A cargo ship anchored in the Marmara Sea awaits access to the Bosphorus Straits in Istanbul on July 13. July 10, 2022 In Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, Russian forces continue to pound neighborhoods in the north and east. July 12, 2022 Russia is fighting to conquer the entire Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Authorities recall Ukrainian soldiers from other parts of the USSR and vote to shut down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Khalil Hamra/AP There's a 1990 controversy over whether the West promised Moscow NATO would never move eastward, not one inch eastward SAROTTE: Right, exactly. So if you think of it that way, then you see that the 1999 war in Chechnya, the 2008 invasion in Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea and what's going on now are all part of a long ongoing battle to define the limits of a shrunken Soviet empire. Jason Beaubien/NPR Carol Guzy for NPR This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Russian-supported separatist forces storm government buildings in two eastern regions, Donetsk and Luhansk. And Ukraine was particularly important because due to the amount of former Soviet arsenal on its territory, once it became independent, Ukraine was born nuclear. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travel between Moscow and Kyiv. Ukrainians demonstrate in front of the Communist Party's Central Committee headquarters in Kyiv on Aug. 25, 1991, the day after Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union. Frontline fighter Oleg, 21 years old and a new military academy graduate, talks about the Russian invasion near Dnipro, Ukraine, on July 7. He says Ukraine should be a "neutral state," cooperating with both Russia and Western alliances like NATO. Russia declares that the change in Ukraine's government is an illegal coup. We tend to think in the West of the collapse of the Soviet Union as an event, but I think it would help us to understand the significance of Ukraine if we think of Soviet collapse not as an event but as a process that is still ongoing. Two years after his entanglement with Trump, Zelenskyy visits the White House to meet with President Biden. With some 40,000 Russian troops gathered on Ukraine's eastern border, violence breaks out in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas violence that continues to this day. Protesters were calling for the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych over corruption and an abandoned trade agreement with the European Union. "We're not sure exactly what Mr. Putin is up to, but these movements certainly have our attention," says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. She's a professor of history at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. That's the 1990 controversy. I think if we can make clear that reviving those would be both in our interest and Moscow's interest, there may still be hope, and it may be possible to prevent Ukrainians from dying in large numbers. Maxim Marmur/AFP via Getty Images Diplomatic efforts pick up pace across Europe. July 21, 2022 Business is clawing back in Ukraine, but it won't be anything like normal for a long time. hide caption. Just days before it is to be signed, Yanukovych announces that he will refuse to sign an association agreement with the European Union to bring Ukraine into a free trade agreement. Biden emphasizes that the U.S. is committed to "Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression" but repeats that Ukraine has not yet met the conditions necessary to join NATO. Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images FADEL: So what becomes of this moment of opportunity? U.S. President George W. Bush supports Ukraine's membership, but France and Germany oppose it after Russia voices displeasure. He also has this concern about Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. Eleanor Beardsley/NPR The Soviet Union officially dissolves on Dec. 26. In response, the U.S. and allies in Europe impose sanctions on Russia. hide caption. Thank you so much. The presidential election pits Kuchma's incumbent party led by his hand-picked successor, Viktor Yanukovych, and supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin against a popular pro-democracy opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko. We're not talking about Russia's current war, but about Russia's Crimean War in the 1850s. At that point, it had more than 50 million inhabitants. The pro-West politician Petro Poroshenko, a former government minister and head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine, is elected Ukraine's president. July 17, 2022 Ukraine lost territory to Russia in the southern Kherson region early in the war. hide caption. Because Eastern and central European countries rely on pipelines through Ukraine to receive gas imports from Russia, the gas crisis quickly spreads beyond Ukraine's borders. Russia denies that its troops are on Ukrainian soil, but Ukrainian officials insist otherwise. Trump asks Zelenskyy for "a favor": an investigation into energy company Burisma and the Bidens. hide caption. NATO's secretary-general visits Kyiv, and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk visits NATO headquarters in Brussels. FADEL: And so now we're here - 2022, Russian troops surrounding Ukraine right now. In a phone call with Trump in July 2019, Zelenskyy requests a visit to the White House to meet with Trump about U.S. backing of Ukraine's efforts to push off Russia. And gradually, that leads, in cumulative interaction, to a deterioration of the newfound cooperation. SAROTTE: So thaws are precious. Yanukovych wins the election amid accusations of rigging. July 6, 2022 