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Ukraine has been dogged by corruption scandals, economic mismanagement, and Russian interference since it achieved independence in 1991. Russian threats have intensified as Ukraine's ties with the United States and Europe have improved in recent years.
Below is a timeline of major historical events over the last 30 years:
1991

December 1, 1991: Ukraine Votes for Independence

Amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine votes for independence in a referendum, with 92 percent of Ukrainians supporting independence, and elects Leonid Kravchuk as president. Ukraine had the second-largest population and economy of the fifteen Soviet republics.

1994

January 14, 1994: Securing Nuclear Warheads

The Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. presidents sign a statement that reaffirms Ukraine's commitment to transfer all strategic nuclear warheads to Russia and dismantle strategic launchers in its territory. The statement also confirms Russian readiness to compensate Ukraine for the value of the highly enriched uranium in the warheads, notes U.S. readiness to assist Ukraine in dismantling the launchers, and specifies security assurances Ukraine will receive once it accedes to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state.
READ MORE: A Historical Timeline of Afghanistan
February 8, 1994: Ukraine Joins NATO's Partnership for Peace

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) welcomes Ukraine into its Partnership for Peace, a collaborative arrangement open to all non-NATO European countries and post-Soviet states. Ukraine and Hungary become the fifth and sixth members of the partnership. Russia becomes a member that June and conducts various cooperative activities with NATO, including joint military exercises, until 2014, when NATO formally suspends ties. As the Cold War ended, Russia had opposed the eastern expansion of NATO. However, thirteen former partnership members eventually join the alliance.

July 10, 1994: Kuchma Becomes President

Former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma defeats incumbent President Leonid Kravchuk. It is the first time an incumbent has been defeated in a presidential election in a former Soviet republic. Kuchma's presidency is marked by slow growth, several economic crises, and charges of rampant corruption.

December 5, 1994: Budapest Memorandum Signed

The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances [PDF] is signed by Russia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States, following Ukraine's accession to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapons state. Russia, the UK, and the United States commit to respecting Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence, and promise to not threaten or use force against Ukraine.

June 28, 1996: New Constitution Ratified

The Ukrainian parliament ratifies a new constitution [DOC]. It theoretically has separation of powers, but the president holds significant sway. He or she can dismiss the prime minister and rescind acts of the cabinet, for instance. Among other things, the constitution guarantees free speech and private-property ownership and recognizes Ukrainian as the sole state language.

1997

July 9, 1997: NATO, Ukraine Deepen Partnership

Kuchma meets with NATO leaders in Madrid, where they sign a document establishing a distinctive partnership between Ukraine and the defense alliance. Under this partnership, a NATO-Ukraine commission will meet at least twice per year to discuss the relationship.

2000

September 2000 - November 2000: Gongadze Scandal Prompts Protests

On September 16, Heorhiy Gongadze, a Ukrainian journalist investigating alleged corruption in the Kuchma administration, disappears. His beheaded body is found two months later in a forest outside of Kyiv. Audio recordings eventually surface that purport to show Kuchma ordering subordinates to kill Gongadze. The scandal spurs public discontent about corruption among Ukraine's elites, leading to street protests. Western countries reconsider their support of Kuchma's government.

2001

April 2001: Prime Minister Yushchenko Ousted Amid Reform Moves

The parliament passes a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, who steps down. The vote is carried out by parties allied with Kuchma, who had surprised observers when he nominated Yushchenko to be prime minister in 1999. Yushchenko and his deputy Yulia Tymoshenko had been pushing through energy sector reforms that became unpopular with many of Kuchma's oligarch supporters.

2004

November 2004 - December 2004: Orange Revolution Overturns Flawed Election

The 2004 presidential race pits Western-oriented Yushchenko against Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych is Kuchma's preferred choice and the candidate supported by Moscow. The election is a tug-of-war between those who seek closer ties with the European Union (EU), NATO, and the West and those who favor closer alignment with Russia. Yushchenko mysteriously suffers dioxin poisoning in September; he survives but with his face disfigured. After two flawed rounds of voting award the election to Yanukovych, protesters dressed in orange, Yushchenko's campaign color, take to the streets in large numbers and force a revote in December, which Yushchenko wins. The second so-called color revolution in a post-Soviet state-a year after Georgia's Rose Revolution- sets off alarm bells in Moscow.

2006

January 2006: Russia Shuts Off Gas

A pricing and transit dispute between the Yushchenko government and Russia's state-owned Gazprom results in a gas cutoff, lasting a couple of days and quickly causing supply drops in European countries that import Russian gas via Ukraine. The dispute underscores the energy interdependence between Russia and Ukraine, with 80 percent of Russia's gas exports to Europe passing through the country. At the same time, Ukraine relies on Russia for much of its own natural gas supply, for which it has historically paid below-market rates. The shutdown occurs amid an economic slowdown that begins to dent Yushchenko's popularity.

2008

April 3, 2008: NATO Expansion Bid Meets Opposition

NATO begins its twenty-second summit amid a debate about whether it should offer Membership Action Plans (MAPs)-forerunners to membership-to Croatia, Georgia, and Ukraine. But in discussions between NATO officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Putin expresses opposition to extending MAPs to Georgia and Ukraine. Unable to reach a consensus, NATO members decline to offer a MAP to either. During a separate meeting, Putin reportedly tells U.S. President George W. Bush that Ukraine is "not even a real nation-state."

August 2008: Russia Invades Georgia

Russian troops invade Georgia following a Georgian military operation against a South Ossetian separatist stronghold. The invasion leads to a five-day war and results in an increased Russian presence in the breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which represent roughly one-fifth of Georgian territory. Yushchenko sides with Georgia, further increasing tensions between Kyiv and Moscow. Russia subsequently recognizes both republics as independent states, though neither is recognized as an independent state by most countries.

September 2008: Talks Open on New EU Relationship

The EU and Ukraine begin talks on a new "association agreement" and issue a communiqué that "Ukraine's future is in Europe." The EU considers such agreements to be legally binding contracts that commit countries to developing closer political, legal, and trading ties with the EU and sometimes lead to accession to the bloc. Implementation of the association agreement could mean major changes in Ukraine that would bring it closer to EU standards.

2010

February 7, 2010: Yanukovych Elected President

Yanukovych narrowly defeats Tymoshenko, prime minister at the time, in a presidential election that most international observers view as free and fair. Aided by political consultants from the United States, Yanukovych recasts himself as more open to EU integration. His victory is a sign of voter disillusionment with Tymoshenko and Yushchenko after several years of economic trouble.

2011

May 2011 - December 2011: Tymoshenko Sentenced, Brussels Freezes Agreement

Yanukovych has Tymoshenko arrested for "abuse of office," and she is sentenced to seven years in prison. International observers see the prosecution as a politically motivated way for Yanukovych to sideline his main opponent, and the U.S. ambassador calls the trial a farce, a view shared by many. The jailing stalls negotiations with the European Union over improving trade and political ties. Brussels refuses to finalize the association agreement at the December EU-Ukraine summit in Kyiv.

2013

November 21, 2013: Yanukovych Withdraws From EU Talks

The Ukrainian government states that it will not sign the association agreement at an upcoming EU-Ukraine summit in Lithuania. Yanukovych's administration announces it will resume dialogue with Russia about joining the Eurasian Customs Union. Protests begin in Kyiv almost immediately.

2013 - 2014

November 2013 - February 2014: Euromaidan Protests Lead to Government Collapse

Ukrainians turn out in large numbers to protest Yanukovych's announcement on EU ties. Mostly peaceful demonstrations continue for two months in Kyiv's main Maidan square. They turn violent after the government moves to break up protesters, and the ensuing crackdown kills more than one hundred people. On February 21, Yanukovych and opposition leaders reach a settlement that includes plans for presidential elections before the end of the year. Soon after, Yanukovych flees to Russia. He leaves behind a lavishly decorated palace, which protesters see as evidence of his corruption. Ukraine's acting president and acting prime minister make it clear that a top priority will be to bring Ukraine closer to Europe.

2014

February 2014 - March 2014: Russia Seizes Crimea, Holds Referendum

Pro-Russia forces, including so-called little green men-Russian soldiers in Russian uniforms, but with identifying insignia removed-seize control of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula where the majority of residents are ethnically Russian. Soon after, authorities hold a disputed referendum in which Crimean voters choose to secede and join Russia. Brussels calls the referendum "illegal and illegitimate," and Washington promises it will never be accepted. Russia annexes Crimea on March 21, though the UN General Assembly votes 100-11 against recognizing the referendum result and Russia is expelled from the Group of Eight. A month later, Putin admits that Russian soldiers were involved in the annexation and justifies it as a way to protect ethnic Russians allegedly threatened by violence from Kyiv.

April 2014: Russia Backs Bloody Separatist War

Russia provokes an armed separatist movement to seize government buildings across eastern Ukraine's Donbas region. Ukrainian forces resist but are wary of sparking a much wider war, with Russian troop buildups reported along the border. By early 2022, fighting has resulted in more than fourteen thousand deaths, a quarter of them civilians, and two million internally displaced Ukrainians. Parts of two regions-Donetsk and Luhansk-declare themselves independent republics.

May 25, 2014: Poroshenko Elected President

Petro Poroshenko, a pro-West oligarch, wins an outright majority in the first round of Ukraine's presidential election, surprising many. Poroshenko promises to fix the economy by aligning Ukraine with Europe and to root out corruption that has trailed Ukraine since its independence. U.S. President Barack Obama's administration signals interest in helping Poroshenko battle corruption and assigns Vice President Joe Biden as its chief envoy for Ukraine.

July 17, 2014: Passenger Jet Shot Down With Russian Missile

A Malaysia Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is shot down by a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian and Russian proxy forces, resulting in the death of all 298 people onboard. A Dutch-led investigation later finds that Russia bears responsibility, with the missile having been provided by a Russian army brigade, but Russia denies responsibility.

September 5, 2014: First Minsk Agreement Signed

Russian units enter Ukraine to push back Ukrainian forces that were on the verge of regaining control of Donbas. Shortly after, negotiators conclude the first Minsk Agreement, aimed at ending the fighting. However, its terms are not implemented, and fighting continues along the line of contact.

2015

February 11 - 12, 2015: Second Minsk Agreement Signed

Putin and Poroshenko meet in Minsk to negotiate a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine. They reach an agreement, shepherded by French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that outlines thirteen steps to end the war, including an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of all heavy weaponry in order to create a "security zone." Fighting and shelling along the line of contact still flare up from time to time. Both sides trade accusations on violations of the deal, though international observers place more blame on Russian and Russian proxy forces.
TIMELINE: Key events in the Trump-Ukraine story
2017

December 2017: Lethal U.S. Arms Sales Allowed

Under President Donald J. Trump, the United States approves lethal arms sales to Ukraine, moving beyond the nonlethal military assistance that the Obama administration had allowed. That summer, Trump had named Kurt Volker as his special envoy for Ukraine negotiations. Prior to that, the U.S. Congress created the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military aid for Ukraine.

2019

January 2019: Schism Emerges in Orthodox Church

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the leading authority for Orthodox Christianity, recognizes the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, formally severing it from the Russian Orthodox Church, which has close reported ties to the Kremlin and had overseen the Ukrainian church for centuries. Russia accuses the United States of encouraging the break in order to weaken Moscow, and a Kremlin spokesperson reissues a promise to defend "the interests of Russians and Russian-speakers."

April 21, 2019: Volodymyr Zelensky Elected

Volodymyr Zelensky, a television comedian and political novice, wins a presidential runoff with more than 70 percent of the vote, defeating Poroshenko. Two months later, Zelensky's party also wins a majority of parliamentary seats, marking the first time since independence that Ukraine's president has a majority party in the parliament. Zelensky had campaigned against corruption and poverty, and pledged to end the war in the east; many saw the vote as a rejection of Poroshenko and his failure to root out corruption.

July 25, 2019: A Phone Call Reverberates

Trump and Zelensky have a phone conversation that later becomes the focus of an impeachment inquiry by the U.S. Congress into abuse of power and obstruction of justice. A U.S. government whistleblower expresses concern about Trump's alleged effort during the call to enlist Zelensky to investigate Biden, a leading Democratic candidate in the 2020 presidential election. In November, several former and current U.S. officials testify before lawmakers that the Trump administration postponed a Trump-Zelensky meeting and held up congressionally approved military assistance to get Kyiv to investigate Biden. White House officials dismiss the complaints as politically motivated, andin January 2020 Trump is acquitted in a Senate vote mostly along party lines.

2020

June 2020: Making a Deeper Commitment to NATO

Ukraine is named a NATO Enhanced Opportunities Partner in June, joining Australia, Georgia, Finland, Jordan, and Sweden as countries with deeper cooperation on NATO-led missions and exercises. The alliance says the new status "does not prejudge any decisions on NATO membership." In September, Zelensky approves Ukraine's new National Security Strategy, which provides for the development of a distinctive partnership with NATO with the aim of gaining membership. The previous year, Zelensky's predecessor signed a constitutional amendment committing Ukraine to become a member of NATO and the EU.

2021

February 2021: Zelensky Cracks Down on Pro-Moscow Oligarchs

Zelensky orders a series of measures against oligarchs, notably Viktor Medvedchuk, a businessman, chairman of Ukraine's largest pro-Russia political party, and close friend of Putin's. The government freezes his financial assets for three years and shuts down three pro-Russia TV channels that Medvedchuk controls, alleging that they broadcast "misinformation." That May, authorities lodge treason charges against Medvedchuk, claiming that he transferred oil and gas production licenses in Crimea to Russian authorities. Zelensky says the moves are necessary to defend the country, while Putin blasts them as motivated by anti-Russia bias.

April 2021: Russian Military Buildup Raises Alarms

Officials from Ukraine and EU member states warn about recent Russian deployments near Ukrainian border areas and in Crimea. Adding up to more than a hundred thousand troops, along with tanks, rocket launchers and other weaponry, analysts call it the largest troop buildup since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Biden, now U.S. president, and Putin agree to a June summit to discuss a range of contentious issues, including Ukraine, and launch dialogues on strategic stability and cybersecurity. The following month, Putin publishes an article titled " On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians," in which he questions the legitimacy of Ukraine's borders, asserts that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people," and blames the collapse in bilateral ties on foreign plots and anti-Russia conspiracies.

September 2021: Nord Stream 2 Pipeline Completed

The Russian energy firm Gazprom finishes construction of the Nord Stream 2, a pipeline that is set to deliver natural gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany and could cut off a major source of income for Ukraine, a current transit country. Leaders in Kyiv protest that Moscow will use the pipeline, which could double gas deliveries to the rest of Europe, as a geopolitical weapon. The Biden administration opposes the pipeline but agrees to hold off on sanctions and reaches a deal with Germany to fund alternative energy projects for Ukraine. Amid the Russian military buildup near Ukraine, Germany says a German-based firm involved in the project must take administrative steps before any gas can flow, a process that could take until mid-2022.

