obsessed with the idea of "reuniting the native russian lands," has led russia on a path to restore its superpower status and build up its militaristic power. russian imperial revanchism sees russia as the successor to the russian and soviet empires, and views the former republics as parts of russia that have fallen away from it, not as neighboring sovereign states. This progress toward the "return of russian greatness" has not been stopped before. And this led to a full-scale aggression against Ukraine.
In the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, russians are repeating the worst practices of nazism: mass executions, deportations, abuse of civilians, desecration and theft of private property, cultural heritage, and museum collections. The massacres in Bucha, Izium, and the mass extermination of people in Mariupol became a clear manifestation of moscow's genocidal policy. The atrocities, war crimes, and rapes committed by the russian invaders in Ukraine shocked the world.
Unable to win on the battlefield, the Russian terrorist state resorts to barbaric shelling of Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure. Most of the missile attacks target civilian objects.
The full-scale attack has accelerated the consolidation of the Ukrainian nation. National unity became the basis for successful resistance. The offensive of Russian troops was stopped thanks to the joint efforts of Ukrainians who stood up to defend the state in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, and the mass volunteer movement.
The heroic resistance of Ukrainians is not only a struggle for the physical survival of the Ukrainian people and the country's freedom. In this war, Ukraine is defending its European choice, national identity and values as part of the European Union. Ukrainians are shedding blood for a free, democratic Europe.
Ukraine's victory is the key to global stability. Through brutal, demonstrative violations of international law, russia seeks to dismantle the rule-based international order, destroy the unity of democratic countries, and return the world to the era of empires, spheres of influence, and colonial wars.
Ukrainians have withstood and proved their ability to defeat russian military aggression. We will continue to fight. Our strength is in unity! We will win so that the future generation will live in a democratic, rule-of-law state, because we are a European people.
Since 2014, Ukraine has been waging a just war to preserve its independence, the right to a free European and Euro-Atlantic choice, its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine will be liberated.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has prepared information materials to mark the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the russian-Ukrainian war.