Ukraine's coal industry was in decline. The Soviet Union falls. hide caption. hide caption. In 2008, the NATO Bucharest summit declaration stated that not only Ukraine but also Georgia would become members of NATO. Viktor Radushinskiy, a member of Ukraine's forestry department in Zhytomyr, looks at a site in the northern Ukrainian woods where a fighter jet crashed. Peter Granitz/NPR She doesn't plan to make a profit this year at her seasonal caf. As President Bill Clinton said in the early 1990s, it was the first chance ever since the rise of the nation-state to have the entire continent of Europe live in peace. What was Putin's calculus there? Ukrainian prosecutors open criminal investigations into Tymoshenko, alleging corruption and misuse of government resources. And Ukraine holds a special importance for Putin. Putin is obsessed with that, but he is also obsessed with the year 1997, when Boris Yeltsin belatedly tried to get what Mikhail Gorbachev didn't get, which was a veto over NATO expansion any further - so into Central and Eastern Europe. hide caption. Claire Harbage/NPR Protesters chanted, "No to surrender!" In April, NATO responds with a compromise: It promises that Ukraine will one day be a member of the alliance but does not put it on a specific path for how to do so. It's clearly a major European country. It was becoming a democracy. In the responses, officials say they cannot bar Ukraine from joining NATO, but they signal a willingness to negotiate over smaller issues like arms control. It's clear in hindsight that neither Russia nor the West took full advantage of the thaw that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. He promotes reform, including measures to address corruption and lessen Ukraine's dependence on Russia for energy and financial support. There are both identity reasons and strategic reasons for that. Representatives from the U.S. and NATO deliver their written responses to Putin's demands on Jan. 26. He sits down with Short Wave's Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber to talk about how the Russian invasion is harming the environment even beyond Ukraine's borders. Among them, he asks NATO to permanently bar Ukraine from membership and withdraw forces stationed in countries that joined the alliance after 1997, including Romania and Balkan countries. Ukraine's parliament votes unanimously to remove Yanukovych and install an interim government, which announces it will sign the EU agreement and votes to free Tymoshenko from prison. hide caption. July 21, 2022 Eli Rosenbaum spent his career hunting down Nazis after World War II. An employee of the state-owned Russian natural gas company Gazprom works at the central control room of the company's headquarters in Moscow on Jan. 14, 2009. Alexei Alexandrov/AP SAROTTE: Absolutely. Carol Guzy for NPR FADEL: So let's move ahead to the late 1990s. (Cyberattacks from Russia have continued through the present; the latest major attack targeted government websites in January 2022. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images SAROTTE: NATO is not going to add Ukraine as a member. So you want to define a place for it in post-Cold War Europe. On Feb. 24, Russian forces launch a devastating assault on Ukrainian territory the largest such military operation in Europe since the end of World War II. All rights reserved. NATO is not going to put intermediate-range nuclear forces in Ukraine. Twenty-one-year-old Anastacia Shapoval says in Kharkiv right now you have to balance the constant shelling by the Russians with the rest of your life. Anatoly Sapronenko/AFP via Getty Images Putin feels strongly that Russia and Ukraine are one indivisible nation; they should never have become separate states. SAROTTE: Well, one of the big open questions is the question of NATO enlargement. Johnson may have been shown the door in Britain, but he remains a popular figure in Ukraine, where he is admired for his support for the country's effort to repel the Russian invasion. hide caption. Following efforts by Yushchenko and Tymoshenko to bring Ukraine into NATO, the two formally request in January that Ukraine be granted a "membership action plan," the first step in the process of joining the alliance. To help civilians escape, the Ukrainian railway runs a free evacuation train out of the east. Now miners find themselves in the middle of a war with Russia and global demand for coal is rising. Rescue workers put out the fire of a destroyed car after a Russian attack in a residential neighborhood in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Monday. hide caption. As Russian forces begin an all-out assault on Ukraine after months of troop buildup and failed diplomatic efforts by the U.S. and its European allies to head off conflict, the situation for Kyiv is the most high-stakes in the country's 30-year history. SAROTTE: Yes, there's two controversies. ), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy greets lawmakers during the solemn opening and first sitting of the new parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in Kyiv on Aug. 29, 2019. July 14, 2022 More than 20 people were killed when Russian missiles hit several buildings in Vinnytsia, a central city that has become a major logistical hub for humanitarian aid and military operations. Ahead of a scheduled impeachment vote on Feb. 22, Yanukovych flees, eventually arriving in Russia. The State Department orders the families of embassy staff to leave Ukraine on Jan. 23. And one way to do that would be to revive Cold War arms control treaties that we desperately need again - in particular, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty from which Trump withdrew in 2019 and something called