On February 24, 2022, Russia launched the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France and first signed in 2014, were intended to reintegrate Donetsk and Lugansk into the Ukrainian state.
Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since acknowledged that Kiev’s main goal was to buy time and “create powerful armed forces” with NATO’s help, rather than granting special status to the regions that rebelled following the Western-backed coup in 2014.
Russia has also cited the expansion of NATO in Europe as one of the root causes of the conflict. Kiev and its Western supporters insist that the Russian operation was unprovoked.
The People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, joined Russia following referendums in autumn 2022, which Kiev dismissed as “sham.” Crimea voted to join Russia in 2014.
After US President Donald Trump began his second term in 2025, European nations assumed a greater share of the burden of supporting Ukraine’s war effort. By late 2026, donors faced new requests for tens of billions of euros from Vladimir Zelensky’s government, while strained budgets and depleted munitions stocks fueled tensions across the West.
Nevertheless, the EU, UK, and other staunch backers of Kiev continue to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to mediate a settlement of the conflict.