2021 - 2022

December 2021 - January 2022: Russia Demands Security Concessions

As Russia continues to mobilize tens of thousands of troops along the border with Ukraine, the Putin government demands a set of security guarantees from the United States and NATO. This includes a draft treaty calling for tight restrictions on U.S. and NATO political and military activities, notably a ban on NATO expansion. The Biden administration delivers written responses in January; few details are made public, but it rejects Russia's insistence that Ukraine never be accepted into NATO and proposes new parameters for security in the region.
READ MORE: White House calls Russian moves on Ukraine an 'invasion'
2022

February 2022: Russia Recognizes Breakaway Regions, Sends Troops

Putin deploys Russian forces to Ukraine's separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk after the Kremlin recognizes them as independent. The military action raises concerns that Russia will try to assert full control over the regions, which are partially governed by Ukraine, and use the move as a pretext for a broader invasion of the country. In an address to Russia, Putin says the government in Kyiv is a " puppet regime" run by foreign powers and that NATO ignored Moscow's security demands. In response to Russia's moves, Germany announces the suspension of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, while the United States, EU, and UK pledge additional financial sanctions against Russian entities.
This timeline originally ran on the Council on Foreign Relations website.

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A historical timeline of post-independence Ukraine

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Ukraine has been dogged by corruption scandals, economic mismanagement, and Russian interference since it achieved independence in 1991. Russian threats have intensified as Ukraine's ties with the United States and Europe have improved in recent years.

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The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country taking over another; it is - in the words of one U.S. official - a shift in "the world order."

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Reporters, diplomats, heads of state and analysts tweeting on the Ukraine crisis.

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Expert analysis and commentary by Stanford scholars on the Ukraine-Russia c

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This approach lets teachers weave the powerful lenses and practices of civic action and change-analysis throughout the study of course content to prepare and support students’ action civic projects.

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Ukraine-Russia Conflict 2022 Choice Board

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Invasion of Ukraine - IN THE NEWS Resources - Feb 2022

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Critical Media Project. CMP ( University of Southern California). Free media literacy web resources for educators and students with many video clips from popular media about age, class, disability, gender, LGBTQ, race & ethnicity, and religion.

International Council for Media Literacy, IC4ML. Bridges scholarship with action through The Journal of Media Literacy; formerly known as the National Telemedia Council.

Media Education Foundation, MEF. Produces and distributes documentary films and other educational resources to inspire critical thinking about the social, political, and cultural impact of American mass media. In Resources, see downloadable Discussion Guides, Lessons & Ideas, full transcripts of each film, and more.

Media Education Lab ( University of Rhode Island). Resources, lesson plans, and events that bolster interdisciplinary approaches to research and practice relating to communication, media studies, and education.

Project Look Sharp ( Ithaca College). Offers free teaching units, lesson plans, and resources for teaching media literacy.

UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, C2i2 ( University of California, Los Angeles). Center for interdisciplinary, intersectional research. Committed to reimagining technology; championing social, racial, and economic justice; and, strengthening democracy with culture-making and public policy work.

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Research Guides: Critical Media Literacy: Critical Media Literacy Research Guide

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Critical Media Project. CMP ( University of Southern California). Free media literacy web resources for educators and students with many video clips from popular media about age, class, disability, gender, LGBTQ, race & ethnicity, and religion. International Council for Media Literacy, IC4ML.

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine.

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine. https://t.co/e9DpmyJT4S

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/e9DpmyJT4S
— AMEJA (@AMEJA) February 27, 2022

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine. https://t.co/e9DpmyJT4S

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine. https://t.co/e9DpmyJT4S

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NEW: AMEJA’s full statement on the comments about “civilized” countries, people that don’t “look like refugees” and the like in recent coverage of the war in Ukraine.

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Russia's massive assault on an independent Ukraine menaces not only Eastern Europe, but the human effort, since World War II, to build global peace through the international rule of law. USIP provides analysis and support for policies that can help sustain the democracy, dialogue and diplomacy that will be required to ultimately defeat this threat.

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Follow the Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map - bellingcat

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The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map is an open source effort to track unfolding events in the conflict in Ukraine.

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Has Putin’s war failed and what does Russia want from Ukraine?

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A year into Russia’s war, he has little to show for it but there is no sign of an end.

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The Biden administration imposed Tuesday what it said was the first tranche of sanctions targeting Russia for its actions against Ukraine.

The measures include freezing the assets of two state-owned banks that service the Kremlin and Russia's military as well as comprehensive sanctions on Moscow's sovereign debt, effectively cutting the government off from Western financing.

"Russia will pay an even steeper price if it continues its aggression, including additional sanctions," President Biden said in a televised address.

From Cuba to Myanmar to China to Iran, Washington has long used sanctions as a favored foreign policy tool, wielding the global economic power of the United States to punish adversaries, respond to rights abuses or corruption, or gain leverage in negotiations.

Here's what to know about sanctions and how they became a crucial part of U.S. foreign policy.

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What are economic sanctions, and how did they become Washington's foreign policy tool of choice?

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The Biden administration imposed Tuesday what it said was the first tranche of sanctions targeting Russia for its actions against Ukraine. The measures include freezing the assets of two state-owned banks that service the Kremlin and Russia's military as well as comprehensive sanctions on Moscow's sovereign debt, effectively cutting the government off from Western financing.

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Reporters in Ukraine

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The U.S. and its allies are taking additional steps to squeeze the Russian economy in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's currency has fallen, which will mean higher prices for Russians.

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In an effort to choke Russian economy, new sanctions target Russia's central bank

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The U.S. and its allies are taking additional steps to squeeze the Russian economy in response to the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's currency has fallen, which will mean higher prices for Russians.

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Mass shootings. Nuclear weapons. A robbery at your local corner store. Where do you start when you have to explain this stuff to your kids? Today, issues involving violence, crime, and war -- whether they're in popular shows, video games, books, or news coverage -- reach even the youngest kids. And with wall-to-wall TV coverage, constant social media updates, streaming services that broadcast age-inappropriate content any time of day, plus the internet itself, you have to have a plan for discussing even the worst of the worst in a way that's age-appropriate, that helps kids understand, and that doesn't cause more harm.

We know that heavy exposure to media violence, such as first-person-shooter games and cinematic explosions, can negatively affect kids. We also know that kids report feeling afraid, angry, or depressed about the news. But in recent years -- prompted by increased terrorist attacks around the world -- researchers are exploring the effects of "remote exposure" to real violent events. Remote exposure is when kids understand that something traumatic has occurred but haven't experienced it directly. Unsurprisingly, its lingering effects include feelings of grief, trauma, fear, and other mental health concerns. Kids can be deeply affected by images of war-torn countries, bloodied refugee children, and mass graves and need additional help processing them.

These tips and conversation starters can help you talk to kids of different ages about the toughest topics. Get more advice about explaining distressing news, difficult subjects, and sexual harassment.
Tips for talking to kids about violence, crime, and war Age 2-6
Avoid discussion of or exposure to really horrific news. As much as possible, wait until after young kids are in bed to watch the news, and save conversations about heinous subjects, such as Charles Manson or the latest Dateline murder mystery, for child-free moments.

Don't bring it up -- unless you think they know something. There's no reason to bring up school shootings, terrorist attacks, threats of war, or the like with young kids. If you suspect they do know something -- for example, you hear them talking about it during their play -- you can ask them about it and see if it's something that needs further discussion.

Affirm that your family's safe. In the case of scary news, such as wilderness fires -- even if you're a little rattled -- it's important for young children to know they're safe, their family is OK, and someone is taking care of the problem. Hugs and snuggles do wonders, too.

Simplify complex ideas -- and move on. Abstract ideas can complicate matters and may even scare young kids. Use concrete terms and familiar references your kid will understand, and try not to overexplain. About a mass shooting, say, "A man who was very, very confused and angry took a gun and shot people. The police are working to make sure people are safe."

Distinguish between "real" and "pretend." Young kids have rich fantasy lives and mix up make-believe and reality. They may ask you if a scary story is really true. Be honest, but don't belabor a point.
Age 7-12
Wait and see. Unless they ask, you know they were exposed, or you think they know something, don't feel you have to discuss horrific news or explain heinous crimes such as rape, beheadings, dismemberment, and drug-fueled rampages (especially to kids in the younger end of this age range or who are sensitive). If kids show signs of distress by acting anxious, regressing, or exhibiting some other tip-off that something's amiss -- for example, they're reluctant to go to school after the latest school shooting -- approach them and invite them to talk.

Talk ... and listen. Older kids hear about issues related to violence, crime, and war on social media, YouTube, TV, and movies -- not always reliable sources for facts. Try to get a sense of what your kids know before launching into an explanation, since you don't want to distress them further or open up a whole new can of worms. Feel them out by asking, "What did you hear?," "Where did you hear that?," "What do you know about it?," and "What do you think about it?"

Be honest and direct. Older kids can find out what they want to know from different sources, and you want the truth to come from you. It's not necessary to go into extreme detail. About a family who held their kids hostage, you can say, "The kids suffered many different kinds of abuse. But they were rescued, and their parents were arrested. Often in cases of child abuse, the parents are very sick with mental illness or other issues."

Discuss sensationalism in news and media. Talk to kids about how media outlets -- including news agencies, TV shows, movie companies, and game developers -- use extreme subjects to get attention, whether it's in the form of clicks, viewership, or ticket sales. Share the old newsroom adage, "If it bleeds, it leads," and talk about why we may be drawn to outrageous human behavior. This helps kids think critically about the relative importance of issues, the words and images used to attract an audience, and their own media choices.

Explain context and offer perspective. With your life experience, knowledge, and wisdom, you can explain the various circumstances around certain issues. This is the process that gives things meaning and clarity -- and it's important for kids to be able to make sense of negative and unpleasant things, too. To work through the powerful emotions that images of beatings, blood, and human suffering can bring up, kids have to learn to distance themselves from horrific events, understand the underlying causes, and perhaps get involved in meaningful ways to make things better, such as diplomacy and education.
Teens
Assume they know -- but don't assume their knowledge is complete. Teens get a lot of their information from online sources such as social media or YouTube, which can be misleading or flawed. Still, it's important to respect their knowledge and ability to learn things independently because that's a process you want to foster. You'll still need to fill in the blanks, offer some history, and share what you know.

Get them talking. High school years can be tough, as teens start rejecting their parents' ideas, becoming concerned with what friends think, and developing their own voice. This separation can be especially difficult when traumatic events occur or when you know they're interacting with mature media. To continue the kinds of conversations you had when they were younger -- and stay connected and relevant -- resist the urge to lecture and instead ask their opinions about things. Encourage them to support their ideas with legitimate news sources, not just repeat what others have said. Say, "We may not always agree, but I'm curious to hear what you have to say."

Accept their sources, but expand their horizons. Trending topics capture the headlines, but teens are just as likely to run across provocative subjects, stories, and characters on TV and in movies -- such as the meth-making chemistry teacher of Breaking Bad -- that get users clicking, viewing, and sharing. Give teens the tools to view information critically, whether they're scrolling through Snapchat, Netflix or a free-speech site for extremists such as 4chan and 8chan. Teach them to question what they see by asking themselves, "Who made this?," "Why did they make it?," "What's its point of view?," "What information isn't included?," and "What would my friends think of this?" These media-literacy questions help teens evaluate information, think beyond the clickbait headline or funny meme, and look more deeply into a topic.

Offer hope. Mood swings are the hallmark of the teen years. But exposure to sad and depressing news, as well as to issues like violence, crime, and war, through social media, video games, and movies can make teens world-weary. Don't be a Pollyanna (teens will see through that), but talk about meaningful ways to contribute something to the world -- anything that benefits the greater good. The idea that you can make a positive impact restores the soul and boosts the resilience they'll need their whole lives.

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How to Talk to Kids About Violence, Crime, and War

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Exposure to graphic images, distressing information, and horrific headlines can affect kids' overall well-being. Advice from Common Sense Media editors.

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War, Crisis, Tragedy: How to talk with kids when the news is scary - MindShift

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Whether an international war, a flash flood or a school shooting, scary events in the news can leave parents struggling to know when — and how — they should talk with their kids about it. Rosemarie Truglio of Sesame Workshop and Tara Conley, a media studies professor at Montclair State University, g…

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Address by Volodymyr Zelensky to Ukraine Early Morning 26 February 2022 - English Subtitles

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Introduction

Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The cultural and religious legacy of Kyivan Rus laid the foundation for Ukrainian nationalism through subsequent centuries. A new Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate, was established during the mid-17th century after an uprising against the Poles. Despite continuous Muscovite pressure, the Hetmanate managed to remain autonomous for well over 100 years. During the latter part of the 18th century, most Ukrainian ethnographic territory was absorbed by the Russian Empire. Following the collapse of czarist Russia in 1917, Ukraine achieved a short-lived period of independence (1917-20), but was reconquered and endured a brutal Soviet rule that engineered two forced famines (1921-22 and 1932-33) in which over 8 million died. In World War II, German and Soviet armies were responsible for 7 to 8 million more deaths. Although Ukraine achieved independence in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR, democracy and prosperity remained elusive as the legacy of state control and endemic corruption stalled efforts at economic reform, privatization, and civil liberties.

A peaceful mass protest referred to as the "Orange Revolution" in the closing months of 2004 forced the authorities to overturn a rigged presidential election and to allow a new internationally monitored vote that swept into power a reformist slate under Viktor YUSHCHENKO. Subsequent internal squabbles in the YUSHCHENKO camp allowed his rival Viktor YANUKOVYCH to stage a comeback in parliamentary (Rada) elections, become prime minister in August 2006, and be elected president in February 2010. In October 2012, Ukraine held Rada elections, widely criticized by Western observers as flawed due to use of government resources to favor ruling party candidates, interference with media access, and harassment of opposition candidates. President YANUKOVYCH's backtracking on a trade and cooperation agreement with the EU in November 2013 - in favor of closer economic ties with Russia - and subsequent use of force against students, civil society activists, and other civilians in favor of the agreement led to a three-month protest occupation of Kyiv's central square. The government's use of violence to break up the protest camp in February 2014 led to all out pitched battles, scores of deaths, international condemnation, a failed political deal, and the president's abrupt departure for Russia. New elections in the spring allowed pro-West president Petro POROSHENKO to assume office in June 2014; he was succeeded by Volodymyr ZELENSKY in May 2019.

Shortly after YANUKOVYCH's departure in late February 2014, Russian President PUTIN ordered the invasion of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula falsely claiming the action was to protect ethnic Russians living there. Two weeks later, a "referendum" was held regarding the integration of Crimea into the Russian Federation. The "referendum" was condemned as illegitimate by the Ukrainian Government, the EU, the US, and the UN General Assembly (UNGA). In response to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, 100 members of the UN passed UNGA resolution 68/262, rejecting the "referendum" as baseless and invalid and confirming the sovereignty, political independence, unity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In mid-2014, Russia began supplying proxies in two of Ukraine's eastern provinces with manpower, funding, and materiel driving an armed conflict with the Ukrainian Government that continues to this day. Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and the unrecognized Russian proxy republics signed the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum in September 2014 to end the conflict. However, this agreement failed to stop the fighting or find a political solution. In a renewed attempt to alleviate ongoing clashes, leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany negotiated a follow-on Package of Measures in February 2015 to implement the Minsk agreements. Representatives from Ukraine, Russia, the unrecognized Russian proxy republics, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also meet regularly to facilitate implementation of the peace deal. By early 2022, more than 14,000 civilians were killed or wounded as a result of the Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine.

On 24 February 2022, Russia escalated its conflict with Ukraine by invading the country on several fronts in what has become the largest conventional military attack on a sovereign state in Europe since World War II. The invasion has received near universal international condemnation and many countries have imposed sanctions on Russia and also supplied humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. The invasion has also created Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. As of 29 March, more than 4.02 million people had fled Ukraine, and approximately 6.48 million people were internally displaced as of 16 March. More than 2,685 civilian casualties had been reported, as of 25 March.