the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty. Putin also demands a written response from the U.S. and NATO. To really grasp what's going on at the border of Russia and Ukraine, it helps to know some history. Firefighters remove rubble following a Russian airstrike in the central city of Vinnytsia on Thursday that Ukrainian officials said killed more than 20 people and injured dozens more. Ukrainian troops train with small arms on March 13, 2015, outside Mariupol, Ukraine. Violence in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 14,000 people in the years since, according to International Crisis Group research. The invasion was poorly planned. Nariman El-Mofty/AP Yushchenko takes office as president, with Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister. "We sit the whole day and watch. Can you explain why? hide caption. Many wave the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag that had been banned under Soviet rule. Putin at first denies they are Russian soldiers but later admits it. In the foreground is the Monument to Scuttled Ships, marking Russia's intentional destruction of its own naval fleet in the Crimean War in 1854 as British and French warships approached. The Minsk group meets again in Belarus to find a more successful agreement to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine, resulting in the Minsk II agreement. Nariman El-Mofty/AP hide caption. July 13, 2022 Russia had a more powerful army. hide caption, July 30, 2022 Even relatively inexpensive drones can provide valuable intelligence to units on the battlefield. On Jan. 1, Gazprom, the state-owned Russian gas company, suddenly stops pumping natural gas to Ukraine, following months of politically fraught negotiations over gas prices. hide caption, July 11, 2022 A Ukrainian official says Russian shelling and missile strikes in Kharkiv hit only civilian buildings such as a shopping center, a a school and a shopping center, and are "absolute terrorism. FADEL: Mary Elise Sarotte. In the background on the right is a Russian destroyer. With Russian troops in control of the peninsula, the Crimean parliament votes to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. In response, Biden declares the move "the beginning of a Russian invasion." July 12, 2022 A Russian missile struck a crowded shopping mall last month, killing 21 people and injuring dozens more. is seen left in front of the Russian State Duma building in central Moscow on Feb. 24. Biden orders the movement of 1,000 U.S. troops from Germany to Romania and the deployment of 2,000 additional U.S. troops to Poland and Germany. Representatives of the Ukrainian Catholic Church protest the visit of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexi II to Kyiv on Oct. 29, 1990. Inna Kravchenko, 52, and her mother, Rasa Kozlova, 75, moments after crossing by bike from Russian-occupied territory in the Kherson region to the Ukrainian-controlled village of Zelenodolsk. In December, Ukrainians vote to make their independence official when they approve the declaration by a landslide 92% of votes in favor. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/via AP SAROTTE: Yes. Ukraine becomes an independent state. hide caption. Under the agreement, Ukraine, the world's third-largest nuclear power at the time, said it would turn all its strategic nuclear arms over to Russia for destruction. Irina Garmash, a mother of four from the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, sits on an evacuation train that has stopped in the center-eastern city of Dnipro, on July 8. And in 2014, as Ukraine was also showing interest in the European Union, he decided to violate what everyone had assumed had become a fundamental tenet of post-Cold War order, namely a prohibition on changing borders in Europe through the use of force. July 19, 2022 As the war in Ukraine nears its sixth month, people in the northeastern city of Kharkiv are finding a new normal. Thanks for being on the program, Mary Elise. Jason Beaubien/NPR Representatives from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany meet in Belarus to attempt to negotiate an end to the violence in the Donbas. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. July 21, 2022 The war in Ukraine is devastating that nation's rich, natural environment - from chemical leaks poisoning water supplies and warships killing dolphins to explosions disrupting bird migrations. They have never recognized Russia's annexation. hide caption. Efrem Lucatsky/AP hide caption. It was born the third-biggest nuclear power in the world. We've called on Mary Elise Sarotte. Andrew Burton/Getty Images A placard featuring an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and reading "We are with him for the sovereignty of Russia! Estimates range from 150,000 to 190,000 troops. A man holds a Crimean flag in front of the Crimean parliament building in Simferopol, Ukraine, on March 17, 2014. And you?" FADEL: Let's go to 2014. AP Residents fleeing rural villages there describe their desperation under Russian military control. Later that month, Russia says it will withdraw the troops, but tens of thousands remain. hide caption. Under international pressure to resolve the crisis, Tymoshenko negotiates a new deal with Putin, and gas flows resume on Jan. 20. The train carries residents from the eastern Donbas region fleeing war during the Russian invasion. hide caption. ", Grain fields backdropped by a power plant in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on Friday. An employee at a coal mine in eastern Ukraine travels deep into the mine. Emily Feng/NPR During his campaign, Zelenskyy vowed to make peace with Russia and end the war in the Donbas. Police said the crowd swelled to around 10,000 people. FADEL: The fall of Boris Yeltsin; the rise of Vladimir Putin. Almost immediately, armed men appear at checkpoints and facilities in the Crimean Peninsula. Jason Beaubien/NPR Ukrainian forces reportedly try to hold back the Russian advance on several fronts. and some held placards critical of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Russian Black Sea naval headquarters at Sevastopol, Crimea, in 2008. