Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Ishaan Tharoor: How Ukraine became Ukraine
Servicemen prepqre to fix on a truck an Ukrainian national flag (R) and a flag bearing the coat of arms of the Zaporozhye oblast (region), the flag of their military unit, on a truck as a column of Ukrainian forces left Debaltseve for Artemivsk.
For the past year, Ukraine has been plunged into chaos. Mass protests against pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych led to his ouster in February 2014. That sparked a spiraling crisis: a fledgling interim government in Kyiv looked on as Russia first seized and then annexed the territory of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula. A pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, believed to have direct backing from Moscow, has led to the deaths of thousands since.