Visit the Definitions and Notes page to view a description of each topic.

Geography

almost four times the size of Georgia; slightly smaller than Texas

Danube (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km; Dnieper river mouth (shared with Russia [s] and Belarus) - 2,287 km; Dniester river source and mouth (shared with Moldova) - 1,411 km; Vistula (shared with Poland [s/m] and Belarus) - 1,213 km
note - [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km), Don (458,694 sq km), Dnieper (533,966 sq km)

People and Society

Ukrainian (official) 67.5%, Russian (regional language) 29.6%, other (includes small Crimean Tatar-, Moldovan/Romanian-, and Hungarian-speaking minorities) 2.9% (2001 est.); note - in February 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that 2012 language legislation entitling a language spoken by at least 10% of an oblast's population to be given the status of "regional language" - allowing for its use in courts, schools, and other government institutions - was unconstitutional, thus making the law invalid; Ukrainian remains the country's only official nationwide language

major-language sample(s):
Свiтова Книга Фактiв - найкраще джерело базової інформації. (Ukrainian)

The World Factbook, the indispensable source for basic information.

Ukrainian audio sample:

Orthodox (includes the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), and the Ukrainian Orthodox - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP)), Ukrainian Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish (2013 est.)

note: Ukraine's population is overwhelmingly Christian; the vast majority - up to two thirds - identify themselves as Orthodox, but many do not specify a particular branch; the OCU and the UOC-MP each represent less than a quarter of the country's population, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church accounts for 8-10%, and the UAOC accounts for 1-2%; Muslim and Jewish adherents each compose less than 1% of the total population

improved: urban: 99.4% of population

rural: 100% of population

total: 99.6% of population

unimproved: urban: 0.6% of population

rural: 0% of population

total: 0.4% of population (2020 est.)

improved: urban: 100% of population

rural: 100% of population

total: 100% of population

unimproved: urban: 0% of population

rural: 0% of population

total: 0% of population (2020 est.)

Environment

Danube (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km; Dnieper river mouth (shared with Russia [s] and Belarus) - 2,287 km; Dniester river source and mouth (shared with Moldova) - 1,411 km; Vistula (shared with Poland [s/m] and Belarus) - 1,213 km
note - [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km), Don (458,694 sq km), Dnieper (533,966 sq km)

Government

24 provinces (oblasti, singular - oblast'), 1 autonomous republic* (avtonomna respublika), and 2 municipalities** (mista, singular - misto) with oblast status; Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Crimea or Avtonomna Respublika Krym* (Simferopol), Dnipropetrovsk (Dnipro), Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad (Kropyvnytskyi), Kyiv**, Kyiv, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sevastopol**, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn (Lutsk), Zakarpattia (Uzhhorod), Zaporizhzhia, Zhytomyr

note 1: administrative divisions have the same names as their administrative centers (exceptions have the administrative center name following in parentheses); plans include the eventual renaming of Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad oblasts, but because these names are mentioned in the Constitution of Ukraine, the change will require a constitutional amendment

note 2: the US Government does not recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the municipality of Sevastopol, nor their redesignation as the "Republic of Crimea" and the "Federal City of Sevastopol"

subordinate courts: Courts of Appeal; district courts

note: specialized courts were abolished as part of Ukraine's judicial reform program; in November 2019, President ZELENSKYY signed a bill on legal reforms

Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) [Yuliya TYMOSHENKO]
European Solidarity (BPP-Solidarity) [Petro POROSHENKO]
Holos (Voice) [Kira RUDYK]
Opposition Bloc or OB [Evgeny MURAYEV]
Opposition Platform-For Life [Yuriy BOYKO, Vadim RABINOVICH]
Radical Party [Oleh LYASHKO]
Samopomich (Self Reliance) [Andriy SADOVYY]
Servant of the People [Oleksandr KORNIENKO]
Svoboda (Freedom) [Oleh TYAHNYBOK]

Economy

After Russia, the Ukrainian Republic was the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about four times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil accounted for more than one fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics. Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied unique equipment such as large diameter pipes and vertical drilling apparatus, and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the former USSR.

Shortly after independence in August 1991, the Ukrainian Government liberalized most prices and erected a legal framework for privatization, but widespread resistance to reform within the government and the legislature soon stalled reform efforts and led to some backtracking. Output by 1999 had fallen to less than 40% of the 1991 level. Outside institutions - particularly the IMF encouraged Ukraine to quicken the pace and scope of reforms to foster economic growth. Ukrainian Government officials eliminated most tax and customs privileges in a March 2005 budget law, bringing more economic activity out of Ukraine's large shadow economy. From 2000 until mid-2008, Ukraine's economy was buoyant despite political turmoil between the prime minister and president. The economy contracted nearly 15% in 2009, among the worst economic performances in the world. In April 2010, Ukraine negotiated a price discount on Russian gas imports in exchange for extending Russia's lease on its naval base in Crimea.

Ukraine's oligarch-dominated economy grew slowly from 2010 to 2013 but remained behind peers in the region and among Europe's poorest. After former President YANUKOVYCH fled the country during the Revolution of Dignity, Ukraine's economy fell into crisis because of Russia's annexation of Crimea, military conflict in the eastern part of the country, and a trade war with Russia, resulting in a 17% decline in GDP, inflation at nearly 60%, and dwindling foreign currency reserves. The international community began efforts to stabilize the Ukrainian economy, including a March 2014 IMF assistance package of $17.5 billion, of which Ukraine has received four disbursements, most recently in April 2017, bringing the total disbursed as of that date to approximately $8.4 billion. Ukraine has made progress on reforms designed to make the country prosperous, democratic, and transparent, including creation of a national anti-corruption agency, overhaul of the banking sector, establishment of a transparent VAT refund system, and increased transparency in government procurement. But more improvements are needed, including fighting corruption, developing capital markets, improving the business environment to attract foreign investment, privatizing state-owned enterprises, and land reform. The fifth tranche of the IMF program, valued at $1.9 billion, was delayed in mid-2017 due to lack of progress on outstanding reforms, including adjustment of gas tariffs to import parity levels and adoption of legislation establishing an independent anti-corruption court.

Russia's occupation of Crimea in March 2014 and ongoing Russian aggression in eastern Ukraine have hurt economic growth. With the loss of a major portion of Ukraine's heavy industry in Donbas and ongoing violence, the economy contracted by 6.6% in 2014 and by 9.8% in 2015, but it returned to low growth in in 2016 and 2017, reaching 2.3% and 2.0%, respectively, as key reforms took hold. Ukraine also redirected trade activity towards the EU following the implementation of a bilateral Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, displacing Russia as its largest trading partner. A prohibition on commercial trade with separatist-controlled territories in early 2017 has not impacted Ukraine's key industrial sectors as much as expected, largely because of favorable external conditions. Ukraine returned to international debt markets in September 2017, issuing a $3 billion sovereign bond.

$516.68 billion note: data are in 2017 dollars (2020 est.)

$538.33 billion note: data are in 2017 dollars (2019 est.)

$521.52 billion note: data are in 2017 dollars (2018 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
country comparison to the world: 40

$12,400 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2020 est.)

$12,800 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2019 est.)

$12,300 note: data are in 2017 dollars (2018 est.)

note: data are in 2010 dollars
country comparison to the world: 121

7.9% (2019 est.)

11% (2018 est.)

14.4% (2017 est.)

note: Excluding the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and part of the anti-terrorist operation zone
country comparison to the world: 200

71% of GDP (2017 est.)

81.2% of GDP (2016 est.)

note: the total public debt of $64.5 billion consists of: domestic public debt ($23.8 billion); external public debt ($26.1 billion); and sovereign guarantees ($14.6 billion)
country comparison to the world: 49

$60.67 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2020 est.)

$63.56 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2019 est.)

$59.18 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2018 est.)
country comparison to the world: 52

$62.46 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2020 est.)

$76.07 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2019 est.)

$70.56 billion note: data are in current year dollars (2018 est.)
country comparison to the world: 51

Energy

electrification - total population: 100% (2020)

Communications

Ukraine's media landscape is dominated by oligarch-owned news outlets, which are often politically motivated and at odds with one another and/or the government; while polls suggest most Ukrainians still receive news from traditional media sources, social media is a crucial component of information dissemination in Ukraine; almost all Ukrainian politicians and opinion leaders communicate with the public via social media and maintain at least one social media page, if not more; this allows them direct communication with audiences, and news often breaks on Facebook or Twitter before being picked up by traditional news outlets

Ukraine television serves as the principal source of news; the largest national networks are controlled by oligarchs: TRK Ukraina is owned by Rinat Akhmetov; Studio 1+1 is owned by Ihor Kolomoyskyy; Inter is owned by Dmytro Firtash and Serhiy Lyovochkin; and StarlightMedia channels (ICTV, STB, and Novyi Kanal) are owned by Victor Pinchuk; a set of 24-hour news channels also have clear political affiliations: pro-Ukrainian government Channel 5 and Pryamyi are linked to President Petro Poroshenko; 24 is owned by opposition, but not pro-Russian, politicians; UA: Suspilne is a public television station under the umbrella of the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine; while it is often praised by media experts for balanced coverage, it lags in popularity; Ukrainian Radio, institutionally linked to UA: Suspilne, is one of only two national talk radio networks, with the other being the privately owned Radio NV

(2021)

Military and Security

approximately 200,000 active troops (125,000 Army; 25,000 Airborne/Air Assault Forces; 2,000 Special Operations Forces; 10,000 Navy; 40,000 Air Force); approximately 50,000 National Guard (2021)

note - in early 2022, the Ukrainian Government announced plans to add 100,000 personnel to the armed forces over three years

250 Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) (Oct 2021)

note - Ukraine contributes about 500 troops to the Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine joint military brigade (LITPOLUKRBRIG), which was established in 2014; the brigade is headquartered in Poland and is comprised of an international staff, three battalions, and specialized units

conscription abolished in 2012, but reintroduced in 2014; 20-27 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation is 12 months (2021)

note(s) - the Ukrainian military has a mix of conscripts (14,000 conscripted in 2021) and professional soldiers on contracts; by law, conscripts cannot serve on the frontlines, but have the opportunity to sign short or long-term contracts upon the expiration of their terms of service; women can volunteer and have served in the Ukrainian armed forces since 1993; as of 2021, women comprised approximately 15-20% of the military; in late 2021, the Ukrainian Government began requiring women between 18 and 60 who are fit for military service and work in a broad range of professions to register with Ukraine's armed forces

Transnational Issues

1997 boundary delimitation treaty with Belarus remains unratified due to unresolved financial claims, stalling demarcation and reducing border security; delimitation of land boundary with Russia is complete and demarcation began in 2012; the dispute over the boundary between Russia and Ukraine through the Kerch Strait and Sea of Azov is suspended due to the occupation of Crimea by Russia; Ukraine and Moldova signed an agreement officially delimiting their border in 1999, but the border has not been demarcated due to Moldova's difficulties with the break-away region of Transnistria; Moldova and Ukraine operate joint customs posts to monitor transit of people and commodities through Moldova's Transnistria Region, which remains under the auspices of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe-mandated peacekeeping mission comprised of Moldovan, Transnistrian, Russian, and Ukrainian troops; the ICJ ruled largely in favor of Romania in its dispute submitted in 2004 over Ukrainian-administered Zmiyinyy/Serpilor (Snake) Island and Black Sea maritime boundary delimitation; Romania opposes Ukraine's reopening of a navigation canal from the Danube border through Ukraine to the Black Sea

IDPs:
1,461,700 (Russian-sponsored separatist violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine) (2021); 6.48 million (Russian invasion), according to the UN (2022); note - the more recent invasion total may reflect some double counting, since it is impossible to determine how many of the recent IDPs may also include IDPs from the earlier Russian-sponsored violence in Crimea and eastern Ukraine

stateless persons: 35,875 (mid-year 2021); note - citizens of the former USSR who were permanently resident in Ukraine were granted citizenship upon Ukraine's independence in 1991, but some missed this window of opportunity; people arriving after 1991, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Koreans, people with expired Soviet passports, and people with no documents have difficulty acquiring Ukrainian citizenship; following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, thousands of Crimean Tatars and their descendants deported from Ukraine under the STALIN regime returned to their homeland, some being stateless and others holding the citizenship of Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics; a 1998 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Uzbekistan simplified the process of renouncing Uzbek citizenship and obtaining Ukrainian citizenship

a transit country for illicit drug trafficking into the European Union due to its location amidst several important trafficking routes into western Europe, ports on the Black and Azov seas, extensive river routes, and porous northern and eastern borders; South American cocaine moves through Ukrainian seaports and airports; amphetamine and methamphetamine laboratories supply the local market

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Ukraine was the center of the first eastern Slavic state, Kyivan Rus, which during the 10th and 11th centuries was the largest and most powerful state in Europe. Weakened by internecine quarrels and Mongol invasions, Kyivan Rus was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and eventually into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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Measures announced over the weekend aimed at restricting the Russian central bank's ability to support the ruble appear to be having an immediate impact.

How Much a Ruble Is Worth

By targeting Russia's central bank with sanctions, experts said, American and European leaders have taken aim at what could be one of President Vladimir V. Putin's greatest weaknesses: the country's currency.

In Russian cities, anxious customers started lining up on Sunday in front of A.T.M.s, hoping to withdraw the money they had deposited in banks, fearful it would run out. The panic spread on Monday. To try to restore calm, the Bank of Russia posted a notice on its website: "The volume of bank notes ready for loading into A.T.M.s is more than sufficient. All customer funds on bank accounts are fully preserved and available for any transactions."

Even before the sanctions were announced over the weekend, the ruble had weakened. On Monday it plunged further, with the value of a single ruble dropping to less than 1 cent at one point. As the value of any currency drops, more people will want to get rid of it by exchanging it for one that is not losing value - and that, in turn, causes its value to drop further.

In Russia today, as the purchasing power of the ruble drops sharply, consumers who hold it are finding that they can buy less with their money. In real terms, they become poorer. Such economic instability could stoke popular unhappiness and even unrest.

"If people trust the currency, the country exists," Michael S. Bernstam, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said. "If they don't, then it goes up in smoke."

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A shopping mall in Moscow. Efforts to paralyze the country's central bank could ultimately cause inflation to rise and prompt a severe recession. Credit... Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

The sanctions aimed at the banking system were announcedduring a tense weekend in which Mr. Putin put his nuclear forces on a higher level of alert. The United States, the European Commission, Britain and Canada agreed to remove some Russian banks from the international system of payments known as SWIFT and to restrict Russia's central bank from using its storehouse of hundreds of billions of dollars' worth international reserves to undermine the sanctions.

Kicking banks out of SWIFT has gotten the most public attention, but the measures taken against the central bank are potentially the most devastating. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said it would" freeze its transactions " and "make it impossible for the Central Bank to liquidate its assets."

On Monday, the U.S. Treasury Department offered more details on how the sanctions would work, saying they would paralyze the Bank of Russia's assets in the United States and stop Americans from engaging in transactions involving the central bank, Russia's National Wealth Fund or the Russian Ministry of Finance. As expected, there are exemptions for transactions related to energy exports, on which Europe relies.