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images FADEL: And what does that look like, going from opportunity to hardening? Much of Europe still relies on Russian gas today. It didn't think the West would intervene. The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. Copyright 2022 NPR. July 10, 2022 A Russian rocket attack hit the town of Chasiv Yar, destroying a five-story apartment building and killing at least 15 people. Russia sends about 100,000 troops to Ukraine's borders, ostensibly for military exercises. Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images SAROTTE: Yes. In April, comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy is elected president in a landslide rebuke of Poroshenko and the status quo, which includes a stagnating economy and the conflict with Russia. But the big question mark was - what would happen to the Soviet strategic nuclear arsenal? The cease-fire soon breaks, and fighting continues into the new year. The U.S. and the U.K. urge their citizens to leave Ukraine on Feb. 11. French President Emmanuel Macron (right) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Feb. 7, 2022, for talks in an effort to find common ground on Ukraine and NATO. Here's what you need to know, Mariupol theater bombing was a clear war crime, Amnesty International says. hide caption. Anti-government protesters clash with police in Kyiv's Maidan despite a truce agreed between the Ukrainian president and opposition leaders on Feb. 20, 2014. So that's the reason that Ukraine becomes so strategic and the West wants to bring Ukraine into their sphere of influence. From 2014 through today, more than 14,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands wounded and more than a million displaced. They were able to bring three bags of belongings but fear their house they left behind will be destroyed by Russian soldiers. That was one of the things that had prompted Putin to launch military action against Georgia in 2008. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images Russian troops take part in drills at the Kadamovskiy firing range in the Rostov region of southern Russia on Dec. 14, 2021. The Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, despite initial hopes that he could smoothly democratize Russia and transform its economy into a thriving market economy, instead he runs into a series of enormous obstacles, and he allows corruption to flourish. Construction crews are cleaning up bombed buildings and people are returning to work. In 2017, a large-scale assault affects key Ukrainian infrastructure, including the National Bank of Ukraine and the country's electrical grid. Biden announces the deployment of another 2,000 troops from the U.S. to Poland. Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western hero of the Orange Revolution, became the third president of an independent Ukraine. He understood back in the 1990s that Ukraine was, as he put it, the linchpin of peace in Europe. For a historical view on the Ukraine crisis, NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Mary Elise Sarotte, professor of history at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Read on to understand how Ukraine came to where it is today. Protesters begin camping out in Kyiv's Maidan, also known as Independence Square, and occupy government buildings, including Kyiv's city hall and the justice ministry. hide caption. There's this moment of opportunity for the U.S.-Russia relationship. Russia and Belarus begin joint military exercises on Feb. 10, with some 30,000 Russian troops stationed in the country along Ukraine's northern border. hide caption. Since the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, many Ukrainians have turned away from Moscow and toward the West, with popular support on the rise for joining Western alliances such as NATO and the European Union. On Feb. 21, Putin formally recognizes the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic including territory claimed by separatists but controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces. After the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine is left with the world's third-largest nuclear stockpile. Actors for the Donetsk Regional Drama Theater of Mariupol, on stage during a rehearsal for their play Cry of a Nation at the Uzhhorod municipal theater on July 14. What would happen after the collapse of centralized control and command? Biden, speaking with Putin on a phone call, urges Russia not to invade Ukraine, warning of "real costs" if Russia does so. Here's what it's like. hide caption. Leaders and diplomats from the U.S., Russia and European countries meet repeatedly to avert a crisis. "This is our task," a Ukrainian drone surveillance unit member says. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Nina Lyashonok/AP They declare independence from Ukraine as the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, though they remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. Russia renews its troop presence near the Ukraine-Russia border, alarming U.S. intelligence officials, who travel to Brussels to brief NATO allies on the situation. July 1, 2022 Russia's economy is weathering sanctions over the war in Ukraine, but tough times may be ahead, according to an assessment from experts. Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images Igor the clown puts on a show for the children at caf Lito, or Summer cafe, in Chernivtsi's Taras Chevchenko Park. July 1, 2022 The environmental impacts from Russia's invasion of Ukraine could be felt far longer than the war itself. Following a failed coup in Moscow, the Ukrainian parliament declares independence a second time on Aug. 24, a date that is still celebrated as Ukraine's official Independence Day. FADEL: Something many Ukrainians would argue is not true. Laurel Chor for NPR Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images Take us back to that time. Several U.S. officials later testify that Zelenskyy was close to announcing such an investigation, though he ultimately demurs, saying Ukrainians are "tired" of Burisma. As NATO allies contemplate adding central and Eastern European members for the first time, Ukraine formally establishes relations with the alliance, though it does not join. Putin finalizes the Russian annexation of Crimea in a March 18 announcement to Russia's parliament. Claire Harbage/NPR Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images Yevgeniy Medvedovskiy, the chief of the Zhytomyr region's department of ecological inspection, walks around the site of the jet crash picking up shards of metal and looking at the fallen trees. A White House whistleblower complains, leading to Trump's first impeachment in December 2019. In 10 years as president, Leonid Kuchma helps transition Ukraine from a Soviet republic to a capitalist society, privatizing businesses and working to improve international economic opportunities. hide caption. Missiles rain down on Ukraine's cities and columns of Russian troops from neighboring Belarus and from Russian-held Crimea reportedly begin streaming into the countryside. NPR Environmental Correspondent Nate Rott has been reporting from Ukraine. U.S. officials, including Biden, increase the urgency of their warnings, saying that Russia has decided to invade. But city garbage collectors are still picking up the trash. His early efforts to reach a solution to the violence are slowed by U.S. President Donald Trump, who briefly blocks U.S. military aid to Ukraine and suggests to Zelenskyy that he should instead work with Putin to resolve the crisis. ", President Bill Clinton (from left), Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk join hands in 1994 after signing a nuclear disarmament agreement. hide caption. July 3, 2022 Farmers in Ukraine begin to harvest this year's wheat, barley and rapeseed crops as diplomats try to negotiate an end to Russia's Black Sea blockade of exports. But along the country's eastern border with Russia, separatists backed by Moscow took control of two regions in 2014. hide caption. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Russia continues to build its troop presence on its border with Ukraine. hide caption. It remains the only time that a European nation has used military force to seize the territory of another since World War II. Claire Harbage/NPR SAROTTE: Yes, that and the fact that Ukraine is a large country. The current conflict is more than one country taking over another; it is in the words of one U.S. official a shift in "the world order. In Ukraine, January 1990 sees more than 400,000 people joining hands in a human chain stretching some 400 miles from the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk to Kyiv, the capital, in the north-central part of Ukraine. hide caption. In a treaty called the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine agrees to trade away its intercontinental ballistic missiles, warheads and other nuclear infrastructure in exchange for guarantees that the three other treaty signatories the U.S., the U.K. and Russia will "respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine. Now it faces its biggest test as Russia threatens its very existence as an independent country. Debris covers the inside of the drama theater in April following a March 16 bombing in Mariupol, Ukraine, in an area now controlled by Russian forces. Despite Russian missiles hitting Kharkiv on nearly a daily basis, 5 of the 18 branches of Bricks Coffee and Desserts in the city have reopened. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office/via AP, In the Russia-Ukraine war, drones are one of the most powerful weapons, Russia strikes Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa hours after grain deals signed, Ukraine, Russia agree to export grain, ending a standoff that threatened food supply, Cafes opening in Kharkiv, but most large Ukrainian businesses remain shuttered, The bombed Mariupol theater troupe is back on stage with a homegrown Ukrainian play, How prosecuting war crimes in Ukraine compares to hunting Nazis, Russia's War In Ukraine Is Hurting Nature, Kharkiv is finding a new normal as residents return to work despite missile strikes, As Ukraine's war grinds on, soldiers are outgunned and injuries are rising, Ukrainian villagers flee Russian-occupied Kherson on foot, bike and wheelchair, A Russian strike on a humanitarian hub is part of a pattern, Ukrainian officials say, How Russia's current war in Ukraine echoes its Crimean War of the 1850s, Riding Ukraine's last train line out of Donbas with families fleeing for their lives, Russian missiles are blasting civilians in Ukraine, 3 people are killed, and scores injured, in Russian attacks on Kharkiv, Garbage collectors in Kharkiv dodge mortars to pick up the trash, At least 15 were killed and others are trapped after a Russian strike in Ukraine, Ukrainians have a special place in their hearts for Boris Johnson, There's nowhere in Ukraine to hide from the war.