A year into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there's no end in sight. Here’s how we got here.
"Putin assumes that the West has a short attention span," one observer said.
2023-02-22 14:02:02 - VI News Staff
As tens of thousands of Russian troops lined up along Ukraine's eastern and northern borders for "military exercises" last February, some international observers warned that Russia was about to do the unthinkable.
President Joe Biden had declassified intelligence in the weeks prior that showed an attack on Ukraine's sovereignty was imminent. That intel was shared with allies, in an attempt to rally support and to stop the war, but the effort proved unsuccessful. The invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.
"Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way," Biden said as troops crossed the border. "The world will hold Russia accountable."
The following four seasons have seen some of the bloodiest fighting on European soil in generations. Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed. And Ukrainian civilians have been terrorized by missiles aimed at energy infrastructure, city centers and apartment buildings.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who allowed Putin's troops to amass in his country prior to the invasion, told local media in the days before the "special military operation" began that it would take just a few days for Russian troops to take over the Kyiv, the capital.