"The move on the central bank is absolutely shocking in its sweeping wording," said Adam Tooze, the director of the European Institute at Columbia University.

On Monday the British government banned transactions with the Russian central bank, the foreign ministry and the sovereign wealth fund.

But if the allies were to impose a full-fledged freeze of the vast amount of dollars, euros, pounds and yen that are owned by Russia but held in Western banks, it could devastate the Russian economy, causing spiraling inflation and a severe recession.

At the heart of the move to sanction the Bank of Russia are its foreign exchange reserves. These are the massive haul of convertible assets - other nations' currencies and gold - that Russia has built up, financed in large part through the money it earns selling oil and gas to Europe and other energy importers.

The headquarters of the Bank of Russia, the country's central bank, in Moscow. Credit... Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

The crux of why the Western allies have such leverage comes down to a reality of the modern financial system: Although Russia's central bank owns the assets, it doesn't control them.

As Mr. Bernstam explained, the Bank of Russia has roughly $640 billion in foreign exchange reserves on paper - or rather as electronic entries. But a big chunk of that money is not located in Russian vaults or financial institutions. Rather, it is held by central and commercial banks in New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and elsewhere around the world.

In countries like Russia, where the currency is not so stable, the ability to convert to a strong and trusted one like the dollar or the euro is crucial. It is evidence that the home currency - in this case the Russian ruble - has value. Russia's vast store of foreign exchange backs up that value. It assures households and businesses that they can convert their rubles whenever they want, and makes sure that the nation can protect its exchange rate with other currencies.. The reserves also lubricate the day-to-day transactions of Russian businesses that export and import.

But once workers and managers, owners and financiers worry that they can't trade their rubles for dollars or euros - because banks won't be able to access their foreign exchange reserves - they lose confidence.

It is a point that Lenin himself reportedly made more than a century ago, which was repeated by the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes: "There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency."

The Bank of Russia can try to prop up the value of the ruble by using its reserves to buy up rubles that people are selling. But it can only do that as long as it has access to foreign reserves.

A natural gas compressor station in Ust-Luga, Russia. Much of Russia's financial reserves are from the money it earns selling oil and gas to Europe and other energy importers. Credit... Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

The question is how long it can make those transactions. According to Mr. Bernstam's calculations, Russian individuals and companies have deposited $268 billion in foreign denominations in Russian banks.

Yet the central bank has just about $12 billion of cash in hand - an astonishingly small amount, he said. As for the rest of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, roughly $400 billion is invested in assets held outside the country. Another $84 billion is invested in Chinese bonds and $139 billion is in gold.

The central bank could trade in some of those bonds for renminbi, which would enable it to buy goods from China, but not from other countries. It could also sell gold, although Mr. Bernstam argues that there will be few buyers for the massive tons that Russia has on hand.

Other estimates put the amount of assets held outside Russia closer to $300 billion. The potentially dire consequences for the economy are the same.

"If the ruble collapses, it could usher in severe inflation and exacerbate a brewing recession," Robert Person, an associate professor of international relations at the United States Military Academy, said, noting that his views were his own and not those of the government or military.

"The economic consequences of these measures could turn out to be far more severe than other measures that have gotten more attention in the media," he added. "This gets at the Russian government's basic tools to manage its macroeconomy."

A view of Moscow's financial district in November. Mr. Person said that the sanctions could inhibit Russia's ability to effectively "manage its macroeconomy." Credit... Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times

The United States and some of its allies have previously imposed similar sanctions on Venezuela, Iran and Syria, but they all have much smaller economies than Russia.

The Bank of Russia took steps on Monday to restore confidence, and more than doubled interest rates to 20 percent from 9.5 percent in order to offset the rapid depreciation of the ruble. The bank also released an additional $7 billion worth of reserves that had been set aside as collateral for loans and closed down the Moscow stock exchange for the day. Meanwhile the foreign ministry moved to order companies to sell 80 percent of their foreign currencies, in a bid to gin up demand for rubles and prevent them from stockpiling dollars and euros.

Mr. Bernstam warned that the West's attack on the Russian ruble needed to be handled with care. "We don't want to destroy them," he said. "We don't want the political system to collapse."

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The West's Plan to Isolate Putin: Undermine the Ruble

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Measures announced over the weekend aimed at restricting the Russian central bank's ability to support the ruble appear to be having an immediate impact. How Much a Ruble Is Worth By targeting Russia's central bank with sanctions, experts said, American and European leaders have taken aim at what could be one of President Vladimir V.

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In this lesson, you will learn about how and why the "most significant European war in almost 80 years" has begun, and explore its implications.

A building in eastern Ukraine on Thursday after Russian forces bombed the area. Credit... Aris Messinis/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

In this lesson, you will learn about this invasion and its implications. Then you will follow the story via live updates as Ukraine and the rest of the world reacts to a military action that threatens serious consequences for the security structure that has governed Europe since the 1990s.
For additional background, take a look at our Jan. 26 lesson that helps explain key concepts like the Soviet Union, the Cold War, NATO and more. The Warm-Up, below, uses the same article for reference.

A Ukrainian soldier patrolling the front lines in December. Tensions between Ukraine and Russia have been simmering since 2014. Credit... Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

The Russian invasion will upend the lives of 44 million Ukrainians. But the relevance of Ukraine, on the edge of Europe and thousands of miles from the United States, extends far beyond its borders. Its fate has huge implications for the rest of Europe, the health of the global economy and America's place in the world.

Why might Russia, the United States and Europe care so much about Ukraine? With a partner or in a small group, make as long a list as you can think of. It might help to think about the following questions:

Where is Ukraine on a map of Europe? What is significant about its position? This piece, " How To Think About Ukraine, In Maps and Charts," can also help.

What do you know about the history of the relationship between Russia and Ukraine? For example, was Ukraine once part of the Soviet Union? (This timeline can also help.)

What do you know about the political alliances in Europe right now? For instance, what is NATO, and is Ukraine a part of it?

What do you know about the economic relationships between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the world? For instance, what important exports does Russia supply?

Once you have your list, take a look at the article we used for a Jan. 26 lesson plan, " How the Ukraine Crisis Developed, and Where It Might Be Headed." Skim it to see how many of the items on your list are mentioned there. What more did you learn? What questions do you still have?

Read the article, then answer the following questions:
1. The article begins, "After months of troop and tank buildups, of grim warnings of violence and vague assurances of peace, and of efforts at diplomacy in Washington, the halls of the United Nations and the capitals of Europe, Russia's invasion of Ukraine began early Thursday morning." Have you been aware of some of this? How much have you been following this story so far?

2. What does the article mean by calling the declaration by President Vladimir Putin of Russia "cynical" when it quotes his description of the invasion as a "special military operation" to "demilitarize" Ukraine but not occupy the country?

3. What is the state of the fighting? How are ordinary Ukrainians being affected? (Deeper answers to these questions, beyond what is in this overview, can be found in the Live Briefing.)

4. Why has Mr. Putin long sought control over Ukraine? What happened in 2008 and 2014 to complicate the situation?

5. Why does the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO infuriate Mr. Putin? (For more information, see this article.)

6. What events, starting last fall, led to the invasion on Feb. 24?

7. Ukraine, the United States and others have condemned Russia's aggression and dismissed Mr. Putin's justifications. What have they done in response so far?

A Soviet-era statue in Oleksandriya, Ukraine, titled "Knowledge Is Strength" was transformed a few weeks ago to include a Ukrainian flag. Credit... Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times

On Feb. 27, we published a forum in which we invited young people to react to the invasion and ask questions. So far over 900 have, and we invite you to add your voice, and to respond to the comments of others. For example, here is how Winn Godier begins a thoughtful set of comments. Can you relate?

In no way have I ever been someone to obsess over current events or carve out time in my day to watch the news, probably because of the anxiety it is bound to cause me. However, over the past 2 weeks I have paid more careful attention to current events and the impending "World War 3", watching the news in interest, fear, anger, and sadness.

To see a roundup of some of the best and most representative of those comments, visit this post.

Video

Families fleeing Thursday's attack in Kyiv were stuck in traffic for miles on the capital's longest avenue, as they tried to escape the advancement of Russian troops. Credit Credit... Michael Downey for The New York Times

Because this is news story that will continue to develop, we recommend following it via these live updates. We also recommend delving into some of the history of the region in order to understand the roots of the invasion.

Students might choose an angle that especially interests them, and, via the links below and other news sources, learn as much as they can about it in order to report back to the class.

Here is a beginning list:

Economic Implications: President Biden has announced tough new sanctions aimed at cutting off Russia's largest banks and some oligarchs from much of the global financial system and preventing the country from importing American technology critical to its defense, aerospace and maritime industries. Read about how sanctions work and what is at stake for the global economy. Check the live updates and find out: What other sanctions have been imposed by nations around the world? What economic implications has Russia's attack had globally so far? What is SWIFT, and why is barring Russian banks from using it a powerful tool? What has happened to Russia's economy as a result?

Historical Connections and Context: How has history influenced what is happening today, and how the world is responding? For instance, why might some be calling this conflict a " new Cold War"? Why might this war stir memories of past horrors for Ukraine's Jews? Why is this invasion " unlike most wars in 80 years"? And why, according to four Times Opinion writers who discuss this situation via an audio roundtable, has " the world changed overnight "? What other historical roots and connections can you find?

Putin's Rationale for the Attack: Mr. Putin has spun a narrative, much of which is fabricated or distorted, to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Fact-check Mr. Putin's claims about Ukrainian statehood, the country's path to nuclear weapons, genocide and more. Why might Mr. Putin make these baseless accusations? What might these invocations suggest about Russia's goals, beyond war with Ukraine? Why does what he has said matter for the rest of the world? And how are Russian citizens reacting? (To track the invasion, follow these maps, which The Times continues to update.)

Global Response: How has the world responded to Russia's invasion of Ukraine so far? How are Europeans reacting? What about Russian citizens? What role is the United States taking, and why? What implications might Russia's relationship with China have for this conflict? Why is the fact that NATO countries are sending so many weapons to Ukraine risking further conflict with Russia?And why, according to this news analysis, is there a "a surge of unifying moral outrage over Russia's war"? How is social media playing a crucial role?

Life in Ukraine: What is it like to be in Eastern Ukraine right now as heavy fighting gets underway? This article, via pictures, descriptions of the lives of ordinary people, and even poetry, describes the moment. The video embedded above shows what it was like to be in the nation's capital, Kyiv, as Russian troops advanced. The Feb. 24 edition of "The Daily" features live dispatches from Times correspondents in Ukraine as the attacks begin. And in a Feb. 25 Opinion piece, Veronika Melkozerova, a Ukrainian journalist, writes, " I'm in Kyiv, and It Is Terrifying."As you continue to keep up via Times live updates or other news sources, what details stand out for you, and why? What can you glean about life in Ukraine, and how the invasion is changing it?

Beyond the Battlefield: How will the fallout of Russia's attack affect the rest of the world? This article explains how, in addition to the anticipated bloodshed, the invasion could spur a rise in energy costs, Russian cyberattacks, a new refugee crisis in Europe and more. In what ways might the invasion affect you, the communities you're a part of, or other ordinary people around the globe?

Chernobyl: Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement on Feb. 25 that its paratroopers had taken control of the territory around the former Chernobyl nuclear plant in northern Ukraine and were working with Ukrainian guards to ensure the safety of its facilities, contradicting Ukrainian claims that Russian forces were holding the plant's personnel hostage. Chernobyl was the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history, when an explosion and fire in 1986 destroyed one of the plant's reactors. The two countries have made opposing statements about what is happening there. Why are Ukrainian officials concerned? Read this article to learn more.

Your Choice: As this news develops, there will be a growing number of related effects to investigate, understand and help explain to others. Continue to keep up with the news, whether via Times live updates or any other reliable source.

Video

Credit Credit... Ukrainian Presidential Office via Associated Press

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

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Lesson of the Day: 'The Invasion of Ukraine: How Russia Attacked and What Happens Next'

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In this lesson, you will learn about how and why the "most significant European war in almost 80 years" has begun, and explore its implications. In this lesson, you will learn about this invasion and its implications.

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Objectives

Students will:

Explore the current situation in Ukraine and its historical origins;

Analyze political cartoons that depict the Ukrainian crisis;

Identify the techniques used by cartoonists to express political opinion;

Monitor the Ukrainian crisis and consider international responses.

Handouts

Monitoring the Ukraine Crisis in the News
Evaluating Media Sources
Note: This lesson has three distinct parts-the first provides information about the ongoing Ukraine crisis and its origins; the second is a political cartoon analysis; and the third asks students to monitor the crisis in the news. You may choose to use all three components, or alternatively, just one or two.
Recommended Reading

Though this lesson can be completed as a stand-alone activity, the following curriculum units provide additional context on the history of Russia and U.S.-Russia relations:

Introduction: Setting the Stage

Begin the class by asking students if they have heard about the ongoing Ukraine crisis. If yes, what do students know about these events? Record students' answers on the board. If students are unfamiliar with the situation, share with them that Ukraine is currently facing the threat of an invasion by the Russian military and a war, a crisis that involves the European Union, Ukraine, the United States, and Russia. Tell the class that they will be exploring this crisis through videos, readings, and political cartoons.

Part I: Understanding the Crisis in Ukraine

Distribute a copy of the map to each student. Have students identify Ukraine on the map. Remind students that Ukraine was controlled by Moscow for centuries and was one of fifteen republics of the Soviet Union until its independence in 1991. Tell students that they are going to watch three short videos that give some important historical background on the current crisis. Pause after viewing each to discuss the key points of each video. Give students time to mark their maps and ask questions.

Show students the short video of Professor Robert Legvold answering the question, "What is the 'near abroad'?"

Ask students to describe the "near abroad" in their own words. Have students mark each country of the "near abroad" on their map. What does Legvold say some people believe Russia is trying to do in the "near abroad"?

Show students the short video of Professor Douglas Blum answering the question, "How do Russia's neighbors regard Russia?"

What factors have influenced the policy decisions of Russia's neighbors? What former Soviet republics have joined NATO? Have students mark those countries on the map. Which former Republics have wanted to join NATO, but have not joined? Tell students to find and mark those countries on the map. What happened in the country of Georgia in 2008?

Show students the short video of Professor Patricia Herlihy answering the question, "What is Russia's relationship with Ukraine?"

What view do many Russians have of Ukraine's independence? What are some of the historical origins of disagreement between Russia and Ukraine?

Form groups of three or four students and distribute the handouts "Ukraine Crisis-Background" and "Graphic Organizer-Charting the Crisis." Ask students to follow the instructions on the handouts and to be prepared to share their answers with the class.

Bring students back together. Go over groups' responses to the questions. What prompted the crisis in Ukraine? What stake do members of the international community (Ukraine, Russia, United States, and the European Union) have in the crisis?

Part II: Political Cartoons

Distribute "Political Cartoons" to each student. Review the introduction with the class, emphasizing the techniques cartoonists use to convey an opinion on political issues. Assign each group a cartoon to analyze. Have students discuss the cartoon and then answer the questions provided. Inform students that they will be presenting their work to the class.

Have each group present their political cartoons. Since you might have multiple groups analyzing the same cartoons, you may wish to have them present together or on different questions from the activity.

