Ukraine-Russia Conflict: Why is Russia invading Ukraine and what does Putin want?

Russia's Vladimir Putin has denied plans to attack Ukraine for months, but on Thursday he announced a "special military operation" in the Donbas region of the nation. Following the statement on live television, reports of explosions in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, and other regions of the country emerged.

Mr Putin's latest moves came only days after ripping up a peace pact and ordering soldiers into two rebel-held eastern regions to "keep peace," as he put it. In recent months, Russia has placed at least 200,000 troops along Ukraine's borders, raising worries that this is the start of a new invasion. What happens next might put Europe's entire security system in jeopardy.

Where are Russian troops being sent and why?

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, pro-Putin separatists captured large swaths of the east and have been fighting Ukraine's army ever since. Although an international peace agreement was signed in Minsk, the violence continues, and Russia's president has announced that troops will be sent into two rebel-held districts. Russia's usage of the term "peacekeepers" has been emphatically condemned by the UN Secretary-General.

The West believes Moscow is preparing a military invasion of Ukraine, a 44-million-strong country that shares borders with both Russia and the European Union. For starters, there have been rumors of tanks arriving in separatist-controlled Donetsk, and the most recent satellite photographs show Russian troops stationed near Ukraine's borders.

President Putin warned Ukraine that if it did not stop the fighting in the east, it would be held responsible for more deaths. However, a succession of phony incidents have already occurred, and any of them might be used as a pretext for a Russian strike.

What exactly is Putin's issue with Ukraine?

Russia has long opposed Ukraine's accession to European institutions, including NATO and the European Union. Mr. Putin has now argued that Ukraine is a puppet of the West and that it was never a real state in the first place. He wants guarantees from the West and Ukraine that Ukraine would not join Nato, a 30-nation defensive alliance, and that it will demilitarise and become a neutral state.

Ukraine has extensive social and cultural ties with Russia, and Russian is widely spoken there, but those ties have deteriorated since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. When Ukraine's pro-Russian president was overthrown in early 2014, Russia launched an offensive. More than 14,000 people have died as a result of the battle in the east.

How far is Russia willing to go?

President Putin may be content to rip up the eastern peace accords. He's only mentioned "military-technical" measures in the past if he doesn't get what he wants, and Moscow has already stated that "there is no Russian invasion."

However, the chances of a diplomatic solution are slim, and the West is concerned that he will go even further. "We anticipate they will target Ukraine's capital Kyiv, a city of 2.8 million innocent people," said US Vice President Joe Biden.

What does Putin want?

In recasting its relationship with Nato, Russia has spoken of a "moment of truth" and highlighted three demands. First and foremost, it seeks a legally enforceable assurance that Nato would not expand further. "It is an essential necessity for us to ensure that Ukraine never, ever joins NATO," stated Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Russia has "nowhere else to flee to - do they think we'll just sit quietly by?" Mr. Putin has said.

In 1994, Russia agreed to respect the independence and sovereignty of independent Ukraine. However, President Putin authored a long paper last year identifying Russians and Ukrainians as "one nation," and now he claims that Soviet Russia produced modern Ukraine altogether. He considers the Soviet Union's demise in December 1991 to be the "disintegration of historical Russia."

President Putin has also said that if Ukraine joins Nato, the alliance will attempt to reclaim Crimea. His two main demands are that Nato not deploy "strike weapons near Russia's borders" and that member states that joined the alliance after 1997 remove their forces and military facilities. That includes Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Baltic States. In reality, Russia wants Nato to re-establish its borders as they were prior to 1997.

What has Nato said about this?

Nato is a defensive alliance that welcomes new members with open arms, and its 30 members are determined that this will not change. Ukraine's president has called for "clear, reasonable timetables" for joining Nato, but as Germany's chancellor has stated, this is unlikely to happen for a long time.