Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-ukraine-has-made-new-attempts-pierce-its-western-border-2024-09-17/
On September 17th, Russia reported it had fought off 5 new Ukrainian attacks on the Western borders, bringing the total number of attacks to 26 in the last 6 days. Ukrainian forces, on August 6th, had begun an attack on Russia , “the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two”, infiltrating the Western borders with thousands of soldiers, drones, and heavy weaponry. However, on September 10th Russia retaliated and forced the Ukrainian troops back towards the Western border, in the direction of the Snagost River. Since then, Ukraine has continuously attempted to breach Russian borders in the direction of Veseloe and Medvezhe, cities near the Russian/Ukrainian border. Ukraine’s invasion of the Western border has displayed Russia’s areas of weakness relating to their borders, though President Putin has stated that “the incursion has helped Russia to accelerate its own advance in eastern Ukraine”. Currently, Ukraine has been asking NATO for permission to fire Western missiles into the heart of Russia, putting the war in Ukraine in “its most dangerous phase to date”.
This current event is evidently the most recent development in a series of ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. At a total of 26 attacks in the last 6 days, Ukraine has undeniably been working to regain the ground that they had previously lost when Russia began pushing their troops back towards the Western border. If Ukraine continues its attacks on Russia and across its borders, Russia could potentially retaliate through the use of heavy weaponry in order to end the conflict and contain Ukrainian forces. Through Russia’s perspective, the war will be over when they have retaken all of Ukraine.
As stated earlier, I believe that Russia has the potential to use heavy weaponry against Ukraine to contain their forces and end the conflict indefinitely. Putin has already stated that he believes that the recent attacks will aid Russia in overwhelming Ukraine’s Eastern borders, giving them a strong advantage over Ukrainian troops. Ukraine has begun requesting permission from the strongest NATO members to fire Western made missiles into central Russia, and if they were approved it could have drastic effects on the Russian population. Furthermore, Russia has been directing Ukrainian troops back towards the Western border, leaving the Eastern border relatively accessible, as Putin has claimed.
This particular topic relates to the idea of multi-state nations, where the Russian nationality is dispersed across several sovereign states, including Ukraine. The main cause of this conflict has been attributed to Russia’s past rule over Ukraine, which ended in 1991 when the Soviet Union dissolved. As a result, Russia believes Ukraine is rightfully their territory, and the fact that Ukraine is classified as a multi-state nation with a significant amount of Russian influence within its borders only strengthens Russia’s claim. With approximately 20% of the Ukrainian population identifying as or speaking Russian, there is a considerable aspect of Ukrainian culture associated with Russia.