As a class, discuss how the political cartoons provide perspective on the crisis in Ukraine. Were students able to identify the message of each cartoon? If so, what were the cartoonists trying to express? Which techniques did students think were most effective in getting the message across? Ask students to imagine that they are the editor of a top U.S. newspaper. Which political cartoon would they feature alongside an upcoming, front-page article on the Ukrainian crisis? Why? Does the cartoon they selected provide the best visual representation of the crisis? Or is it the most thought-provoking?

Part III: Monitoring Ukraine in the News

Distribute "Monitoring the Ukraine Crisis in the News." Tell students that over the course of the next month, they will be following the Ukrainian crisis in the news and taking note of how the crisis evolves. (Please see the list of news sources below that students can use for this activity. Teachers might want to take this opportunity to review with students how to assess media sources for reliability. See the handout "Evaluating Media Sources" for eight steps for assessing source reliability. You might choose to have students use these steps as they monitor the news about Ukraine.) Students should consult at least two or three news sources and write a short update about the crisis every week on Part I of the handout. Encourage students to refer to Ukrainian, U.S. or European, and Russian news sources. At the end of the month, students should answer the questions listed in Part II.

After students have completed the activity, bring the class together to debrief. How has the crisis evolved? Have conditions improved or worsened? What steps has the international community taken? Have the positions of Russia, the United States, and the European Union changed at all? If so, how? What challenges do the Ukrainian people face? Do students believe that a resolution to the conflict is within sight? What sources were most useful? Did students find sources that were unreliable or inaccurate? For example, what do students know about press freedom in Russia and government influence over media outlets? Did students find interesting information in any of the sources they thought were unreliable?

Additional Resources

You may find these additional short videos that explore U.S.-Russia relations helpful.

What are some major sources of tension between Russia and the United States?
What are the broader implications of the Ukraine crisis?
What kind of a relationship should the United States strive to have with Russia?

News Coverage of the Crisis
You may find the selected resources below useful for Part III of the lesson. Russian Sources (in English)
The Moscow Times Russian Photo credit: White House photo. Public domain. Government-Controlled Sources This list is not exhaustive. There are traditional media sources, U.S. government sources, and Russian government-controlled media sources (Sputnik and RT). Teachers should use this as an opportunity to help students consider the value and limitations of different media sources.
U.S. Government Sources
U.S. State Department: Ukraine
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Ukraine

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In this lesson, students explore the current situation in Ukraine and its historical origins; analyze political cartoons; identify the techniques used by cartoonists to express political opinion; and monitor the crisis and consider international responses.

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UN Resolution Condemning Russian Invasion of Ukraine

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UN Resolution Condemning Russian Invasion of Ukraine

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UN Resolution to Condemn Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

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read: president biden's state of the union address transcript  - cnnpolitics

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READ: President Biden's State of the Union address

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President Joe Biden delivered his 2022 State of the Union address on Tuesday. Here's his speech as prepared for delivery and released by the White House.

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There are currently 30 members

Sort alphabetically or

Albania (2009)

Belgium (1949)

Bulgaria (2004)

Canada (1949)

Croatia (2009)

Czechia (1999)

Denmark (1949)

Estonia (2004)

France (1949)

Germany (1955)

Greece (1952)

Hungary (1999)

Iceland (1949)

Italy (1949)

Latvia (2004)

Lithuania (2004)

Luxembourg (1949)

Montenegro (2017)

Netherlands (1949)

North Macedonia (2020)

Norway (1949)

Poland (1999)

Portugal (1949)

Romania (2004)

Slovakia (2004)

Slovenia (2004)

Spain (1982)

Türkiye (1952)

The United Kingdom (1949)

The United States (1949)

NATO enlargement

NATO membership is open to "any other European state in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area."

NATO also has what it calls the Membership Action Plan. It helps aspiring members prepare for membership and meet key requirements by providing practical advice and targeted assistance.

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2.1 A political and military Alliance

Security in our daily lives is key to our well-being. NATO's purpose is to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

POLITICAL - NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defence and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.

MILITARY - NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defence clause of NATO's founding treaty - Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organisations.

2.2 Collective defence

NATO is committed to the principle that an attack against one or several of its members is considered as an attack against all. This is the principle of collective defence, which is enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.

So far, Article 5 has been invoked once - in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.

2.3 The Transatlantic link

NATO is an alliance of countries from Europe and North America. It provides a unique link between these two continents, enabling them to consult and cooperate in the field of defence and security, and conduct multinational crisis-management operations together.

2.4 The 2022 strategic concept

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3.1 Decisions and consultations

Every day, member countries consult and take decisions on security issues at all levels and in a variety of fields.

A "NATO decision" is the expression of the collective will of all 30 member countries since all decisions are taken by consensus.

Hundreds of officials, as well as civilian and military experts, come to NATO Headquarters each day to exchange information, share ideas and help prepare decisions when needed, in cooperation with national delegations and the staff at NATO Headquarters.

3.2 Operations and missions

Kosovo

Securing the Mediterranean

Supporting the African Union

NATO takes an active role in a broad range of crisis-management operations and missions, including civil emergency operations.

NATO's crisis-management operations are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate.

3.3 Partnerships

40 non-member countries work with NATO on a wide range of political and security-related issues. These countries pursue dialogue and practical cooperation with the Alliance and many contribute to NATO-led operations and missions. NATO is also cooperating with a wide network of international organisations.

Partner countries do not have the same decision-making authority as member countries.

Learn more
about NATO's partnerships

3.4 Developing the means to respond to threats

NATO has always innovated and adapted itself to ensure its policies, capabilities and structures meet current and future threats, including the collective defence of its members.

NATO develops partnerships with former adversaries after the break-up of
the Soviet Union

Large-scale terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C.

NATO invokes Article 5 for the first time ever and adopts a broader approach to security

Go to NATO Declassified

Member countries

International Military Staff

Integrated Military Command Structure

View organigram

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There are currently 30 members Sort alphabetically or Albania (2009) Belgium (1949) Bulgaria (2004) Canada (1949) Croatia (2009) Czechia (1999) Denmark (1949) Estonia (2004) France (1949) Germany (1955) Greece (1952) Hungary (1999) Iceland (1949) Italy (1949) Latvia (2004) Lithuania (2004) Luxembourg (1949) Montenegro (2017) Netherlands (1949) North Macedonia (2020) Norway

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Today, the United States, in coordination with Allies and partners, is imposing additional economic costs on Russia and Belarus in response to President Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine. The United States will take actions to hold Belarus accountable for enabling Putin's invasion of Ukraine, weaken the Russian defense sector and its military power for years to come, target Russia's most important sources of wealth, and ban Russian airlines from U.S. airspace.

As a result of our historic, multilateral coordination, Russia has become a global economic and financial pariah. Over 30 countries representing well over half the world's economy have announced sanctions and export controls targeting Russia. Russia is further isolated from the international financial and trade system. We are preventing Putin from accessing his war chest to soften the blow of our actions and support his invasion of Ukraine. The United States and governments all over the world are going after Putin's cronies and their families by identifying and freezing the assets they hold in our respective jurisdictions - their yachts, luxury apartments, money, and other ill-gotten gains. And the United States and our Allies are acting in concert to minimize the impact of these measures on our economies, including through a coordinated release of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. We will continue to impose costs with Allies and partners so long as Putin continues to escalate.

Today's actions include:

Sweeping restrictions on Belarus to choke off its import of technological goods in response to its support of Putin's war of choice. The Department of Commerce will extend the stringent export control policies put in place for Russia to Belarus. This action will help prevent diversion of items, technologies, and software through Belarus to Russia and will significantly degrade both countries' ability to sustain their military aggression and project power. This will severely limit the ability of Russia and Belarus to obtain the materials they need to support their military aggression against Ukraine, project power in ways that threaten regional stability and undermine global peace and security.

Full blocking sanctions on Russian defense entities. The Department of State will impose sweeping sanctions that target Russia's defense sector to further restrict Putin's war machine. This action will impose significant costs on Russian weapon development and production companies. In total, 22 Russian defense-related entities will be designated, including firms that make combat aircraft, infantry fighting vehicles, electronic warfare systems, missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles for Russia's military.

Export Controls Targeting Oil Refining, a Key Revenue Source that Supports Russian Military. Through export controls on oil and gas extraction equipment, the Commerce Department will impose restrictions on technology exports that would support Russia's refining capacity over the long term. The United States and our Allies and partners do not have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy - which is why we have carved out energy payments from our financial sanctions. But we and our Allies and partners share a strong interest in degrading Russia's status as a leading energy supplier over time. These actions will help further that goal, while protecting American consumers.

Targeting Entities Supporting the Russian and Belarusian Military. The Commerce Department, in coordination with its interagency partners, will add entities that have been involved in, contributed to, or otherwise supported the Russian and Belarusian security services, military and defense sectors, and/or military and defense research and development efforts to the Entity List. These actions will ensure that the military as well as the aerospace, maritime and high-technology sectors do not obtain U.S. technology goods and technology that can be used to support Russian technical maintenance and innovation.

Banning Russian aircraft from entering and using domestic U.S. airspace. As the President announced, the United States will close off American air space to all Russian flights - further isolating Russia - and adding an additional squeeze on its economy. This includes aircraft certified, operated, registered or controlled by any person connected with Russia. This includes revoking all Russian airlines' - both passenger and cargo - ability to operate to and from U.S. destinations, as well as refusing entry of any Russian-operated aircraft into U.S. airspace. With this action, the United States stands with over 30 of the world's most important aviation markets in denying Russian carriers the ability to conduct business.

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FACT SHEET: The United States Continues to Impose Costs on Russia and Belarus for Putin's War of Choice | The White House

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Today, the United States, in coordination with Allies and partners, is imposing additional economic costs on Russia and Belarus in response to President Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine. The United States will take actions to hold Belarus accountable for enabling Putin's invasion of Ukraine, weaken the Russian defense sector and its military power for years to come, target Russia's most important sources of wealth, and ban Russian airlines from U.S.

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People attend a march in Melbourne, Australia to protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine [William West/AFP]

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into a fourth day, an outpouring of support for Ukrainians has been witnessed across much of Europe, Australia, and the West in general.

The war began on Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to enter Ukraine, following months of a heavy military build-up on the border.

Ukraine's health minister said at least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed so far during the invasion. The United Nations says more than 360,000 Ukrainians have fled the country, with the majority crossing the border into neighbouring Poland.

The war has triggered swift condemnation by several countries, immediate sanctions by the United States and other countries targeting Russian banks, oil refineries, and military exports, and marathon emergency talks at the UN Security Council (UNSC).

On social media, the speed of such an international response - which includes the exclusion of Russia from some cultural events and treatment of it as a pariah in sports - has raised eyebrows at the lack of such a reaction to other conflicts across the world.

Media pundits, journalists, and political figures have been accused of double standards for using their outlets to not only commend Ukraine's armed resistance to Russian troops, but also to underlying their horror at how such a conflict could happen to a "civilised" nation.

CBS News senior correspondent in Kyiv Charlie D'Agata said on Friday: "This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully, too - city where you wouldn't expect that, or hope that it's going to happen."

His comments were met with derision and anger on social media, with many pointing out how his statements contributed to the further dehumanisation of non-white, non-European people suffering under a conflict within mainstream media.

Atrocities start with words and dehumanization.
Atrocities unleashed upon millions in the ME, fueled by dictators labeled as reformists in the west.
The racist subtext: Afghans, Iraqi & Syrian lives don't matter, for they are deemed inferior-"uncivilized." pic.twitter.com/hC1JAkIHym

- Rula Jebreal (@rulajebreal) February 26, 2022

"This isn't Iraq or Afghanistan. [Kyiv] is a relatively civilized city where you wouldn't expect this to happen."

This isn't even OANN or Fox. This overt white supremacy is on CBS. Absolutely disgusting dehumanization of people of color.
pic.twitter.com/zV8vWCVF5h

- Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) February 26, 2022

D'Agata later apologised, saying he spoke "in a way I regret".

On Saturday, the BBC hosted Ukraine's former deputy general prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze.

"It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blonde hair and blue eyes being killed every day with Putin's missiles and his helicopters and his rockets," Sakvarelidze said.

The BBC presenter responded: "I understand and of course respect the emotion."

But people with 'blue eyes and blonde hair' dropping bombs over the Middle East and Africa is OK.

And 'Blue eyes and blonde hair' is Hitler's words from the Mein Kampf about the superior Aryan race. https://t.co/uaya7OIPKF

- Advaid അദ്വൈത് (@Advaidism) February 27, 2022

White supremacy is a core European value. #Ukraine

"It's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed"

pic.twitter.com/hGHw4zt9FU

- د. دانيال ياغِتش | Dr. Denijal Jegić (@denijeg) February 27, 2022

On Sunday, Al Jazeera English presenter Peter Dobbie described Ukrainians fleeing the war as "prosperous, middle class people" who "are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East that are still in a big state of war; these are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa, they look like any European family that you would live next door to."

The media network later issued an apology, saying the comments "were inappropriate, insensitive, and irresponsible".

"Al Jazeera English is committed to impartiality, diversity and professionalism in all its work. This breach of that professionalism will be dealt with through disciplinary measures," it said in a statement.

Meanwhile on Friday, Sky News broadcast a video of people in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro making Molotov cocktails, explaining how grating Styrofoam makes the incendiary device stick to vehicles better.

"Amazing mainstream Western media gives glowing coverage of people resisting invasion by making molotov cocktails," one social media user remarked. "If they were brown people in Yemen or Palestine doing the same they would be labeled terrorists deserving US-Israeli or US-Saudi drone bombing."

On BFM TV, France's most-watched cable news channel, journalist Philippe Corbe said: "We're not talking here about Syrians fleeing the bombing of the Syrian regime backed by Putin, we're talking about Europeans leaving in cars that look like ours to save their lives."

British journalist Daniel Hannan was criticised online for an article in The Telegraph, in which he wrote that war no longer happens in "impoverished and remote populations".

European politicians have also expressed support for open borders towards Ukrainian refugees, using terminology such as "intellectuals" and "European" - a far cry from the fear-mongering used by governments against migrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

"Skin is a passport ... epidermal citizenship," one social media user said.

Jean-Louis Bourlanges, a member of the French National Assembly, told a TV channel that the Ukrainian refugees will be "an immigration of great quality, intellectuals, one that we will be able to take advantage of".

The Bulgarian PM: "These are not the refugees we are used to. They are Europeans, intelligent, educated people, some are IT programmers...this is not the usual refugee wave of people with an unknown past. No European country is afraid on them."

I am not surprised, just angry.

- Victor Petrov (@VictorPPetrov) February 26, 2022

The Russia-Ukraine war has been billed by liberal media as Europe's worst security crisis since the end of World War II, contributing to the general amnesia of relatively recent conflicts on the continent such as the Bosnian war in the 1990s and the Northern Ireland conflict that lasted from the 1960s until 1998.

Absent from such generalisations was the fact that in the post-World War era, Europe exported many wars in countries that were previous colonial entities.

Some commentators have also heaped praise on the steadfastness of Ukrainians and the country's defence capabilities, in a way that they suggested no other nation or people have undergone such an experience before.

A lot. Bosnian during the Siege of Sarajevo and throughout the Bosnian Genocide were defenceless but never wavered.

People are incredibly resilient and all over the world there are masses resisting oppression and war. Let's not be ahistorical in the name of supporting Ukraine. https://t.co/lX9HejN2ei pic.twitter.com/rjmh7w4GlT

- Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura (@Rrrrnessa) February 26, 2022

Critics pointed out the hypocrisy of crowdsourcing and setting up online donations to fund Kyiv's military without facing any government backlash or suspension of their monetary accounts.

