There are many reasons why Russia is attacking Ukraine and why Russia wants to invade Ukraine.  Many of them are rooted in the long history of Russian aggression against Ukraine.  Russia has always viewed Ukraine as a problem, an obstacle to its spreading its control over the rest of Europe, and destroying democratic governments. 

1918-1921 – Russian Communists attacked Ukraine, established Soviet Union, and began Ukraine’s occupation

1921-1923 – Russia creates first artificial famine in Ukraine, killing hundreds of thousands

1929-1931 – Russian conducts forced collectivization and state-sponsored theft of property, establishment of Gulags (precursor to the Nazi concentration camps) killed 1.2 million people in Ukraine

1930-1950 – Russian conducts the “Great Purge” killing all who opponents in politics and civil society, more than 200,000 victims

1932-1933 – more than 4 million Ukrainians (conservative estimate) died during Holodomor – genocide of Ukrainians – an artificial mass famine deliberately organized by the Soviet Union to subdue Ukraine.  Estimates that reflect broader implications of the genocide amount to 7-10 million of victims.

1939-1941 – Russia organizes forced deportation of more than 300,000 people from western Ukraine to distant parts of Russia, killing immediately 24,000 people

1942-1959 – Russia suppresses Ukrainian resistance movement, including the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), killing 153,000 people and repressing 134,000

1944 – Russia organizes brutal deportation of Crimea Tatars from their home in Crimea, killing at least 200,000

1946-1947 – Russian creates another artificial famine in Ukraine, killing hundreds of thousands

1960-1989 – Russian persecutes remaining political opponents in Ukraine, prohibiting all forms of dissent and freedom of speech, eliminating all opposition to the Communist totalitarian rule

2014-2022 – Russia annexes Crimea, occupies parts of Donbas, killing more than 14,000 people, displacing more than 1.5 million

February 24, 2022 – Russia has started a full-scale invasion of Ukraine – an unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression, killing thousands civilians, including 85 children killed and more than 100 injured, and 1300 Ukrainian soldiers in the first two weeks of war, displacing over 2.5 million people.