After years of simmering conflict and an escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine in recent months, Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of his neighbor on Thursday.
On the third day of the assault, the Russian forces tightened their grip around Kiev on Saturday February 26, with fighting in and around the capital.
A chronological look back at a conflict that has its roots in November 2013 during the Maidan protest movement and which will lead to the dismissal of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, the starting point for the country's conflagration.
2013: Euromaidan and the break with Russia
November 21
:
after a long rapprochement with the European Union under the leadership of Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) initiated after the Orange Revolution of 2004, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych decides to turn his back on Europe.
He renounces an association agreement proposed by the European Union, which notably refused to grant him a loan of 20 billion euros.
Ukraine is divided between this European economic integration project and a competing Russian proposal for a customs union.
Protests erupt across the country.
Review - Return Ticket: Maidan Square, five years after the protests
December 1:
in Kiev, the protest is organized and settles on Independence Square, which will give its name to the movement, "Maidan" meaning square.
Among the opponents, pro-Europeans like former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (then in detention), boxer Vitali Klitschko, but also nationalists, notably from the far-right Svoboda party.
This first day of December, barricades are built on the square and the town hall falls into the hands of the demonstrators.
Vladimir Putin is worried about a movement which, according to him, looks more like "a pogrom than a revolution" and which "has little to do with the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union".
Sergei Lavrov denounces foreign interference.
December 17
: Despite the demonstrations, Yanukovych persists and signs in favor of Moscow.
Putin announces the lifting of customs barriers between the two countries, a drop in the price of gas and a loan of 15 billion dollars.
2014: departure of Yanukovych, Donbass and Crimea at the heart of the crisis
February 2014:
clashes between demonstrators and security forces become deadly and Ukraine experiences its bloodiest month of violence: nearly 90 people are killed in Kiev between February 18 and 21, according to the authorities.
Faced with the conflagration of the country, several Western partners went there and negotiated an early presidential election.
But on
February 22
, Viktor Yanukovych was dismissed by Parliament and left Kiev.
An interim government is set up.
Vladimir Putin denounces a coup and says: "Russia reserves the right to use all available options, including force as a last resort".
March 2014:
clashes occur between pro and anti-Russian activists in Simferopol, capital of Crimea.
With its naval base in Sevastopol and its two military airports in Kacha and Simferopol, the peninsula which advances on the Black Sea is a strategic territory for Russia, which deploys its troops there.
Mostly Russian-speaking, Crimea has only been Ukrainian since 1954.
On March 16
, she voted overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia in a referendum described as "illegal" by the United States and the European Union.
On the 18th
, Vladimir Putin signs the draft law linking Crimea to Russia and Moscow regains control of the Ukrainian military bases.
In response, Canada, the United States and the European Union hardened the tone and prohibited their territories to Russian politicians and their counterparts in Crimea.
April 7:
start of the Donbass war.
The separatists proclaim the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The pro-Russian rebels are supported and armed by Moscow, with many Russians joining them, but officially the Russian Federation is not involved in the conflict.
On the other side, Kiev launches its "anti-terrorist" operation and deploys its army, but also militias, often linked to the extreme right or even the ultra-right, like Pravy Sektor.
May 11:
two referendums are held in Donetsk and Luhansk and the "yes" to independence overwhelmingly wins.
Ukraine and Western countries do not recognize the results, unlike Russia
May 25:
Petro Poroshenko is elected President of Ukraine in the first round, with 56% of the vote.
Russians and Westerners recognize the results.
In the process, he announced that he was working on a peace plan and decreed a unilateral ceasefire on June 20, which produced very little effect in the combat zones.
June 6, 2014:
François Hollande, Angela Merkel, Vladimir Poutine and Petro Poroshenko meet in France, in Normandy, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Allied landings.
This is the first meeting between the Russian president and his Ukrainian counterpart since the outbreak of the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
This is the beginning of the "Normandy format", quadripartite meetings between France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
A meeting in the "Normandy format" bringing together France, Russia, Germany and Ukraine around a negotiating table.
© Etienne Laurent, EPA, AFP
June 27:
The European Union signs the Economic Association and Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine, as well as Georgia and Moldova.
Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says Russia would take steps to protect its economy if this new partnership had a negative impact on its business.
September 5:
Signing of a ceasefire between the two camps, negotiated in the Belarusian capital, hence the name "Minsk protocol or "Minsk 1". It is a semi-failure: the fighting drops in intensity but continue.
November 2:
the popular separatist republics hold presidential elections in their turn: in Donetsk, Alexander Zakharchenko is elected, in Luhansk, Igor Plotniski.
Ukraine denounces a violation of the Minsk agreements, Russia considers that these polls respect the protocol.
December 23:
The Ukrainian Parliament votes in favor of joining NATO, to the chagrin of Moscow.
Sergei Lavrov speaks of a "counterproductive" movement because "it gives the illusion that it will make it possible to resolve the deep internal crisis that Ukraine is going through" and will only end up "exacerbating the climate of confrontation"
2015-2018: the stalemate of the conflict
February 2015:
as fighting and shelling have resumed since the beginning of the year in the east of the country, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France meet again in Belarus in order to impose a new ceasefire.