I love how people are literally crowdfunding Ukraine's military equipment online.

My subscribers get their PayPal donations taken aside for using the word "Palestine" or "Syria".

If you crowdfunded for the Palestinian resistance you'd be put in jail.

Ah the double standards.

- Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) February 26, 2022

The double standards regarding calls for excluding Russia from cultural and sporting events and not extending the same move to other occupying entities have not been lost on social media either.

Examples were drawn between the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel - often touted by Western governments as anti-Semitic - and the current exclusion of Moscow from events such as the Eurovision contest and stripping the Champions League final from St Petersburg.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed the boycott of Russia from sports, but criticised the boycott of last month's Sydney Cultural Festival over receiving sponsorship from the Israeli embassy.

Remember those who wrung their hands and equivocated over the Sydney Festival boycott? Remember the avalanche of anti-boycott think pieces?

Turns out that cultural boycott of an invader/occupier is neither complicated nor controversial. pic.twitter.com/gCtgCQUmUN

- Matt Chun (@matt_chun) February 26, 2022

Claudia Webbe, a British member of parliament, tweeted that the people who genuinely care about Ukrainians are the ones who will welcome all refugees with open arms.

"The rest?" she posted, "Well, they're pretending."

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'Double standards': Western coverage of Ukraine war criticised

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As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into a fourth day, an outpouring of support for Ukrainians has been witnessed across much of Europe, Australia, and the West in general. The war began on Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces to enter Ukraine, following months of a heavy military build-up on the border.

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William Taylor on the Latest from Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

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As Ukraine's military continues to resist Russian advances throughout the country, USIP's Ambassador William Taylor offers the latest updates on the situation, saying the "the international tide is clearly turning against Russia" as more nations implement sanctions and that "Russia is now a pariah state."

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention https://t.co/qMFAwYUAKN

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention pic.twitter.com/qMFAwYUAKN
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) March 1, 2022

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention https://t.co/qMFAwYUAKN

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention https://t.co/qMFAwYUAKN

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#Russia In Moscow, five children between 7 and 11 have been detained for protesting against the war. They came to the Ukrainian embassy with parents. After a lawyer came, they were released from detention

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

As military analysts warn of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, they also are keeping an eye on the weather. Temperatures, cloud cover or even the radioactivity in the soil could determine when and where Russian troops make a possible move.

For centuries, armies and nations have waged wars on these same lands, from the steppes to the Eastern European heartland, and have faced similar obstacles - from mucky wetlands to rushing rivers and treacherous mountain ranges.

Russia, while mobilizing more than 100,000 troops along the Ukraine border, denies it plans to invade. But Washington and its allies are preparing for possible aggression by sending military personnel and equipment to NATO members near Ukraine.

Now, with airstrike capabilities and state-of-the-art materiel on both sides, geography and weather are less of a factor than they were in the past. But they still could influence the timing and the tide of a potential conflict. Cold weather provides hard, fast terrain countrywide for an invasion, experts said. Warmer weather starting in later February and into March brings with it thawing grounds, leading to muddy conditions that are less than ideal for heavy military vehicles.

"It is very inconvenient to carry out offensive operations in the spring," said Kirill Mikhailov, an analyst at the Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent Russian open-source investigative organization that monitors Russia's military. "Because the thaw turns ravines into creeks, and creeks into rivers. If you carry out an operation, it should be carried out either in January or February."

The Pinsk Marshes

To Ukraine's north span roughly 100,000 square miles of wetlands known as the Pinsk Marshes. Here is one place the cold could really play a role. During the winter, these mucky flatlands freeze over, providing a more stable terrain for heavy military vehicles that would otherwise get stuck in the mud.

[ On a potential invasion path, Ukrainians watch, worry, plan - and some dance]

Experts say the frozen ground, usually present in February, could provide Russian troops with the best window to cross into Ukraine. While more roads have recently been built throughout the marshes, traversing the open terrain would be strategically important.

"Those fields become critical because you can't risk bottlenecks on a roadway," said Seth G. Jones, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). "You run into real problems on very muddy terrain in theMarch-April time frame."

Historically the marshes have been an obstacle to forces. But muddy landscape might not be a deciding factor this time around, according to a written analysis by the Center for Naval Analyses Russia Studies Program (CNA) in response to questions from The Washington Post. "While these marshes were flagged as a potential hazard for Western forces fighting a hypothetical war in the U.S.S.R. and considered 'impassible except during winter,' Russian troops have long proved quite adept at handling marsh and swamp terrain."

During World War II, the marshes posed a challenge to German forces invading during Operation Barbarossa.

Belarusian Border

The marshes are spread across another key strategic location: the Belarusian border. As the ground freezes, it could give Russian troops access to Kyiv, which falls a mere 56 miles to the south, though that most-direct route passes through the nuclear disaster site of Chernobyl.

Russia has begun mobilizing forces ahead of joint Belarus-Russian military exercises, scheduled to take place Feb. 10 to Feb. 20. CNA said Russia has sent more than 10 battalion tactical groups to Belarus, as well as naval and airborne units.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has vowed to defend his country and Russia against Ukrainian "aggression."

'The Zone'

Russian forces seekingthe most direct route to Kyiv could run into another obstacle: Chernobyl. The site of a nuclear disaster in 1986, the 1,000-square-mile zone is heavily restricted to keep people safe from radioactivity still embedded in the ground.

In November, Ukraine deployed border guards to patrol the area as tensions with Russia and Belarus heightened. While certain areas are safe to occupy for some time, the explosions and artillery fire of warfare in the area could be dangerous.

"The delivery of air-to-surface munitions, artillery, mortar and multiple rocket-launcher fire in the Belarus-Ukraine border area could also disperse radioactive debris in the soil," said Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

The Dnieper River

While an invasion from Belarus's south would be the most direct route to Ukraine's capital, many expect potential Russian military aggression to also come from the northeast and east, where pro-Moscow separatists control Ukrainian territory in Donbas, and more than 100,000 Russian troops have amassed on the country's border with Ukraine.

They could come through Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-most-populous city. There are no geographicobstacles separating this eastern metropolis from Russia, making it a fast and prime target.

Moving west, any invading force would reach the banks of the Dnieper River, which symbolically divides Ukraine into east and west, beginning in Russia and flowing through Belarus and Ukraine into the Black Sea.

The waterway, home to critical infrastructure including dams, would be a key consideration in an invasion from Belarus or Russia.

Zaporizhzhya

In the southern city of Zaporizhzhya, for example, is the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station, a massive dam that also joins the banks of the river.

In World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's secret police destroyed this dam to make the river harder for German forces to cross, killing civilians and flooding towns in the process. The dam has since been rebuilt, and experts note that Ukraine could repeat the tactic, this time to slow down a Russian invasion, washing out oncoming forces.

But Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior fellow for imagery analysis at CSIS, cautioned that the move could again drown Ukrainian towns. "If they blew the dams they'd do as much damage to the Ukrainian population as they would a Russian invasion," he said.

The Black Sea

In Ukraine's south is the Black Sea, an important body of water that serves as the country's shipping route with its connection to the Mediterranean. The Black Sea has been the site of numerous conflicts throughout history, including the Russo-Turkish wars, the Crimean War in the 1850s and World War II.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea, giving the country expanded access to the sea.

Now, CNA said: "The Russian Navy depends on transit through the Black Sea for supplying military presence in Syria and for rotating ships in and out of its Mediterranean squadron."

Since 2014, the organization added, the Russian navy's Black Sea Fleet has "expanded and modernized." Twenty of its ships were recently "engaged in a major naval exercise in the Black Sea," as part of a "large-scale naval exercise involving all Russian fleets."

Other Western naval vessels enter the Black Sea periodically, but those that stray too close to Crimea often face brushes with Russian warships, as Moscow sees these moves as a direct challenge to its annexation of the peninsula.

The Kerch Strait

The Kerch Strait divides the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and could be another access point for Russia. In 2018, Russia opened a 12-mile-long, $4 billion bridge over the strait, directly linking Russia to Crimea. Ukraine and the West have called the bridge another illegal infringement on Kyiv's sovereignty.

The Carpathian Mountains

A mountain range runs through Ukraine's west, forming a natural barrier that stretches from Romania through Slovakia. The higher-ground vantage points of its peaks made them coveted territory in past conflicts. Russians battled Austro-Hungarian troops during the winter of 1915 in World War I, and soldiers froze in the snowy terrain.

But the mountains wouldn't factor in a potential Russian invasion today, analysts said. There's been no recent Russian military presence detected in that area.
February 4, 2022
Russia-Ukraine tensions: What you need to know
The latest
Biden dispatching additional U.S. troops to Eastern Europe | Putin wants to push NATO away from Russia. Instead, he's getting more NATO troops on his border. | Putin accuses West of using Ukraine as a pawn in showdown with Russia | U.S., Russia clash sharply over Ukraine at U.N. meeting
The geography Four maps that explain the Russia-Ukraine conflict The backstory
Here's what you need to know about Russia's military buildup on the border with Ukraine | Russia's rifts with the West keep growing. How did we get here? | Biden is threatening Putin with personal sanctions over Ukraine. What to know about this pressure tactic. | Here's where countries stand on the Russia-Ukraine crisis
Analysis
An invasion of Ukraine could drive up global food prices and spark unrest far from the front lines | Why it's not so easy to slap sanctions on Vladimir Putin | Is Putin bluffing on Ukraine? Allies in the U.S. and Europe are divided. | How far would the United States go to back Ukraine?
Show More Show Less Júlia Ledur is a graphics reporter covering foreign news at The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2021, she worked as a graphics editor at the COVID Tracking Project at the Atlantic. Previously, she was on the graphics team at Reuters, covering Latin American politics, the environment and social issues with data and visuals. Ruby Mellen reports on foreign affairs for the Washington Post. Laris Karklis has been working at the Washington Post since 2000.

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Wetlands and radioactive soil: How Ukraine's geography could influence a Russian invasion

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. As military analysts warn of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, they also are keeping an eye on the weather. Temperatures, cloud cover or even the radioactivity in the soil could determine when and where Russian troops make a possible move.

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The Swiss-based company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has filed for bankruptcy and fired all 106 of its employees, a local official confirmed to Swiss radio broadcaster SRF.

Why it matters: Long viewed as a Kremlin influence project that would increase Europe's energy dependence on Russia, Nord Stream 2 was one of the first targets of the flurry of Western sanctions triggered by Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the certification of the $11 billion natural gas pipeline would be suspended last Tuesday, a day after Putin ordered Russian troops into eastern Ukraine for a "peacekeeping" mission. The pipeline is fully constructed, but gas had not yet started flowing.

The U.S. followed up by rescinding sanctions waivers on Nord Stream 2 AG and its corporate officers, dealing what was likely the death blow to a project that had caused major headaches for President Biden and the trans-Atlantic alliance.

What they're saying: "Following the recent geopolitical developments leading to the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company had to terminate contracts with employees. We very much regret this development," Nord Stream 2 AG - a wholly owned subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom - told Reuters in a statement.

Between the lines: Even as the West and private companies have moved to fully isolate Russia over its unprovoked attack on Ukraine, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder - the chairman of the board of Nord Stream 2 AG - has yet to cut his lucrative ties with Russian energy giants.

Members of his office staff have quit in protest, according to Politico.
Go deeper: Putin's war may herald a new energy era

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Operator of Nord Stream 2 files for bankruptcy and fires all employees

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The Swiss-based company behind the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has filed for bankruptcy and fired all 106 of its employees, a local official confirmed to Swiss radio broadcaster SRF. Why it matters: Long viewed as a Kremlin influence project that would increase Europe's energy dependence on Russia, Nord Stream 2 was one of the first targets of the flurry of Western sanctions triggered by Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

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A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles.

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A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. https://t.co/XiPVTSUuks

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A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. pic.twitter.com/XiPVTSUuks
— Peter Liakhov (@peterliakhov) March 3, 2022

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props_source.data.text
A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. https://t.co/XiPVTSUuks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.original_text
A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles. https://t.co/XiPVTSUuks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.metadata.attachment_props.text
A snapshot of the Russian economy: an investment expert goes live on air and says his current career trajectory is to work as "Santa Claus" and then drinks to the death of the stock market. With subtitles.

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(As delivered)

Good afternoon.

We have just finished an extraordinary meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers.

Russia is carrying out a brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which NATO, and the whole world, condemn.

This is the worst military aggression in Europe for decades.
With cities under siege.
Schools, hospitals and residential buildings shelled.
Reckless actions around a nuclear power plant last night.
And many civilians killed or wounded.

The days to come are likely to be worse.
With more death, more suffering, and more destruction,
as the Russian armed force bring in heavier weaponry and continue their attacks across the country.

At our meeting today, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba addressed his NATO counterparts.
And Allies expressed their solidarity and deep respect for the courage of the Ukrainian people and armed forces.

We had warned for many months that President Putin was intent on invading Ukraine.
That is why NATO Allies made tireless efforts to find a diplomatic solution.
At the same time, we made clear that Russia would pay a very high price for renewed aggression against Ukraine.

Russia is paying that price now.

This is President Putin's war.
One he has chosen.
Planned.
And is waging against a peaceful country.

We call on President Putin to stop this war immediately.
Withdraw all his forces from Ukraine without conditions.
And engage in genuine diplomacy, now.

NATO Allies have stepped up support for Ukraine.
Helping to uphold the country's right of self-defence, as enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

Today, ministers addressed our immediate response to the crisis.
And the longer-term implications for Euro-Atlantic security.

We have already strengthened our deterrence and defence.
On land, in the air, and at sea.

Allies from North America and Europe have sent thousands more troops to the eastern part of the Alliance.

We are deploying the NATO Response Force for the first time.
And we have over 130 jets at high alert.
And over 200 ships from the High North to the Mediterranean.

We will continue to do what it takes to protect and defend every inch of NATO territory.

NATO is a defensive Alliance.
Our core task is to keep our thirty nations safe.

We are not part of this conflict.
And we have a responsibility to ensure it does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine.
Because that would be even more devastating and more dangerous.
With even more human suffering.

NATO is not seeking a war with Russia.

The Kremlin's ambition is to recreate a sphere of influence.
And deny other countries the right to choose their own path.

So ministers discussed the need to support partners who may be at risk.
Including Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Russia's aggression has created a new normal for our security.
Where fundamental principles are contested through the use of force.
And we face the threat of conflict for years to come.

There is much at stake.
How we organise relations between states.
Whether democracy or authoritarianism prevails.
And ultimately, what sort of world we want to live in.

Ministers agreed that NATO's relationship with Russia has fundamentally changed for the long term.
But we remain committed to keeping channels for diplomacy and de-confliction open.
To avoid any unintended escalation, misunderstanding, or miscalculation.

There is one lesson we can already draw from this crisis.
To keep our nations safe, we need North America and Europe standing together in NATO, in strategic solidarity.
At this dangerous moment, no country and no continent can go it alone.

President Putin has failed to divide us.
NATO is more united, more determined, and stronger than ever.

We are also working closer with like-minded partners.
Today, we were joined by the European Union.
As well as Finland and Sweden.

