Ukrainian Cities Population Growth 1660 - 2022
Channel: Jakub Lego
Date: 06/09/2022

Biggest Cities in Ukraine by Population

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that began in 2014. The invasion caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II, with around 7 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced. It has also caused global food shortages.

After the Soviet Union (USSR) dissolved in 1991, the newly independent republics of Ukraine and Russia maintained ties. Ukraine agreed in 1994 to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and dismantle the nuclear weapons in Ukraine left by the USSR. In return, Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) agreed in the Budapest Memorandum to uphold the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In March and April 2021, Russia began a major military build-up near the Russo-Ukrainian border. A second build-up followed from October 2021 to February 2022, in both Russia and Belarus. Members of the Russian government repeatedly denied having plans to invade or attack Ukraine including government spokesman Dmitry Peskov on 28 November 2021, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on 19 January 2022, Russian ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov on 20 February 2022, and Russian ambassador to the Czech Republic Alexander Zmeevsky on 23 February 2022.

In the months preceding the invasion, Russian officials accused Ukraine of Russophobia, inciting tensions, and repressing Russian speakers in Ukraine. They also made multiple security demands of Ukraine, NATO, and non-NATO allies in the EU. Commentators and Western officials described these as attempts to justify war. "Russophobia is a first step towards genocide", Putin said on 9 December 2021. Putin's claims about "de-Nazification" have been described as absurd, and Russian claims of genocide were widely rejected as baseless. Scholars of genocide and Nazism said that Putin's claims were "factually wrong" and that they actually contribute to incitement to genocide of Ukrainians by accusation in a mirror.