Who Started the War in Ukraine? The Answer Hasn’t Changed

Russia's war-for almost 11 years-has been inside Ukraine’s borders. Until 2024, Ukraine was only able to deploy its defense forces on its own soil, in response to Russia’s invasion. UNITED24 Media will examine how Moscow started this brutal war in its attempt to eliminate Ukraine.

US President Trump blamed Ukraine for its war with Russia. “You should have never started it, you could have made a deal,” Trump said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on February 18. 

Since the newly elected Trump has been in office, there has been a political shift towards Russia after years of US and NATO Allies' efforts to isolate their leader, Vladimir Putin. 

The US and Russia have had closed-door discussions without the presence of Ukraine or Europe, which Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and his European Allies vocally disapprove of.

Zelenskyy expressed concern that Trump “lives in a disinformation bubble,” attributing this to narratives spread by Russia.

When did Russia start the war in Ukraine?

Russia started the war in Ukraine in February 2014 by illegally attempting to annex Crimea, and then invading and occupying parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. In 2022, it escalated its aggression with a full-scale invasion, and it continues to wage war against Ukraine today.

Ordinary Ukrainians took to the streets in 2013 to protest against corruption, autocracy, and a last-minute decision by then-President Viktor Yanukovych  to have closer ties with Russia instead of the European Union. The Revolution of Dignity, also known as the Euromaidan protests began peacefully and became a defining moment in Ukraine's modern history.

A landmark Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union was due to be signed in November 2013. Yanukovych and his administration abruptly U-turned its plans to proceed with the agreement, caving to pressure from the Kremlin. 

As they changed " Ukraine is Europe " across the city, it was clear that the Ukrainian people aspired to integrate into Western democracies.

Yanukovych's regime responded to protesters with force. Protestors were beaten, kidnapped, and even some disappeared. At least 100 pro-democracy protesters were killed.

In February 2014, Yanukovych fled Ukraine, abandoning his Presidential post, and found refuge in Russia. 

Ukraine saw victory in securing a path to Europe. Russia who aimed at maintaining control of Ukraine, retaliated with war.

Towards the end of February 2014, after Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity, “little green men ”, who were later confirmed to be Russian soldiers, moved into Ukraine seizing and illegally occupying the Crimean peninsula.

Putin at first flatly denied the “little green men” were Russian soldiers, only to later admit that they were indeed Russians, and award commendations to their commanders. Even admitting that it was he who ordered troops to invade Crimea. At the time, Moscow’s seizure of Crimea was the biggest land grab in Europe since World War II.

The then Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he thought Russia would not intervene militarily "as this would be the beginning of the war and the end of all relations.” 

Russia did intervene militarily, and it was the beginning of their war on Ukraine. 

Putin requested for Russian forces to be deployed to Ukraine, and on  March 1, 2014, Russia's upper house of parliament approved the request. Just a few weeks later, Putin signed a law formalizing Russia's illegal takeover of Crimea from Ukraine. 

The UN General Assembly voted 100–11 against recognizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea. 

Russia’s “little green men,” first seen in Crimea dressed in camouflage and armed with machine guns, began pouring over the Russian-Ukrainian eastern border and seizing areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, leading to many civilian deaths and some in captivity. 

Between 2014 and early 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had already killed over 14,000 people. 

Fierce battles during the first year ended with one-third of the Donbas and Luhansk territories occupied by the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, who continue to occupy the regions—and more—in Ukraine today.

Russian troops in Ukraine

By the middle of December 2014, there were an estimated 10,000 Russian troops in the eastern regions of Ukraine, and approximately 42,000 troops were rotating to the frontlines in the vicinity of the Russia-Ukrainian border, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK defense and security think tank estimated. They also reported that troop numbers in Crimea by February 2015 were estimated at 26,000–28,000 including approximately 13,000 of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Dr Igor Sutyagin of RUSI said that he believed there to be an estimated 90,000 Russian troops in total providing deployments around Ukraine, inside its eastern regions, and in Crimea.

Aside from Putin’s own admission, many investigations were conducted by international researchers and authorities to confirm that the “little green men” were Russian troops. OSCE Special Monitoring Mission repeatedly confirmed evidence of weapons and military equipment adopted exclusively by the Russian army, being used in Donbas. 

Bellingcat, open source investigative journalists uncovered evidence that it was Russian forces who downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) killing 298 innocent people from 17 countries, including 10 British nationals, on July 17, 2014, in Ukraine.

The US State Department confirmed that Russian special forces were in Ukraine through a series of images. For example, “a soldier of the Russian special forces, who took part in combat operations in Georgia in 2008”, was identified in Kramatorsk in the Donbas region during the assault on a local police station by armed pro-Russian soldiers. 

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine

In January 2022, Russia had amassed thousands more troops on the border surrounding Ukraine, US, and Allied leaders were concerned about its military build up.

“The Russian Federation has amassed upwards, at this time, of over 100,000 ground forces, air forces, naval forces, special forces, cyber, electronic warfare, command and control, logistics, engineers and other capabilities along the Ukraine border,” a US retired United States Army general and the then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley stated during a January 28 press conference. 

Milley also confirmed that NATO had not deployed any troops into Ukraine and they were not putting any offensive forces to attack Russia. “This is entirely engineered by Russia and President Putin as an overt act of coercion against Ukraine,” he said. 

On February 6, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan warned, “any day now, Russia could take military action against Ukraine,” and said, “We believe that the Russians have put in place the capabilities to mount a significant military operation into Ukraine.” 

On February 24, 2022, during an early morning address on Russia’s state television, Putin announced that he was launching his “special military operation”. Just minutes after the speech had finished, explosions were heard in Kyiv. Putin had renewed military action in Ukraine, launching their full-scale war. Their forces crossed into Ukraine from Belarus in the north, Russia in the east, and Crimea in the south.

Since then, after almost 3 years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) verified a total of 40,838 civilian casualties, as of December 31, 2024. Of them, 28,382 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher.

Ukraine was only able to deploy defense capabilities on its own soil, inside its own borders, until last year when Ukraine began to strike Russian military targets and their Kursk incursion. 

Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine. Moscow is the one responsible for starting and prolonging the war. Ukraine, a sovereign state, had to defend its territory and its people.

Zelenskyy has criticized Trump for echoing Russian disinformation regarding the war in Ukraine. “Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly … is living in this disinformation bubble,” he said. 

As US intelligence sources cited by NBC stated, Putin is not genuinely interested in peace negotiations with Ukraine but instead sees them as a tactical maneuver to further his military objectives.

In short, it was Russia who started the war in Ukraine.