Russia Ukraine Invasion

REASONS FOR RUSSIA TO INVADE UKRAINE What was Putin's goal? The Russian leader's initial aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, ending for good its desire to join the Western defensive alliance NATO. He failed to capture the capital Kyiv and after a month of setbacks turned his ambitions to Ukraine's east and south. Launching the invasion on 24 February he told the Russian people his goal was to "demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine", to protect people subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by Ukraine's government. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke of freeing Ukraine from oppression. Ukraine's democratically elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said "the enemy has designated me as target number one; my family is target number two". Russia's leader refused to call it an invasion or a war, and made doing so a criminal offence. Instead it can only be termed a "special military operation". The...