In response to Russia's aggression, we have decided to strengthen our coordination and information sharing with Finland and Sweden.
Both countries are now taking part in all NATO consultations about the crisis.

And this afternoon, I will join a meeting of EU foreign ministers to address the crisis and our response.

And with that, I am ready to take your questions.

NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu: BBC.

James Landale (BBC): Can you tell us a little bit more about what sort of options were considered about helping countries like Georgia and Bosnia. Secondly, can you tell us a little bit more about whether NATO Allies discussed what more military support could be provided for Ukraine? And thirdly, was the issue of no fly zones even discussed at this morning's meetings? Thank you.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: NATO has provided support and NATO Allies have provided support to Georgia, to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other partners for many years. We help them with capacity-building, reforms, strengthening their defence and security institutions. We also have a training centre in Georgia. We also have common exercises. And, of course, we have different kinds of activities with different countries, different partners. We didn't make any final decisions. But it's a broad agreement that we need to do more to support these countries. And this is partly about scaling up things we already do on strengthening their defence and security institutions, reforms, training, but also potentially adding more activities in support of these countries. Because what you have seen with Ukraine, is that they may be at risk, exposed for even more intervention, subversion, and potentially even attacks by the Russian armed forces of the Russian Federation.

Then, NATO Allies provide support to Ukraine. I think we have to remember that Allies have provided support to Ukraine for many years and now they're stepping up different types of support. And this is crucial in this critical time for Ukraine. On the no fly-zone, it was mentioned. At the same time, Allies agree that we should not have NATO planes operating over Ukrainian airspace, or NATO troops on Ukrainian territory.

NATO Spokesperson: CNBC.

Steve Sedgwick (CNBC): Thank you, Secretary General. Is there any evidence that the support that NATO and its Allies have been pouring into Ukraine so far is going to change the tide of battle? Although the Russian advances slowed in some places, it is still advancing. Is there anything that NATO is doing that actually could possibly turn the tide in the battle in Ukraine? And secondly, if I may Sir, have events around the nuclear facility, the nuclear plant in Ukraine, and the ramifications from that changed the mind-set of NATO at all? I was wondering what the conclusion was in the meeting about that? Thank you.

NATO Secretary General: The reckless actions around the nuclear power plant last night just highlight the danger of this war. War is dangerous, and to have military operations, conflict, fighting going around the nuclear power plant adds to the danger. And this just makes it even more important that President Putin ends this war, and withdraw all Russian troops from Ukraine, and engage in diplomatic efforts in good faith. So that was the message from Ministers today. And it's just underpinned by the potential danger of also a nuclear disaster related to this war, or as part of this war.

Steve Sedgwick (CNBC): The first point was about is anything about the military, ammunition, supplies that are going into Ukraine, is that changing the battle at all, or is it likely to?

NATO Secretary General: What we have seen is that President Putin totally underestimated the strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And they have been able to push back, to fight back, and to slow down the Russian advances. And this is, first and foremost, the result of the courage of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And also the support and the courage of Ukrainian people, and the leadership of President Zelenskyy, which is really strengthening the morale of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian people. We have helped that. Because NATO Allies have trained and equipped the Ukrainian Armed Forces for many years. We started in 2014. And NATO Allies especially the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, but also, Turkey have provided equipment and military aid. And we have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian forces. And they are now on the front line. So this support has proven to be crucial for the strength of the Ukrainian army. And we are now stepping up support with more supplies. And I think also we have to realise that compared to where the Ukrainian army was in 2014, the training NATO Allies have provided, the equipment NATO Allies have provided since 2014 has made the Ukrainian Army much better trained, much better equipped, much better commanded, and much stronger. And this is the reason why they are able to push back the way they are able to do.

NATO Spokesperson: We will go to Interfax Ukraine.

Iryna Somer (Interfax Ukraine): Thank you, Oana. I have a follow-up question on my colleague from the BBC. Secretary General, even General Breedlove, former SACEUR, expressed an opinion that NATO and US have to provide, as soon as possible, help to Ukraine and to close partially, this humanitarian purpose only sky in Ukraine. All Ukrainians are begging for this. Do you think at some point Allies can review this position, how long it will take them guilty enough of Ukraine to be destroyed by Putin?

NATO Secretary General: What is taking place in Ukraine now is horrific. It's painful. And we see human suffering, we see destruction at a scale we haven't seen in Europe since the Second World War. And I would like to commend the courage of the Ukrainian people standing up against the Russian invasion, standing up against Putin's forces. And that's also the reason why we are stepping up our support. And also why NATO Allies have implemented the most severe sanctions ever. And also why we are mobilising support from the whole world in condemning and calling on Russia, and President Putin, to end this war. At the same time, we have a responsibility as NATO Allies to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine. Because that will be even more dangerous, more devastating, and will cause even more human suffering. So we have made it clear that we are not going to move into Ukraine, neither on the ground, or in Ukrainian airspace. And of course, the only way to implement a no-fly zone is to send NATO planes, fighter planes into Ukrainian airspace, and then impose that no-fly zone by shooting down Russian planes. And our assessment is that we understand the desperation. But we also believe that if we did that, we'll end up with something that could end in a full-fledged war in Europe, involving many more countries, and causing much more human suffering. So that's the reason why we make this painful decision to impose heavy sanctions, provide significant support, stepping up support. But at the same time not involving NATO forces directly in the conflict in Ukraine, neither on the ground, or in their airspace.

NATO Spokesperson: Der Spiegel.

Markus Becker (Der Spiegel):Mr. Secretary General, you said that the aim is to make Mr. Putin withdraw his troops unconditionally. What if it doesn't comply? Is there any other off-ramp you can think of, any opening for negotiations? And if the sanctions don't make him back down, is there a plan B or even an exit strategy?

NATO Secretary General: We are imposing severe costs on Russia, as we warned. We told him, President Putin, that if he invades Ukraine, once again, there will be significant costs for him to pay. And that's exactly what we're doing now with unprecedented sanctions. Of course, these will also have long-term effects and they are working also over time.
Then, Allies are providing support, humanitarian support, financial support, but also military support to Ukraine, helping them to withstand the Russian invasion.

And then, of course, together with a whole world, the UN General Assembly, we're also calling on Russia to engage in diplomatic efforts. To see if there are any political off-ramps, way out.

But then, Russia has to sit down in genuine diplomatic efforts to find the solution.
So far, they have not being willing to do so. A minimum should be to find agreements on a humanitarian corridor or humanitarian corridors to get civilians out and the humanitarian aid in.

I hope that at least that could be a first step. And I welcome all efforts to try to find some kind of agreement on humanitarian support.
NATO Spokesperson: Polish TV.
Dominika Cosic (TVP): Let me go back to rumours from few days ago about Poland and Bulgaria. There were rumours in media that Poland and Bulgaria allowed some..[inaudible] military fighter jets to Ukraine and allow Ukraine to use military airport. Could you comment on this? And could you also comment on the remarks of the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs who told for the BBC that NATO should consider all options.

NATO Secretary General: We had a meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers today. And we had the NATO Summit on Friday. And in both those meetings, I have clearly stated that we should support Ukraine, we should continue to provide, NATO Allies should continue to provide military support Ukraine, different types of support.

But we will not be part of the conflict. And that is the NATO position. And I conveyed that message because I strongly believe that if NATO becomes directly involved in the conflict will see more human suffering, more civilians killed.

And that's the reason why we need to step-up support, impose heavy sanctions, call on Russia to engage in a political solution, but not involve NATO.

Our main responsibility, our core task is to protect and defend 1 billion people living in 30 allied countries. We are doing that by increasing the presence of NATO forces in the eastern part of the Alliance, deploying for the first time the NATO Response Force, but we are not going to be part of the conflict with Russia in Ukraine.

[Follow-up question inaudible]
NATO Secretary General: Well, I met President Duda recently. We discussed many aspects and challenges related to the Russian invasion, brutal invasion of Ukraine. And you saw the statement from President Duda in the Łask airbase, that Poland is not planning to sending any airplanes to Ukraine.

NATO Spokesperson: Ok, we will go to Al Jazeera.

James Bays (Al Jazeera): Secretary General, on his way in the Latvian Foreign Minister said it's time to go from a deterrence mission to a full scale defence mission. So, was there any discussion of sending further troops in addition to the ones that you've deployed in recent weeks? And as you talk about a new normal, was there any discussion of making some of the recent deployments permanent?

NATO Secretary General: We need to distinguish between NATO's immediate response and longer-term adaptation of our posture in the eastern part of the Alliance. When it comes to the immediate response, we have already significantly increased our presence. We now [have] over 200 ships from the High North to the Mediterranean, and 130 planes on high alert, and thousands of more troops.

I recently visited NATO troops, US troops, German troops and other troops in Romania. I met them in Estonia and also in Poland. So this is the immediate response, and we will do what it takes to defend and protect all Allies and if needed we will further increase our presence.

But at the same time we started at the meeting today the discussion about the more longer term changes to our presence, posture, deterrence and defence throughout the Alliance but especially in the eastern part. And today, we have some presence in the eastern Allied countries, we have the battlegroups in the Baltic countries and Poland, we have some presence also in Romania and in the southeast.

We are now seriously considering a significant increase of that presence, both in more troops, with more air defence, with deterrence by defence, through defence, not only by sending a message of NATO presence. So this is, as some ministers formulated it today, it is about the difference between deterrence by presence or deterrence by defence. We have started that discussion, we will have a Defence Ministerial meeting on the 16th of March. And there we expect more details, we also will of course base our decisions on advice from our military commanders, and then we will take the necessary decisions. But we have some time, not a lot of time but some time, to take that more long-term decision, because we have already implemented immediate responses by a significant increase in the eastern part of the Alliance.

NATO Spokesperson: Ukrainian National News Agency

Dmytro Shkurko (National News Agency of Ukraine): It is understandable that there will be no NATO planes and pilots in Ukraine. But it was recently sounded, the request from the President of Ukraine, about some kind of selling or maybe transferring the planes to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Maybe it could be done in a framework of general technical assistance [inaudible]. And the second question, if I may, as of right now we have absolutely indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian cities, including the restricted weaponry like for example, [inaudible] bombs, it is deployed in living areas. So can we can count on NATO in collecting at least information concerning the Russian crimes in Ukraine going on right now? Thanks.

NATO Secretary General: The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law. And we have seen the use of cluster bombs, we have seen reports of use of other types of weapons which will be in violation of international law. And of course, NATO Allies and partners are collecting information and monitoring very closely what is going on in Ukraine. I also welcome the decision by the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into this, because we have to make sure that President Putin and the President of Belarus are held accountable for what they do.

This is brutality, this is inhumane, and this is violating international law. And we also have to make sure the International Criminal Court really looks into this and that's the reason why I welcome the decision by the International Criminal Court.

[Follow-up question inaudible]

NATO Secretary General: NATO Allies provide different types of military support. I will not go into the details about that support, but Allies provide many types of support. It's publicly known that Allies have provided anti-tank weapons, air defence missiles and other types of support but more details will not be given by me.

NATO Spokesperson: Bloomberg.

Natalia Drozdiak (Bloomberg): Thank you for the question. You mentioned the risk for Bosnia and Georgia. Are you seeing any concrete threat of invasion there? And what about Moldova, is there any increased risk in Moldova? Thank you.

NATO Secretary General: All these are different countries, and of course they face different types of risks and challenges. But they have in common that we have seen Russia trying to exercise their power to intimidate them partly by subversion and interference in the domestic political processes or by military invasion. Georgia has been invaded by Russia and Russian troops still in reality control parts of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In Moldova and Transnistria, which is part of Moldova, there are Russian troops without the consent of the government in Moldova. And then, in Bosnia-Herzegovina we see a very fragile, unstable situation with inflammatory rhetoric and serious challenges to the unity of that state. So even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, these countries faced serious challenges partly inflicted by or caused by Russia, but the risk has increased. And therefore, we need to step up our support and we need a serious discussion, as NATO, on what we could do to strengthen them in the face of Russian threats.

NATO Spokesperson: We'll take one question online from Lenta.ru.

Dmitriy Sotak (Lenta.ru): Previously a NATO representative stated that the Alliance is ready to discuss strategic stability issues with Russia. However, the issue of mutual arms control remains an important priority. The problem has not gone away. The level of global tensions has increased after the Russian military command has transferred Russian strategic missile forces to higher alert levels. The question is, is NATO planning any discussions in the foreseeable future on this issue? And why hasn't the Alliance provided Ukraine with modern weapons, which the Ukrainian authorities have been asking for?

NATO Secretary General: Well first, as I said, NATO Allies have provided Ukraine with weapons, especially since 2014. And NATO Allies have trained tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who are now on the front line, so we have helped them in standing up against [Russia]. And without that support, without the equipment, without the training, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would have been much less capable of standing up against the Russian invasion. The courage of Ukrainian forces is, of course, the most important factor here, but the training and equipment has been of vital importance. And these, of course, also includes modern systems.

Then, on strategic issues. Well, we reached out to Russia before the invasion because we had intelligence predicting what is happening now. I think we need to understand that actually for many months, NATO Allies and NATO has been warning about that Russia was building up gradually, more and more troops and planning an invasion of Ukraine. But as we saw that build up, we intensified our efforts to engage Russia in some kind of meaningful political, diplomatic dialogue to prevent this invasion. President Putin decided not to find a political solution, but to invade, to use military force. We are of course always in favour of a political solution. But now we face a Russia which is using military force to try to destroy an independent sovereign nation in Europe. The United States and Russia agreed recently to extend the New START Agreement limiting the number of nuclear warheads on long range systems. We believe in arms control. But to have any meaningful strengthening of the arms control architecture we need a Russia which is not killing, and fighting, and invading, but a regime in Moscow which is actually seriously engaging in political efforts to reduce tensions and further strengthen arms control.

NATO Spokesperson: Okay, we'll go with the Jane's for the last question.

Brooks Tigner (Jane's Defence Weekly): Yes, sorry to hit you with another weapons question but this really is the crucial issue right now. As you know, the EU is sending half a billion and Poland's the coordinator, which makes me wonder, considering that this new rogue state could attack any country now, my question to you is should NATO create a new permanent structure or at least designate the Allies on a permanent rotating basis to coordinate bilateral weapons transfers from the Allies to anticipate the next crisis. Thanks. I don't mean the trust funds, I don't mean ad hoc consultations during the ministerial but something permanent.

NATO Secretary General: We should always have an open mind to what kind of structures we should have to support partners and countries at risk.

At the same time, I think we need a pragmatic approach. And what we've seen over the last years, for instance in Ukraine, is that NATO provided some types of support. We had an office in Kyiv, we were focused on modernising the defence and security institutions, the command and control, logistics, cyber. And also, we helped them with some naval capabilities. So NATO as an institution, provided important help to Ukraine over many years. And we still do.

But then, on top of that, individual Allies provided more of the lethal aid, more of the military training. Again, I don't think actually, it is so important exactly how we organise this, as long as the country in need receives the support and help they need. And over the years since 2014, there are many, many thousands of Ukrainian troops, forces which are trained at the top level by NATO trainers, special operation forces, and they have advanced equipment, and they know how to use it.

We helped them with cyber defence, with command and control, with communications. So it is this combination of something we do as the Alliance, with the NATO structures, something we do consulting each other, but it's provided bilaterally from NATO Allied countries. And it has been especially the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada who has provided most of the equipment and most of the training.

