Well...by the elitist cabal of warmongers who want to conquer the Russian Federation.
No...they put anti-Russian governments in Ukraine meant to discriminate against the Russian-speaking regions.
That caused the Donbas War in 2014.
Putin's invasion was just the reaction to the Donbas War.
The fact that the democratic warlike party never mentions the Donbas War, shows their bad faith.
This is the background to that war given by Wikipedia. Wouldl you be so kind as to point out to the US (and in particular, Democratic) involvement?
The
war in Donbas,
[c] also known as the
Donbas war, was a phase of the
Russo-Ukrainian War in the
Donbas region of
Ukraine. The war
began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen
Igor Girkin seized
Sloviansk in
Donetsk oblast.
[20][21][6][22] The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them.
[23][5] The war continued until subsumed by the
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
[24]
In March 2014, following Ukraine's
Revolution of Dignity, anti-revolution and
pro-Russian protests began in Ukraine's
Donetsk and
Luhansk oblasts, collectively 'the Donbas'. These began as Russia
invaded Crimea. Armed
Russian-backed separatists seized Ukrainian government buildings and declared the
Donetsk and
Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) as independent states, leading to conflict with Ukrainian forces.
[25] Russia covertly supported the separatists with troops and weaponry. It only admitted sending "military specialists",
[26][27] but later acknowledged the separatists as Russian combat
veterans.
[28] In April 2014, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive, called the "Anti-Terrorist Operation"
[29] (ATO), later renamed the "Joint Forces Operation" (JFO).
[30][31] By August 2014, Ukraine had re-taken most separatist-held territory and nearly regained control of the
Russia–Ukraine border.
[32] In response, Russia covertly
sent troops, tanks and artillery into the Donbas.
[33][34][35] The Russian incursion helped pro-Russian forces regain much of the territory they had lost.
[30][36][37]
Ukraine, Russia, the DPR and LPR signed a ceasefire agreement, the
Minsk Protocol, in September 2014.
[38] Ceasefire breaches became rife, 29 in all,
[39] and heavy fighting resumed in January 2015, during which the separatists
captured Donetsk Airport. A new ceasefire,
Minsk II, was agreed on 12 February 2015. Immediately after, separatists renewed their
offensive on Debaltseve and forced Ukraine's military to withdraw.
[40] Skirmishes continued but the front line did not change. Both sides fortified their position by building networks of
trenches,
bunkers and
tunnels, resulting in static
trench warfare.
[41][42] Stalemate led to the war being called a "
frozen conflict",
[43] but Donbas remained a war zone, with dozens killed monthly.
[44] In 2017, on average a Ukrainian soldier died every three days,
[45] with an estimated 40,000 separatist and 6,000 Russian troops in the region.
[46][47] By the end of 2017,
OSCE observers had counted around 30,000 people in military gear crossing from Russia at the two border checkpoints it was allowed to
monitor,
[48] and documented military convoys crossing from Russia covertly.
[49] All sides agreed to a roadmap for ending the war in October 2019,
[50] but it remained unresolved.
[51][52] During 2021, Ukrainian fatalities rose sharply and
Russian forces massed around Ukraine's borders.
[53] Russia
recognized the DPR and LPR as independent states on 21 February 2022 and deployed troops to those territories. On 24 February, Russia began a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine, subsuming the war in Donbas into it.
About 14,000 people were killed in the war: 6,500 Russian and Russian proxy forces, 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and 3,400 civilians on both sides.
[17] Most civilian casualties were in the first year.
[17]
www.newsweek.com
