What is Putin's Goal?

Fayah Estrand (G6)

Current Events

Published Issue 6 2021-2022

The whole world was shocked when they turned on the news and heard Russia had started invading Ukraine. Everyone was even more shocked when only a few weeks later Russia declared war on Ukraine. But the big question is “what is Putin and Russia's goal?” Today I am going to try and answer that question.

Let's start off by saying how the war started, well it started on the 24th of February even if Russia had started invading Ukraine in 2014 which was 8 years ago on February 20. They started the war so that Ukraine could become a part of Russia again. Ukraine was a part of Russia way back in 1922 when the U.S.S.R was still strong and had not yet collapsed. The U.S.S.R collapsed in 1991 and many of the provinces that were a part of Russia wanted to become independent. Many of them succeeded and became their own country. One of those countries is Ukraine.

I will now briefly explain how Ukraine got their independence. Over 300,000 Ukrainians organized a human chain for Ukrainian independence between Kyiv and Lviv. After that Ukraine was considered a separate country from Russia. Russia did not really agree with this or accept this, so that's why they started invading Ukraine, to take away their independence. But the war didn’t really start in 2022. It originally started in 2014 when Russia actually started invading Ukraine but it hadn't gone very far until this year.

Putin wants to invade Ukraine so that Russia can potentially start the U.S.S.R but they cannot do that without Ukraine. Putin believes that Russia should be in charge of Ukraine. Putin believes that Ukraine and Russia are the same and should be one country, But that Russia should be in charge.

Most Russian and Ukrainian people disagree with Putin’s opinion and that's why Ukrainian soldiers are fighting back against Russia and trying to stay independent. Many other countries are helping Russia even if none have sent soldiers yet, for example, Canada is sending supplies and weapons, and Poland is opening their borders for families fleeing Ukraine. The USA has sent $350M of weapons from US stocks to Ukraine. If the war gets worse many countries will send their soldiers to go fight but currently, they are helping in many other ways.

Putin so far has shown no signs of stopping this war and even US president Joe Biden says that there is no evidence that Russia will be pulling back any time soon. Ukraine is trying its hardest to fight back but soon may need back up which I am sure they will get very easily.