And then Turkey has provided some key capabilities including drones. And also some of the Baltic states have provided military support before the invasion. Then, after the invasion we have seen many more Allies stepping up. So I don't know whether I really answered your question but we should be pragmatic regarding exactly how to organise this as long as NATO and NATO Allies are able to provide support to partners in need.

NATO Spokesperson: Thank you very much, this concludes this press conference.

NATO Secretary General: Thank you.

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Press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the Extraordinary meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs

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(As delivered) Good afternoon. We have just finished an extraordinary meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers. Russia is carrying out a brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which NATO, and the whole world, condemn. This is the worst military aggression in Europe for decades. With cities under siege. Schools, hospitals and residential buildings shelled.

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March 4, 2022, 12:26 p.m. ET

A live broadcast in the studio of "Echo of Moscow" after the announcement that the station would shutter on Thursday. Credit... Nanna Heitmann for The New York Times

The Russian Parliament passed a law on Friday punishing the spreading of "false information" about Russia's armed forces with as much as 15 years in prison, the latest move by the Kremlin to criminalize any political opposition and independent news reporting during its war against Ukraine.

The law will take effect as soon as Saturday, and could make a criminal offense of simply calling the war a "war" - the Kremlin says it is a "special military operation" - on social media or in a news article or broadcast.

Announcements that the law was coming had already pushed Russian independent media outlets to shut down in recent days, and more followed on Friday. In addition, the government blocked access inside Russia to the websites of major Russian-language outlets that are based outside the country. And the last major independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, said on Twitter that it was deleting its war content.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the lower house of Parliament, said that under the new law, "those who lied and made declarations discrediting our armed forces will be forced to suffer very harsh punishment." It wasn't immediately clear whether the law would apply to people inside Russia - such as foreign correspondents - producing content in a language other than Russian. But another senior lawmaker said that citizens of any country could be prosecuted under it.

As the law moved through the legislature, President Vladimir V. Putin held a televised videoconference with the governor of Kaliningrad - the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea, sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania - and called on Western countries to normalize their relationships with Russia.

"We don't see any need to exacerbate the situation or worsen our relationships," Mr. Putin said. "All of our actions, if they occur, they occur exclusively, always, in response to ill-intended actions toward the Russian Federation."

Mr. Putin's comments sounded unreal with the war in Ukraine raging, but they appeared to be a message to his domestic audience to show that he was not the one escalating tensions. And the Kremlin went to ever greater lengths to control the messages Russians hear, mounting a harsher crackdown on free speech than it has at any other moment in Mr. Putin's 22 years in power.

The text of the new law offers few details about what constitutes an offense, but Russian journalists and Kremlin opponents take it to mean that any contradiction of the government's statements on the invasion could be treated as a crime. Besides criminalizing the sharing of "false information" it makes "discrediting" Russia's use of its military in Ukraine, calling on other countries to sanction Russia or protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine punishable by fines and years of imprisonment.

On Thursday, the pillars of Russia's independent broadcast media, the Echo of Moscow radio station and the TV Rain television channel, shut down under pressure from the state.

Then, on Friday, the government said it would block access to Russian-language media produced outside the country: the websites of the Voice of America, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the popular Latvian-based news outlet Meduza. The reason: the systematic distribution of what it called false information about the "special military operation on the territory of Ukraine."

Russians will still be able to reach blocked media through the popular Telegram messaging app, where many news outlets have their own channels. Some can also use virtual private networks, or VPN's, to bypass restrictions.

The BBC announced on Friday that it was temporarily suspending all journalistic work within Russia in response to the law, though it would continue to operate its Russian-language site - which reached a record 10.7 million people in the past week - from outside the country.

"The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs," Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general, said in a statement.

Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to Know

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Znak, an independent news outlet covering Russia's regions, shuttered its website on Friday, with a statement saying: "We are suspending our operations given the large amount of new restrictions on the functioning of the news media in Russia."

And The Village, a digital lifestyle magazine that offered recommendations for shopping, restaurants and other activities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, moved its operations to Warsaw this week in response to its website being blocked. The magazine also announced that, out of fear of the new law, it was retroactively editing its articles to change any mention of the word "war" to "special operation."

Until recently, Russia's mostly uncensored internet had provided an outlet for Russians to express dissent and to read news reports outside the Kremlin propaganda bubble that envelops much of the country's traditional news media. But amid the war in Ukraine, which has touched off protests across the country and an outpouring of opposition from Russians online, the Kremlin appears to see the internet as a newfound threat.

Echo of Moscow, a radio station founded by Soviet dissidents in 1990 and acquired later by the state energy giant Gazprom, said on Friday that it would delete all corporate social media accounts and turn off its website as part of a "liquidation" process. By the afternoon, its popular YouTube channel was gone. More than one million people had tuned in to listen to its programs each day, according to the radio station's longtime editor in chief, Aleksei A. Venediktov.

"Echo is my home," said Irina Vorobyeva, a journalist who worked at the radio station for more than 15 years, in an interview on Thursday. "It's home for a huge number of journalists, and it's home for a huge number of our guests, who came here to talk about their opinions, to talk about things the world didn't know."

One of the last major independent news media outlets standing, the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, also appeared to be on the verge of shutting down. It said that it would delete all material on the topic of war in response to censorship.

In an email newsletter on Friday morning, Nadezhda Prusenkova, one of the newspaper's journalists, wrote that it was hard to see many routes for the publication to continue to exist, echoing a similar sentiment shared by its editor in chief, Dmitry Muratov, in an earlier interview.

"I don't know what happens next," she wrote.

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Russia Steps Up Censorship With Law Against 'False Information'

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March 4, 2022, 12:26 p.m. ET The Russian Parliament passed a law on Friday punishing the spreading of "false information" about Russia's armed forces with as much as 15 years in prison, the latest move by the Kremlin to criminalize any political opposition and independent news reporting during its war against Ukraine.

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For the past year, Ukraine has been plunged into chaos. Mass protests against pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych led to his ouster in February 2014. That sparked a spiraling crisis: a fledgling interim government in Kiev looked on as Russia first seized and then annexed the territory of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula. A pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, believed to have direct backing from Moscow, has led to the deaths of thousands since.

To some, Ukraine has become the geopolitical faultline between the liberal democratic West and authoritarian, neo-imperial Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Foreign policy luminaries in Washington openly discuss the current state of affairs as a new Cold War.

Beneath the political divisions of the present lies a country's deep, complex past. The land that's now Ukraine has long been dear to Russian nationalists. But it has also been home to a host of other peoples and empires. Its shifting borders and overlapping histories all have echoes in the current heated moment.

What follows is a sketch of how Ukraine became Ukraine over 1,300 years of history, mapped by The Washington Post's cartographer Gene Thorp. Ukraine's modern borders are outlined in green throughout.

8th century to 13th century

The "Rus" -- the people whose name got tacked on to Russia -- were originally Scandinavian traders and settlers who made their way from the Baltic Sea through the marshes and forests of Eastern Europe down toward the fertile riverlands of what's now Ukraine. Other Viking adventurers journeyed to Constantinople, the great capital of the Byzantine Empire, to find their fortune -- sometimes as hired muscle.

The first major center of the "Rus" was at Kiev, established in the 9th century. In 988, Vladimir, a prince of the Kievan Rus, was baptized by a Byzantine priest in the old Greek colony of Khersonesos on the Crimean coast. His conversion marked the advent of Orthodox Christianity among the Rus and remains a moment of great nationalist symbolism for Russians. Putin invoked this older Vladimir in a speech last December when justifying his annexation of Crimea.

Successive Mongol invasions beginning in the 13th century subdued Kiev's influence, and led eventually to the rise of other Rus settlements to the north, including Moscow. The Turkic descendants of the Mongol Golden Horde formed their own Khanate along the northern rim of the Black Sea.

Fast forward a few centuries, and you see how the land that's now Ukraine lay on the margins of competing empires. It was a region of permanent contest and shifting borders. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth -- which, at its peak, encompassed a huge swath of Europe -- had dominated much of the land, but Ukraine would also see the incursions of Hungarians, Ottomans, Swedes, bands of Cossacks and the armies of successive Russian czars.

In the 17th century, Russia and Poland split much of the territory of what's now Ukraine along the Dnierper river. Russia's advance continued a century later, during the rule of Catherine the Great, who imagined her domains along the Black Sea constituted "Novorossiya," or "new Russia" -- a term revived by the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Back then, the Russian court harbored dreams of collapsing the Ottoman empire and extending Moscow's reach to Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) and even Jerusalem.

"Believe me, you will acquire immortal fame such as no other sovereign of Russia ever had," said Grigoriy Potemkin, a prominent adviser to Catherine the Great, when offering the empress counsel in 1780 on plans to wrest Crimea away from Ottoman suzerainty. "This glory will open the way to still further and greater glory."

Meanwhile, the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century led to the city of Lviv -- once a major regional hub and a center of Jewish culture in Eastern Europe -- falling under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was there in the mid-19th century where Ukrainian nationalism began to take hold, rooted in the traditions and dialects of the region's peasants and the aspirations of intellectuals who had fled the stifling rule of Russia rule further to the east.

World War I and the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 triggered more traumas and upheaval in the areas that now constitute Ukraine. The new Bolshevik government was desperate to end hostilities with Germany and its allies and signed a treaty in the town of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 ceding some of Russia's domains to the Central powers and recognizing the independence of others, including Ukraine.

The terms of the treaty were nullified by Germany's defeat later in the year, but the genie of Ukrainian nationalism was out of the bottle. Independence movements of various stripes sprung up in cities like Lviv, Kiev and Kharkiv, but were eventually all swept away amid the wider struggle for power in Russia.

At the end of World War I, a revived Poland reclaimed Lviv and a chunk of what's now western Ukraine. The country was one of the key battlegrounds of the Russian Civil War, pitting Bolshevik forces against an array of armies, led by loyalists to the old czarist regime as well as other political opportunists. After a lot of bloodshed -- and other battles with Poland -- the Bolsheviks emerged triumphant, and officially declared the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1922.

The years that followed would be even more traumatic: in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ukraine suffered heavily under the rule of Soviet despot Josef Stalin. A vast segment of Ukraine's rural population was displaced and dispossessed by Stalin's aggressive collectivization policies. A man-made famine in 1932-3 led to the deaths of some three million people.

To make up the numbers, Russian speakers from elsewhere immigrated to Ukraine's hollowed out towns and cities, leaving a demographic footprint that defines Ukraine's divisive politics to this day.

World War II ravaged Ukraine. Hitler and other Nazi strategists imagined it could become the breadbasket of their larger Germany empire. Instead, it was a hideous, bloody warzone, shaped by epic, grinding battles and various massacres of civilian populations. Some Ukrainian nationalists cooperated for a time with Nazi authorities, seeing the invasion as a means to achieve their own independence. This was particularly the case in western Ukraine, which until the end of World War II, had no experience of Soviet rule.

The "fascism" of these Ukrainian guerrillas is still a source of controversy now. Some militant elements in the anti-Yanukovych protest movement actively embraced the legacy of Nazi-affiliated war heroes. The Kremlin's propaganda organs, meanwhile, used this history to label the new government in Kiev as one riding on a wave of "neo-Nazism."

After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union claimed Lviv and its surrounding lands in Ukraine's west. The Crimean peninsula, whose population was majority Russian (after the mass deportation of Crimea's Tatars), was formally ceded from Russia to the Ukrainian socialist republic in 1954 by Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine emerged as one many new independent post-Soviet states in 1991. Its politics were riven by regional divides between the country's west and the Russian-leaning east. Russia chose to maintain a naval base in Sevastopol, the main port city in Crimea's southern tip.

And so here we are. Russian troops, many based in Sevastopol, fanned out across the peninsula last March to aid what was ultimately Russia's annexation of the territory. A pro-Russian insurgency in the east by the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, Ukraine's industrial heartland, is ongoing, despite numerous attempts at ceasefires.

Kiev is seeking greater Western military assistance in what many consider to be a fight against Moscow. There are fears Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko may institute martial law in a bid to subdue the separatists, threatening the country's already fledgling democracy. Ukraine is at a proverbial crossroads, as it has been for centuries.

This post was originally published on March 9, 2015, as part of a series and has been updated.

It's Ukraine, not 'the' Ukraine. And Ukrainians want you to get it right.

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Analysis | How Ukraine became Ukraine, in 7 maps

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For the past year, Ukraine has been plunged into chaos. Mass protests against pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych led to his ouster in February 2014. That sparked a spiraling crisis: a fledgling interim government in Kiev looked on as Russia first seized and then annexed the territory of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula.

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U.S. Mission to International Organizations in Geneva

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An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

U.S. Statement on Resolution HRC/49/L1
Situation of Human Rights in Ukraine Stemming from the Russian Aggression
As Delivered by
Ambassador Sheba Crocker
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva

49th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
March 4, 2022

Mr. President, Excellencies,

Russia must be held to account for the grave human rights situation caused by its senseless, premeditated, and unprovoked military attack on Ukraine. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that Russia's vicious action "clearly violates international law and puts at risk countless civilian lives." The Secretary General has lamented the rising death toll and concluded that Russia has violated the UN Charter, Article 2(4) of which states that "all member states shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state."

With millions of civilian lives at stake, Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian alike - as Russian troops open fire on the streets of Kyiv, as they drop bombs on residential buildings in populated areas, as they shell kindergarten students in their schools - Russia must be held to account by this Council. Over one million people have been forced to flee their homes in fear of their lives.

The United States stands for upholding international law.

The United States stands in support of the UN Charter.

Mr. President, Excellencies, the United States and the American people stand with Ukraine and its people.

Thank you.

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Russia must be held to account for the grave human rights situation caused by its senseless, premeditated, and unprovoked military attack on Ukraine. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that Russia's vicious action "clearly violates international law and puts at risk countless civilian lives."

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Twitter News on Ukraine

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Russian banks rush to switch to Chinese card system

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Several Russian banks said on Sunday they would soon start issuing cards using the Chinese UnionPay card operator’s system coupled with Russia’s own Mir network, after Visa and MasterCard said they were suspending operations in Russia.

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Ukraine Interactive map - Ukraine Latest news on live map - liveuamap.com

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Ukraine Interactive map - Ukraine Latest news on live map - liveuamap.com

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Ukraine Interactive map - Ukraine Latest news on live map - liveuamap.com

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Live Universal Awareness Map Liveuamap is a leading independent global news and information site dedicated to factual reporting of a variety of important topics including conflicts, human rights issues, protests, terrorism, weapons deployment, health matters, natural disasters, and weather related stories, among others, from a vast array of sources.

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Letter asking for the establishment of a no-fly zone.

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Q&A with Dr. Don Jensen, Director of Russia and Europe at the United States Institute of Peace

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Talking to Kids about The Invasion of Ukraine

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivers virtual address to the U.S. Congress — 3/16/22

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Vladimir Putin has been running Russia since 2000 when he was first elected as President. How did a former KGB officer make his way up to the top seat - was it political prowess or was he just the recipient of a lot of good fortune? In this episode, we dive into the life of Vladimir Putin and try to understand how he became Russia's new "tsar."
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Vladimir Putin has been running Russia since 2000 when he was first elected as President. How did a former KGB officer make his way up to the top seat - was it political prowess or was he just the recipient of a lot of good fortune?

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Community Copy of Talking to Students About The Ukraine Invasion (1)