What is Happening in Ukraine and What Can You Do To Help?
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’ll have inevitably seen a surge in discussions surrounding Putin and Ukraine. However, if you were educated within Britain, you were probably not taught much about the context of this situation, and how it has built to the point we are at now.
Russia’s military expansion into, and occupation of, parts of Ukraine has created one of the biggest geopolitical storms in decades, with Russia and its richest citizens and companies being subsequently hit with economic sanctions, such as the freezing of bank accounts. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has declared a state of emergency, with Ukrainian soldiers and civilians alike already being killed and parents sending children to school with blood type identification stickers, in case of military attacks. But what the hell has happened to get us to this point, and where can it go from here?
Ukraine-Russia: A Brief History
Ukraine was a founding member and one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union: a union of socialist republics founded and led by Vladimir Lenin in 1922, after the Russian Revolution. Following Lenin’s death in 1924, Joseph Stalin was hailed as Lenin’s successor, emerging as a totalitarian leader who led one of the most brutal regimes in world history. Tens of millions of people lost their lives under Stalin’s reign due to famine and Gulag’s camps: approximately five million died because of agricultural collectivisation, and three million people were accused of opposing his ‘reign of terror’ and imprisoned in work camps. Around 750,000 were executed in these camps. Under the Soviet Union, Ukraine suffered immensely. Stalin mass-starved the republic between 1932-1933, with 3.5 million Ukrainians dying from famine.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Boris Yeltsin emerged as leader (1991-1999). He transformed the country from a communism to capitalism, resulting in a small number of oligarchs obtaining most of the national wealth and land, whilst international monopolies entered and dominated the market. This left smaller businesses and most Russian citizens in economic crisis.
Since 1999, Vladimir Putin (a former member of the KGB, the main security agency for the Soviet Union) has taken the reigns of the Russian Federation. He has shifted the country to a state of authoritarianism, changing laws to keep himself in power and silencing those who oppose him through violence and oppression. Putin himself once described the collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geographical catastrophe of the twentieth century”, with his pursuits to reclaim former Soviet territories seen as a way to avenge the humiliation of Russia’s post-Soviet implosion and to regain any economic prowess they once had. Ukraine’s swift allegiance and partnerships with the West following the collapse of the Soviet Union, is seen as further movement away from it’s Soviet past, resulting in what we see today with Putin claiming parts of Ukraine. However, Ukrainian’s were treated poorly under the Soviet Union, and suffered immensely both socially and economically. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this suffering and poor treatment has only continued to grow.
Recent Developments
On the 27th of February 2014, Russian masked soldiers appeared in Ukrainian Crimea and took over its parliament. Russia then underwent an illegal referendum to formally annex the territory, and subsequently, stole a large part of Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea because of ‘historical claims’ to the region, and on the argument that they were seeking to ‘protect ethnic Russians’ there from far-right extremists. However, this annexation is unrecognised by the international community due to it being illegal under the Ukrainian constitution. According to the UN and other NGOs’, since the illegal annexation of Ukraine, Russia is responsible for numerous human rights abuses, such as torture, detention, forced disappearances and discrimination, involving the persecution of indigenous Crimean Tatar’s and the mainly Sunni Muslim Turki ethnic group in Crimea. There are currently thought to be at least 109 Ukrainian political prisoners in detention in Russia and Crimea. Education in the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages has also been heavily restricted.
In December 2021, Russia began moving troops along its eastern border with Ukraine, with ‘gloomy intelligence’ talking of a potential Russian invasion of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Tensions continued to escalate between Russia and Ukraine, with Putin announcing on the 22nd February 2022 that he would formally recognise and support territorial claims of Donetsk and Luhansk, two separatist regions on the Russia-Ukraine border. This was seen by the international community as Putin’s attempt to carve out larger parts of Ukrainian territory for himself, enabling Putin to invade Ukraine by ‘occupying’ these two regions. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, argued that Putin’s ultimate aim was not about the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk, but “the destruction of the Ukrainian statehood”. Many international relations experts agreed, arguing that Putin’s aim is a move back to a Soviet Union-like, Russian-led nation of former Soviet states. This is further seen in Putin’s influence over the Belarus uprisings last year, and Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s subsequent allyship with Russia—which has now led to Russia entering Ukraine via the Belarus-Ukraine border.
On the 23rd February 2022, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres ended the United Nations Security Council meeting by begging Putin to, ”give peace a chance”. Ukrainian ambassador to Russia Sergiy Kyslytsya also told UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia that, ”there is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell”. However, just before dawn in Kyiv on the 24th February 2022, Putin opted away from peace, and announced he had officially ordered his forces to carry out a “special military operation”. Moments later, explosions could be heard across some of the main cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv, and citizens have been warned to stay indoors and shelter. This marked the official invasion of Ukraine from Russia.
This has led to numerous international sanctions, like restrictions on Russia’s ability to raise and access resources from the West, and the freezing of some oligarch’s bank accounts in the UK. For example, Gennady Timchenko (Russia’s 6th richest oligarch), and Boris and Igor Rotenberg (two long-standing associates of the Kremlin regime). There is currently thoughts of banning Russia from the SWIFT payment system, meaning that money transfers within Russia will become difficult. Putin’s three key demands from Ukraine’s government are: the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, renunciation of Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO, and partial demilitarisation. However, it is highly unlikely that these demands will be met, and it is likely that Russia will continue invading Ukraine, targeting innocent people.
The brutal, honest truth of it all is that, no matter what happens, Putin and his Kremlin buddies will probably fare much better than the civilians forced to fight on their behalf, on behalf of Ukraine, and for the other nations that will ultimately get involved. Whilst many of us are watching war break out from the comfort of our homes and through the screens of our devices—somewhat detached from the reality of it all—millions of innocent people will be left permanently scarred by the actions of Putin’s authoritarian regime and power-grabbing ways. Children will have graduated from a global pandemic into a conflict zone, with their childhoods scarred by shelling’s and missiles. Families will be torn apart, and communities will be destroyed in Putin’s pursuit of nationalistic expansionism. The UK needs to push for further sanctions on Russia, continue to press the international community for further action, send as much aid as possible to Ukraine (and bordering countries such as Moldova) along with providing unconditional security and refuge for those displaced by the war.
What can you do to help?
If you are sat wondering what you can do, besides sharing a colourful Instagram infographic and watching the fall out happen through your phone, there are many local organisations operating on the ground who need your support. Journalist Jane Lytvynenko has highlighted the following organisations as being highly recommended by Ukrainians for the work they are currently doing:
Come Back Alive and Army SOS are two organisations that will use any donated funds to help purchase supplies for the Ukrainian military, including ammunition, shields, and food.
Razom for Ukraine, Help for Ukraine, Sunflower of Peace, and Revived Soldiers Ukraine will use all donations to fund medical aid for the people of Ukraine, including the purchase of first aid kits, backpacks stuffed with medical supplies, and medical rehabilitation for injured soldiers.
Voices of Children use donations to provide psychological and psychosocial support to the children affected by war in the Ukraine.
To keep open, English-language communication channels alive, you can donate to English-language journalism platform The Kyiv Independent at its Patreon of GoFundMe accounts.
You can also contact your local MP (members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP) and push for sanctions and support. Historian Oleeya Khromeychuk has offered a template for those who DM her on Twitter.
Written by Geena Whiteman
Geena is a PhD student researching how young people are entering the workforce, particularly how they pursue entrepreneurship and what entrepreneurship means to them.
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