Russian troops have massed on Ukraine's border.
So, why might Russia invade Ukraine and how did it reach this point?
Thread 👇🧵
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🔴World leaders believe time is running out to avert a full-scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine
🇷🇺Moscow has sent tens of thousands of troops to its border with Ukraine and western leaders are convinced an invasion is imminent.
So we have broken down how the crisis reached this point and what could be next 👇
❓What’s happening?
As many as 190,000 Russian troops are currently "in and around Ukraine", according to Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the OSCE
Russia has also put forward a list of security demands including a guarantee that Ukraine will never be allowed to join Nato and that alliance forces pull back in Eastern European countries that joined after 1997 (MAP)
❓What’s behind the crisis?
There has been tension between Moscow and Kyiv since Ukraine declared itself independent of the Soviet Union in 1991
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
The situation escalated in 2014 when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine and sent troops to support a separatist uprising in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
A peace agreement signed in Minsk in 2015 stopped the worst of the fighting but has failed to deliver a settlement of the conflict because of disagreements between Kyiv and Moscow over how it should be implemented
❓What does Putin want with Ukraine?
Vladimir Putin maintains that Ukraine is fundamentally part of Russian civilisation, both culturally and historically, and has questioned whether it is even a real country
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
🔴Vladimir Putin also sees Russian dominance of Ukraine as fundamental to Russian security
❓How big is the risk of invasion?
Russia said on February 16 that military drills in Moscow-annexed Crimea had ended and that soldiers were returning to their garrisons, a day after it announced a first troop pullback from Ukraine's borders
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
But Britain has thus far not seen any evidence that Russia is withdrawing troops from positions near the Ukrainian border, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said
Russia has denied that it has any plans to invade Ukraine - but tensions are extremely high
telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
❓What happens next?
Publicly, the US and European allies have promised to hit Moscow financially like never before if Mr Putin does roll his military into Ukraine.
Russian oligarchs close to Mr Putin face asset freezes and travel bans in a toughening of UK sanctions laws
Read in more detail here 👇telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202…
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