ANALYSIS: Russia's military escalation at the Ukrainian border

As Russian troops amassed at the Ukrainian border earlier this year, the question of whether an invasion was imminent was left hanging in the air. Vladimir Trendafilovski explains how the situation unfolded.

In late March, totally unprovoked and without any prior notice or obvious reason, substantial numbers of Russian Armed Forces (VS RF) assets were mobilised and deployed to the border with Ukraine – both in mainland Russia and in Crimea. The latter is a territory of Ukraine annexed by the Russian Federation in March 2014.

Russian/Ukrainian tension 2021 [Russian MOD]
Taganrog air base, home of the 708th Military Transport Aviation Regiment, has 20 Il- 76MD and 10 An-2 transport aircraft based here. This image, taken on April 22, shows troops of the 98th Guards Airborne Division preparing to board Il-76s and deliver them over Opuk. Russian MOD

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