Not a crisis nor civil war, but a foreign aggression: Why did Russia attack Ukraine in 2014?
Journal: Eskişehir Osmangazi Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi
Year: 2022

On 18 March 2014 Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation triumphantly declared the “reunification of the Crimea” with Russia. However, this was not the end, but just the beginning of overambitious plans to annex the whole South-Eastern Ukraine with its large industrial centers and mainly Russian-speaking population. The small groups of the Russian secret forces and paid “political tourists” tried to orchestrate a series of separatist pro-Russian meetings in a number of cities in