February 24, 2022, will, for the rest of the days, be known as the day when Putin increased his aggression and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Or, as he called it, a special military operation. During the first day, Putin's army destroyed 83 military infrastructure facilities and killed 137 Ukrainians. This raises the question of how NATO and other countries will react. So far, the world has created and is continuing to increase sanctions against Russia, which is believed not to do any significant harm to Russia's economy.
Ukraine's situation looks a lot like a situation in which Czechoslovakia was before the Second World War—stranded with no guarantee of being independent the following day.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Twitter a couple of hours after the start of the invasion: “Russia treacherously attacked our state in the morning, as Nazi Germany did in WW2 years. As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history….Ukraine is defending itself & will not give up its freedom no matter what Moscow thinks.” Ukrainian president talked about Germany's free takeover of Czechoslovakia when the Allies used the policy of Appeasement and gave Germany part of the Czechoslovakia, Sudetenland. Afterward, Nazi Germany continued to seize control over Poland, the rest of the Czech Republic, and other parts of Europe.
The irony lies in another one of Putin's explanations of why he is launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin justified his attack as a fight against neo-nazism. In his speech, the Russian president explained that he is attempting to end neonazism and demilitarize Ukraine, and the Ukrainian president is its symbol. The fact is that rightfully elected president Zelenskyy is Jewish.
Ukraine's journey of continuous efforts to join the EU has been more than eventful. The first effort to join European Union and NATO came in 2008 while Viktor Yuschenko was the president. The attempts ended by electing pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. The year 2014 was the year of change for Ukrainian civilians. Viktor Yanukovich, elected in the 2010 elections, is connected with rejecting the pending EU association agreement and establishing closer ties with Russia. Ukraine's civilians started protesting, which led to what we could call a civil war. On February 21, 2014, Viktor Yanukovych escaped and has lived in exile in Russia since.
Five days into the conflict, the situation now looks like it is nowhere near done. The European Union, the USA, and the UK, as well as other states, have imposed sanctions against Russia and are supplying military equipment to support the Ukrainians. Ukraine has applied for immediate membership to the EU. Russian soldiers are still attacking the cities of Ukraine, trying to seize the capital, Kyiv, and kill or capture president Zelenskyy who is still hiding in a bunker in Kyiv. This goes against what Putin had expected. Russian military officials expected that Zelenskyy would take the first opportunity to flee the country, but the opposite is true. Zelenskyy seems to be the right person to be the Ukrainian head of state while going through this crisis. The true hero that Ukraine needed for so many years.
Russia uses its propaganda to ensure Russian citizens will not rebel against Putin and his presidential decisions. Most Russians use only Russian newspapers and websites and know very little about what is really happening in Ukraine and worldwide. A great example of that is Russian skier V. Barkov, who was asked about the war in Ukraine in an interview. “What war? It is a saving operation”, said Barkov.
How far will Russia go before it either ends trying to overthrow the current Ukrainian government or actually manages to do it? The same question goes for Ukrainian allies. How far are they willing to go in the fight against Putin?
“I still think that over the past few centuries there has always been that '“Russian problem”' because Russia does not really know where it starts and where it ends” (Václav Havel, 2008).
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