PITFALLS OF POWER
“And it’s generally agreed upon by onlookers that Ukraine has put up a much stronger fight in defending itself than many predicted”
The war between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine has gone on for 3 years, 4 months, and 3 days. It is regarded as the largest and most destructive war in Europe since the Cold War era, with around 500-700,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, and civilians killed over 3 years.
I remember when I heard about the war, the first public news about it that rocked the world, “far away” in Nigeria at the time, I had no such interest in politics, and didn’t know what magnitude of destruction was befalling the citizens of Ukraine, and the effect the first hit from Russia was going to have on families, children and the country at large. I had friends who were students studying in Ukraine— I remember having to console their family members and pray, hoping for their safety.
It’s been 3 years and this war hasn’t stopped. It also doesn’t look like it will happen anytime soon because now it has become a political display of muscle strength between the American president and Vladimir Putin. On the 16th of July 2025, Trump gave Putin 50 days to end the war, threatening 100% sanctions on Russia that will affect Russian supporting economies— Right after this declaration from Trump, Russia whispers “Oh please, shut up” and goes ahead to bomb Ukraine 17 times? In the space of a day?
Where did everything start? Did the invasion really start on the 24th of February when the action by Russian troops was taken against Ukraine?
Let me tell you how both countries got to this situation
Like every other war in the past, its foundational reasons are lies, misplaced power, unruly ambition, and the desire of man to possess what does not belong to him.
Both Ukraine and Russia were once Soviet nations, coexisting under the rule of the Soviet government, until Ukraine became independent when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Ukraine and Russia maintained cordial relations.
While Ukraine began to progress as a state, signing agreements like the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1994 and giving up inherited nuclear weapons from the Soviet Union, Russia UK and the US agreed to uphold Ukraine’s Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity. On the other hand, in 1999 Russia signed the Charter for European Security, this move affirmed that each state had the right to CHOOSE OR CHANGE its security arrangements and join an alliance at will.
Ukraine began to show interest in joining the NATO alliance and Russia showing pseudo support made statements from Putin like if Ukraine wanted to join NATO, "we will respect their choice, because it is their sovereign right to decide their defence policy, and this will not worsen relations between our countries". Where Russia seemed to draw the line was when Ukraine decided to join the EU. Here, all hell broke loose and Russia began to put pressure on Ukraine to reject the agreement by imposing economic sanctions. In 2013 a Russian adviser named Sergei Glazyev released a warning that if Ukraine signed the EU agreement, Russia would no longer acknowledge Ukrainian borders.
But how does this add up when Russia in fact swore to uphold Ukraine’s independence rights? Or was Ukraine only seen as independent if it stayed within the confines of limitations that Putin mentally gave it? What it seems like to me is that, as Ukraine began to expand and tilt towards the west Russia and its unquenched hunger for control began to fear losing its control over Ukraine, which should not even be a discussion because Ukraine is identified as a sovereign state.
Anyway, due to the coercion from Russia, the president of Ukraine at the time Vicktor Yanukovych suddenly withdrew from signing the agreement, and chose the close ties towards the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union instead and this decision did not sit well with either Ukraine’s parliament or its people because all were in support for the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement. Protests broke out calling for the end of his tenure, and fighting back against widespread government corruption, abuse of power, human rights violations, and the influence of oligarchs. Eventually, he was impeached.
Russia was not nearly done as it began to invade Ukraine in 2014, although it denied any such activity. When the war started, Ukraine was a neutral state and said it wasn’t seeking to join NATO, only that this was because Russia had already invaded Crimea, a southern part of Ukraine. Its parliament flagged this and pushed for a revocation of Ukraine’s neutral status.
While all this was happening, there was a conflict between Russian separatist groups and the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Russians judged the West’s unbothered response to this conflict as a signal that the same response would be given to a full-on invasion hence it commenced the world-renowned attack on Ukraine.
In July 2021, Putin published an essay "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", in which he called Ukraine "historically Russian lands" and claimed there is "no historical basis" for the "idea of Ukrainian people as a nation separate from the Russians".Putin claimed Ukraine never had "real statehood" and that the creation of modern Ukraine was a mistake. Putin was accused of promoting Russian imperialism, historical revisionism, and disinformation. This shows us how much power in the wrong hands can be thwarted and cause the destruction of so many lives.
How do you only come out to say Ukraine was a mistake only because it began to find connections with other countries outside you? How do you call on the once historically abandoned facts only when it suits your narrative and allows you the liberty of destroying a nation that you so easily swore to protect its territorial integrity?
In the latter part of 2021, Russia amassed troops near Ukraine's borders and issued demands to the West including a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO.
After repeated denials of having plans to wage war on Ukraine, the first attack on the 24th February was carried out, while leaders of western countries vowed to impose sanctions on Putin, others tried to convince the present president of Ukraine to declare Ukraine a neutral country and renounce its aspirations to join NATO but Zelenskyy stood on the past betrayal and lies of Putin, saying he could not be trusted as he had severally broken agreements.
International responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine went like:
The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning the invasion and demanding a full Russian withdrawal. The International Court of Justice ordered Russia to halt military operations, and the Council of Europe expelled Russia. Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia and its ally Belarus and provided large-scale humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. The Baltic states and Poland declared Russia a terrorist state. Protests occurred around the world, with anti-war protesters in Russia being met by mass arrests and greater media censorship. The Russian attacks on civilians have led to allegations of genocide, and rightly so.
Fast forward to July 2025, President Trump has taken the war into his personal desired conquest, and the situation continues to worsen by the day. It stands to be corrected that the cause of the war has been long forgotten because as it is, the war has now become an arena to display political muscular strength between Vladimir Putin and President Trump.
The root cause of the war hasn’t been addressed, which is the desire of President Putin to have unaddressed and illegal control of a sovereign state, disregarding the laws that bind him. The only way forward is a thorough process that