After weeks of rising tensions on Ukraine’s borders and clashes on the ground, on 21 February Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was recognising the rebel-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states and ordered troops into the country.

As many as 200,000 Russian soldiers had reportedly been deployed along Ukraine’s borders in recent days, making the threat of a Russian invasion dangerously imminent. World leaders threatened to impose tough sanctions on Moscow. But as diplomatic negotiations show no sign of overcoming an impasse the influx of Russian troops, under the pretext of ‘peacekeeping duties’, suggests a full-scale invasion is now inevitable.

Following Russia’s incursion and subsequent annexation of Crimea in 2014, there were growing concerns that President Vladimir Putin would use the escalating situation in eastern Ukraine as a ‘false flag’ attack to justify invading the two separatist territories. Parallels have also been drawn with the 2008 Russo-Georgia war, when Russia invaded Georgia after violence broke out between Georgian troops and South Ossetian separatists.

Published on 22-02-22. Read on here.