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Russia Likely Planned Ukraine Invasion for Years
Putin didn’t wake up one day in February 2022 and invade Ukraine on a whim. How did world leaders miss the obvious signs?
When Russian forces marched into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it wasn’t the beginning of a major conflict between the two nations.
It wasn’t the end.
It was more like the middle: 24 moves into a 42-move chess match between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the United States, NATO powers, and Ukraine’s government.
Most Ukrainians in 2022 could have told Western leaders, had anyone asked: Russia had already been engaging in a war against Ukraine since at least 2014, and probably before.
In the year 2014, a seismic geopolitical event unfolded: Russia executed the audacious annexation of Crimea.
The saga was set into motion amidst Ukraine’s internal turmoil, marked by political upheaval and a consequential change in leadership. During this tumultuous period, a covert cohort of armed operatives, later unveiled as Russian soldiers, stealthily infiltrated pivotal positions within the Crimean domain.
Against this backdrop, a contentious referendum emerged on the scene in March, reflecting an overwhelming local inclination to align with Russia’s fold. However, this plebiscite, the credibility of…