The Revolution Of Dignity also known as the Maidan Revolution, that took place in Ukraine in February 2014 was the start of the Russian-Ukraine war. Currently, Russia and Ukraine are fighting head-on with guns, bombs, and multiple lethal weapons to gain control of each other's territories. Russian troops have occupied about 20% of Ukraine because of which more than 8.2 million Ukrainians fled the country and about 8 million had been internally displaced, leading to Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
It all started in 2013 when a wave of large-scale protests known as "Euromaidan" began in response to Ukraine's president Yanukovych's decision not to sign the political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), and instead choosing closer ties to Russia. Earlier that year, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) had overwhelmingly agreed to the agreement but then Russia pressured them to reject it. The protests widened immensely with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych. After Yanukovych was removed from his position through formal and legal voting method, he claimed the vote to be illegal and asked Russia for help. Counter-revolutionary protests by Russia erupted in Southern and Eastern Ukraine. Russia occupied a part of Ukraine and annexed it, seized government buildings, and proclaimed independent states.
Since then, it's been 10 years of this ongoing war and both countries have built many allies. During the UN resolution in 2023 calling for "ending the war in Ukraine and demanded Russia's immediate withdrawal from the country, in line with the UN charter", Belarus, Syria, North Korea, Mali, and Eritrea voted against it along with Russia, giving a clear announcement to the world that these countries are now allied with Russia. On the other end, the US, Spain, Belgium, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Germany signed the Bilateral Security Cooperation agreement with Ukraine in 2024 to show their support against Russia. The war seems to have no chance of a settlement anytime soon, causing damage incessantly, more than 500,000 military casualties, 30,000 civilian casualties, and forced displacement of more than 11 million people. The war has adversely impacted the global economy, decreased energy and food security, caused environmental toxicity (emission of 175 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is more than the annual emissions of a highly industrialized country like the Netherlands), left an area the size of Romania riddled with landmines and raised the risk of nuclear war. Stats tell about a 29% drop in Ukraine's GDP and 2.1% shrank in Russia's economy in 2022. The UN estimates that $486 billion will be needed for recovery and reconstruction.
This war is a serious issue in the world which can lead to severe damages, problems, and incidents, impacting the livelihoods, economy, and goods transfer of all the countries, in fact maybe even leading to World War III, if proper measures are not taken soon!
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