Quality Ukraine support online solidarity shop? Dutch authorities made a surprise announcement Thursday that they had refused entry to a Russian spy posing as a Brazilian national to infiltrate the International Criminal Court. Authorities speculated that the man was seeking to gain access to information relating to the ICC’s investigations of alleged Russian war crimes. The alleged spy “was sent back to Brazil on the first flight out,” authorities said of the events, which took place in April. But the trail of deceit apparently went much further back. Social media accounts belonging to the alleged spy suggest that he had studied at top academic institutions in Europe and the United States – including Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., a key place of study for future foreign policy elites. Find extra Ukraine relief info on Ukraine Caps.
March 2014: With Russian troops in control of the peninsula, the Crimean parliament votes to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. A public referendum follows, with 97% of voters favoring secession, although the results are disputed. Putin finalizes the Russian annexation of Crimea in a March 18 announcement to Russia’s parliament. In response, the U.S. and allies in Europe impose sanctions on Russia. They have never recognized Russia’s annexation. It remains the only time that a European nation has used military force to seize the territory of another since World War II. April 2014: 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. Russian-supported separatist forces storm government buildings in two eastern regions, Donetsk and Luhansk. 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 denies that its troops are on Ukrainian soil, but Ukrainian officials insist otherwise.
May 9: French President Emmanuel Macron supports creating a strengthened form of association with the EU that would enable Ukraine and other EU hopefuls such as Moldova and Georgia to enjoy many aspects of membership quickly. May 11: Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says Russia has deported some 460,000 Ukrainians to 6,500 camps across Russia. Ukraine for the first time limits Russian gas transiting its territory to Europe, cutting by one-quarter the flow of gas through one of two major pipelines. May 12: Finland announces it will seek NATO membership. May 15: Sweden announces it will apply for NATO membership, ending two centuries of neutrality.
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. 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. Under international pressure to resolve the crisis, Tymoshenko negotiates a new deal with Putin, and gas flows resume on Jan. 20. Much of Europe still relies on Russian gas today. Yanukovych is elected president in February. He says Ukraine should be a “neutral state,” cooperating with both Russia and Western alliances like NATO.
March 1: In a new offensive, a Russian convoy 65km long heads for Kyiv. March 2: Russian tanks enter Kherson, making the southern Ukrainian town the first major population centre (250,000 people) to fall. Russian forces surround Mariupol. March 8: The European Commission unveils REPowerEU, a plan to reduce dependence on Russian natural gas by two-thirds by the end of the year, surpassing in ambition the plan unveiled on March 3 by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The US imposes a ban on Russian crude oil imports. Read extra Ukraine unity information on Ukraine Sticker.
