My Perspectives on the Ukraine Invasion Two Years Later as a Ukrainian Descendant
What happened since February 24th, and more importantly, what should happen next?
February 24, 2022, and the days after
I remember going to sleep every night after the Beijing Olympics ended on February 20, 2022, with apprehension about what I might find the next morning in the news. I knew it was any day now that Russia would invade Ukraine.
The Winter Olympics were over, and it was Russia’s modus operandi to invade another country afterward. They had invaded Crimea after the Sochi Olympics, so it made sense for them to try for the rest of Ukraine now. I had total confidence the invasion was coming. The night of February 23rd was a particularly sleepless night for me.
I woke up early in the morning, around 5 a.m., in my NYC apartment, turning on the T.V. to CNN, and became instantly paralyzed as I watched the early morning news with footage of massive lines of Russian tanks and trucks rumbling towards Kyiv.
Oh my God, Russia has invaded Ukraine!
This was a horrific escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Knowing the history, this militant action could only result in the wrongful deaths of thousands…and to those of us with roots in Ukraine, an eerie echo of the past haunted us.
I was frightened by the possible outcome of this invasion. Would Ukraine be gobbled up again by another foreign power, or would they successfully fight back this time? While the war’s outcome was uncertain, the Ukrainian reaction was not — uncertain to me. Ukrainians are like sunflowers.
They bend easily as they reach for the bright light of the sun, even in the darkest of days, but they never break.
In the days that followed, I watched helplessly as swathes of Ukrainian land were scarfed up by the Russian army, imagining my Ukrainian parents, long dead, sitting next to me and yelling out loud to the television, “Not again! Why can’t you leave us alone? How many more generations of our blood and tears do you think we owe you?”
I cheered along with many others worldwide when Ukraine’s President told the United States he wanted weapons, not a ride out of town, when heroic soldiers blew themselves up on bridges to slow the Russian path sacrificing their lives, when the old woman gave Russian soldiers sunflower seeds so flowers could grow over their graves, or when sailors on Snake Island told the Moskva destroyer, “To go f*** yourself!”
In the U.S., we were bewildered and often cheering for Ukraine as an unexpected David against Goliath biblical story came to life, complete with a Jewish leader at the helm! We cheered their unanticipated strength while not understanding why they were strong.
It’s their history.
Ukraine has no choice but to be strong and steadfast against Russia. This war didn’t just start in 2022 or even 2014. This is a continuation of a war Russian dictators, and other foreign powers have been fighting for three hundred years against Ukrainians wanting independence and democracy with an intent to subjugate them and erase their identity.
The only time it paused was during Ukraine’s short period of independence as a democratic nation from 1991–2003, free from foreign interference because Russia was too focused on its internal strife.
Why did Russia Invade Ukraine?
There are many potential reasons why Russia invaded Ukraine. I have several theories of my own.
1. Dictators like Vladimir Putin are uncomfortable with democracies next door that they can no longer influence, or their citizens may envy. Vladimir Putin cemented his power through Chechnya. Then he invaded Georgia and then Ukraine three times.
2. Dictators like Vladimir Putin need foreign enemies to rally their citizens behind them to retain power. North Korea and Iran have used the hatred and fear of the United States to prop up their regimes for years. Ukraine is Russia’s boogeyman.
3. Putin believes Ukraine is Russia and a country Lenin and Stalin created in the 1920s and must return to Mother Russia. The Rus culture and religion that Russia claims as its own was born with Volodymyr the Great who reigned from Kyiv, not Moscow (which didn’t even exist in the 10th century). If Kyiv is not a part of Russia, how does Russia still claim Volodymyr or the Rus legacy for itself?
4. Russia needs to secure the Donbas regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine’s oil, gas, and lithium wealth in the Donbas would free Europe from a Russian energy monopoly. It would also make the Russian Oligarchs who keep Putin in power richer.
5. Russia didn’t want another EU and potential NATO member on its border. The Baltics were tough enough a pill for Putin to swallow.
Weeks and months into the Conflict
As the weeks progressed into the conflict, we were especially mortified to see the tactics Russia took with its siege of Mariupol as schools, churches, theatres, and hospitals were bombed.
Two examples of Russian barbarism, in particular, horrified me, the bombing of the theatre with the word Дети on the roof, and the bombing of the maternity ward. It was obvious Russia was targeting Ukrainian children for death!
Later we learned Russia was stealing Ukrainian children and sending them to Russia and Belarus and putting them up for adoption. They were not only focused on invasion, but they were also focused on erasing Ukrainians and Ukrainian culture from existence. That’s genocide!
