RT is publishing video testimonies from the battlefield showing how the Russia-Ukraine conflict is unfolding. Footage is being filmed by war correspondents, the Russian Ministry of Defense or soldiers themselves. Some of the clips show Western hardware supplied to Kiev being taken out by Russian forces.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.” Russia also cited NATO’s military cooperation with Ukraine as one of the root causes of the current conflict. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
The People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, joined Russia as a result of referendums in autumn 2022. Crimea did the same in 2014, following a Western-backed coup in Kiev.
Since late 2022, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been promoting a ‘peace formula’ that calls for Russia to withdraw from all territories claimed by Kiev and pay reparations, and for the formation of a war crimes tribunal. Russian officials call Zelensky’s plan unrealistic, while saying Moscow is ready for a diplomatic solution.