The Wagner Group didn’t start into operations in the Ukraine until 2014. They were originally started in 2013 and known as a unit of special forces of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade. The Ukraine fired a shot across the Russian government’s bow in 1991 when they annexed themselves from Russia as the Soviets disbanded. And that’s when the real “war,” at least of words started prior to the weapons in 2014 being used.
The basis for post-Soviet relations were set by the Belovezh Accords between the new Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk and Russia’s president Boris Yeltsin, alongside the Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich. While the leaders agreed to formally dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians wanted to create new suparanational structures to replace it, to the opposition of the Ukrainians. While this led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, it did not result in any legally binding commitments.
An Armed Forces of independent Ukraine were soon established: Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak said that this was “a time bomb under the future of all mankind” while political scientist John Mearsheimer advocated a nuclear-armed Ukraine to maintain peace and prevent Russia from moving to reconquer it.
So this “war” as we know it between Russia and the Ukraine actually started when the Ukrainees founded the Pro-independence People’s Movement of Ukraine in 1989 and the subsequent walking away from the new Russian government in place in 1991.
wy69
Another Russian neo-imperialistic rant. When the Soviet Union dissolved Russia agreed to recognize Ukrainian independence and sovereignty. Russia reaffirmed this when it signed the Budapest memorandums. The Russo-Ukrainian War began in 2014 when Putin reneged on these agreements.
“ when they annexed themselves from Russia as the Soviets disbanded. ”
That’s some mighty fine fiction you are writing.