This February marked four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As the largest and deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II enters its fifth year, what many in the West perceive as a strategic error by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is still seen by Moscow as ultimately successful, though costly. Russian leadership believes the war will end soon and on their terms. With rhetoric on both sides painting completely different pictures, one must ask: what is the truth?
One of the defining features of the rhetoric surrounding the Russia-Ukraine war is the vast discrepancy in what Western media sees as Russia’s reasons for invading compared to reality. The former tends to propagate the notion that Russia’s invasion is simply an act of imperialism; it is often asserted that Russia seeks to eventually expand their territory westward into Europe, perhaps even beyond the limits of Ukraine into other former Eastern-bloc countries. Many have even gone so far as to claim Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects a desire to return to Soviet-era borders. This is a simply preposterous, immaterial recycling of Cold War-era propaganda designed to bolster support for Western nations’ military and economic interests among their respective populaces.
Russian motivations behind the invasion are, in fact, much more clear and straightforward. Time and time again, Moscow has made clear in their actions that the invasion essentially amounts to a resistance against NATO expansion toward Russian borders, aimed at economically and militarily isolating the nation.
Another facet of the rhetoric surrounding the war which both the West and Moscow seem to willfully ignore is that Western hostility towards Russia benefits both parties. Such hostility pads the wallets of Western lobbyists and the military-industrial complex while simultaneously giving the Russian government precedent to eliminate any pro-Western, liberal opposition within their country, further securing hegemony for the incumbent United Russia party.
A third factor contributing to the smoke and mirrors surrounding the war can be found in Ukrainian leadership’s sudden change of heart regarding the country’s diplomatic relations with Russia in 2019-2021. At the time, newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially sought rapprochement with their neighbor, even leading to a ceasefire agreement in the Donbas region where a Russian-separatist conflict had been taking place since 2014.
Suddenly, Zelenskyy faced a potential coup over what was seen as surrender. Western lobbyists and politicians fanned the flames of aggression, convincing the leader of the much smaller, less powerful nation that they could, in fact, defeat Russia militarily. At the same time that President Joe Biden was inaugurated into the White House, Ukraine’s policy regarding Russia became much more aggressive, with the country seeking membership in NATO, which simultaneously increased their air patrols, surveillance and naval exercises near the Russian border. Ostensibly aimed at deterring Russian aggression, NATO’s actions preceding the Russia-Ukraine war instead goaded Russia into invading on grounds of national security concerns.
When Putin began deploying troops to the Ukrainian border in 2021 to counter NATO presence, Ukraine’s Western handlers applied more pressure rather than backing down. Instead of preventing the war through diplomatic means, the West led Ukraine blindly into catastrophe, using the nation and its people as a proxy against their adversary.
What followed was a bloody war marked by continuously failed peace talks and countless casualties on both sides. Over the next two years, Western outlets spoke of Russia’s imminent economic and governmental collapse; such a collapse never came, of course. In fact, by 2025, the Russian ruble was the world’s best performing currency despite the war and sanctions that came along with it. In reality, it was, as usual, the smaller Ukraine which suffered the consequences of war. Four years later, Ukraine is economically devastated and facing significant rural depopulation, with millions fleeing conflict and many thousands killed or maimed in battle.
As the war enters its fifth year, Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine compared to just 7% prior to the 2022 invasion. If history is any indication, Western lobbyists and politicians will continue to sabotage peace talks between the Eastern European neighbors. In the end, as always, it will be the working classes of Ukraine and Russia which suffer, while Western economic interests are placed above human life. One can only hope that Ukrainians will begin to see their Western handlers for the warmongers they are.
asmajla1@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @IranToday_24, X