In addition to the ceasefire, the agreement, torn (February 12) after a marathon of negotiations with Vladimir Putin, includes measures such as the withdrawal of heavy weapons on each side, the exchange of prisoners , the restoration of Ukraine's borders or even the withdrawal of foreign troops.
This "Minsk 2" has a political component, which provides for the organization of elections within the Ukrainian framework and the recognition of a certain autonomy for Donetsk and Lugansk.
In the months and years that followed, the conflict was frozen.
Periods of truce follow the fighting, with ceasefires regularly signed but immediately broken.
To be reviewed - Focus: Ukraine: one year after the Minsk agreements, what results on the ground?
The summits also follow one another:
October 2015
in Paris, then
October 2016
in Berlin, between European, Russian and Ukrainian leaders, without any concrete progress.
November 24, 2017:
the "president" of the self-proclaimed republic of Luhansk, Igor Plotniski, resigns after taking refuge in Moscow.
He is replaced by Leonid Pasetchnik.
August 31, 2018
: in Donetsk, his counterpart Alexander Zakharchenko is assassinated.
Another separatist, Denis Pouchiline, replaced him.
These two events are interpreted by analysts as a takeover by Moscow.
November 25, 2018:
three small ships of the Ukrainian Navy, which try to pass under the Crimean bridge, inaugurated with great fanfare by Russia the same year, are boarded by Russian forces and their 24 crew members arrested.
The next day, President Poroshenko decrees martial law for thirty days in the Russian-speaking regions of the East.
>> To read: Russian-Ukrainian naval incident near Crimea: the film of the events
2019: hopes for detente and gas agreement
May 20:
Volodymyr Zelensky triumphs over Petro Poroshenko and succeeds him as head of the country.
The new president is an actor and humorist, who campaigned against corruption, but also on a relaxation vis-à-vis Russia.
He himself is Russian-speaking and has spent a large part of his career in Russia.
August 18:
Emmanuel Macron meets Vladimir Poutine in Brégançon, a second meeting after the one in the splendor of the Palace of Versailles in May 2017 shortly after his election.
The French president hopes to build "a new architecture of trust and security in Europe", including Russia.
September 7:
24 Ukrainian sailors and ten other Ukrainian citizens are released, including the most famous of them, Oleg Sentsov, as part of a prisoner exchange.
Russia will also hand over its three ships to Ukraine a few months later.
October 1
: Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting in Minsk under the aegis of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reach an agreement on the organization of elections in the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donbass on the granting to these have a special status.
Demonstrations break out accusing the power of capitulation to Moscow.
December 9
: summit in Paris in the "Normandy" format.
First meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
The parties involved in the conflict undertake to implement the ceasefire concluded within the framework of the Minsk agreements before the end of the year, and on an exchange of prisoners.
31 December:
conclusion of a gas agreement.
Moscow and Kiev conclude a new five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine.
The previous one expired at the end of the year.
This agreement guarantees the supply of gas to Europe, which a previous crisis, in 2009, had threatened.
The construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline across the Baltic Sea should enable the export of Russian gas by other routes.
2020-2022: from the return of tensions to war
12 June 2020:
NATO grants Ukraine the status of partner benefiting from the "New Opportunities" programme, which allows cooperation between the forces of the Alliance and the Ukrainian army.
NATO assures that this "does not prejudge decisions on NATO membership".
But President Volodymyr Zelensky is pushing for a membership plan to be offered to him.
April 1, 2021:
Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Russia of massing troops on Ukraine's borders.
Russia says the exercise is a response to Ukrainian "provocations".
April 6, 2021:
Volodymyr Zelensky ends his dialogue policy.
He openly declares that his country's membership in NATO is the only way to put an end to the war in Donbass.
He also declared himself in favor of his country's entry into the European Union.
December 2021:
While in November Russia conducted a new large-scale exercise near the Ukrainian border, Western countries fear escalation.
Vladimir Putin announces his demands, in particular a guarantee that Ukraine will never join NATO, for which he is preparing two treaties, and the withdrawal of NATO forces from the countries of the former Soviet space.
Joe Biden waves the threat of sanctions in the event of an invasion: the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, hyper strategic for exporting Russian gas, could be used as a "lever".
The European Union is also ready to impose sanctions.
January-February
2022
: poker-liar.
The various protagonists blow hot and cold on the tensions, alternating between compromise proposals, promises of de-escalation and then 180 degree turns.
February 20:
in a press release, the Élysée indicates, in the morning, that the Russian and American presidents have accepted the principle of a Putin-Biden summit... before the Kremlin judges this announcement "premature".
In the evening, in a televised speech lasting more than an hour, Vladimir Putin finally announced that he recognized the independence of the pro-Russian separatist territories and ordered his army to enter the separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.
February 24:
The war begins.
Russian forces are entering Ukrainian territory from several fronts.
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