In better news, we watched the Russian tanks stopped in their tracks at the Gates of Kyiv and the Ukrainian government there.
By April, the front seemed to freeze in place. We were able to sigh in relief. At least Ukraine would not entirely fall, and the government would stay in place. The World came together for a moment to come to Ukraine’s aid offering them weapons and humanitarian aid.
Over six million Ukrainians left Ukraine for the refuge of other countries. Many millions more became internally displaced.
My cousins went to the frontline to fight. My other cousins are accepting refugees in their homes in Western Ukraine a place safer for them than the Occupied East.
Then in August, Ukraine was able to surprise the Russians with a push into Kharkiv by publicizing their “fake” push into Kherson. We watched with excitement as the Ukrainians were able to liberate the Kharkiv region in September and then Kherson City in the Fall.
Ukraine also damaged the Kerch Bridge, the only bridge linking Crimea to mainland Russia in October, taking it out of use for weeks.
Then we spent the Winter watching the Russians bomb energy infrastructure trying to freeze the Ukrainians into submission. This did not deter them.
The Ukraine War: The Second Year
Ukraine may have lost Bakhmut to Russia in the Spring after the first anniversary of the War, but they outlasted their infrastructure bombings. Then Ukraine started its counteroffensive in the South with much hope for quick gains.
Unfortunately, Russia’s reinforcement of the front through landmines and dragon teeth proved too much for Ukraine without enough mine-clearing devices and no control over the skies.
The Kerch bridge was attacked a second time in July 2023 using Ukrainian drones this time.
The West countered by offering Ukraine longer-range weapons starting with HIMARS, Storm Shadows missiles, Patriot missile defense systems, and limited numbers of ATACAMS. They even promised training and delivery of F-16 fighter jets. The Ukrainians in turn have become one of the largest producers of drones and started bombing deep within Russia at strategic sites.
European countries who have been historically neutral like Finland and Sweden are joining NATO. Finland which has a much longer border to Russia than the Baltics became NATO’s newest member, already negating a potential purpose for Putin’s War — containing NATO expansion.
Ukraine has also proven adept at attacking Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. According to Radio Free Europe, it is estimated Russia has lost one-third of its 74 ships of its Black Sea Fleet to Ukrainian attacks. Since Turkey still keeps the Bosphorus Straits closed to foreign Navies, Russia cannot replace what it has lost unless it builds more ships — a long-term proposition. Most of their remaining fleet has left Crimea for ports further East on mainland Russia.
This has allowed Ukraine an important victory. It has broken the Russian blockade against Ukrainian ports enabling the Ukrainians to sell their agricultural products abroad and obtain a vital source of foreign currency.
With better missile defense systems, Ukraine has been able to better protect its energy infrastructure mostly protecting the country from the cold in its second full winter of the invasion.
While Ukraine remains united, the end of the second year has brought a new war in the Middle East and a fracture of the European Union and U.S. Allies. It took months for the EU to pass a 50 billion Euro aid package. A $60 billion U.S. aid package to Ukraine continues to languish in Congress as Ukraine is forced to conserve bullets and ammunition while Russia has been able to ramp up its military production and purchase ammunition from North Korea.
The impacts of the recent loss of the city of Avdiivka to Russia and the assassination of Alexey Navalny on the eve of the second anniversary leave the outcome of this war far from certain.
What needs to happen next?
In my perfect world as a Ukraine supporter, the recent loss of Avdiivka and Alexey Navalny’s assassination would wake up Europe and the United States to double down on their support for Ukraine.
The U.S. Congress would pass the foreign supplemental bill immediately after their long two-week recess. The U.S. and Europe would fast-track the promised F-16s, send more long-range weapons like storm shadow missiles and ATACMS to Ukraine, and pass more aid packages.
Both the U.S. and Europe would kick-start and accelerate their defense industries, producing more ammunition and missiles both for our defense as well as Ukraine’s.
Ukraine would be fast-tracked into the European Union and NATO as the eastern flank of Europe, where it belongs, and it has more than earned on this second anniversary of the invasion.
Ukraine has earned its right to independence through the blood and tears of its people these past ten years. It only needs the tools from the West to maintain it.
Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a peaceful life.
References
What We Know About the Crimea Bridge Attack — The New York Times (nytimes.com)
How Ukraine Blew Up a Key Russian Bridge — The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Ukraine Has No Navy. But It’s Hammering Russia In The Black Sea. (rferl.org)
