Oh, the Minsk agreements! They were peace deals signed in 2014 and 2015 to stop the fighting in Donbas. They were supposed to give those regions special status within Ukraine. Spoiler: They didn’t work.
Both sides accused each other of cheating. Russia backed the separatists, Ukraine stalled on autonomy, and the ceasefire lines became a joke. The war quietly continued, just without the global headlines. So in a way, the "big war" was just the low-grade war that lost its chill.
Mapping Ukraine’s Surprise Invasion of Russia - The New York Times
My Favorite Conspiracy Theory (Sort of)
Every now and then, someone argues the war started on November 21, 2013, when Ukraine’s president, Yanukovych, suddenly refused a trade deal with the EU. That sparked the Euromaidan protests, which led to his ousting, which triggered Putin’s fear of losing Ukraine to the West. Causal chain, anyone?
It’s like saying the war started because of a single canceled dinner reservation. But listen—history loves a good domino effect, and that moment was one heck of a domino.
