Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov
In spring 2021, Russia began building up troop strengths along its border with Ukraine. On 22 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered military forces to enter the breakaway Ukrainian republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, calling the act a "peacekeeping mission". Putin also officially recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as sovereign states, fully independent from the Ukrainian government. In the early hours of 24 February 2022, Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine, and launched a large-scale invasion of the country. Later in the day, the Ukrainian government announced that Russia had taken control of Chernobyl. Ukraine asked for immediate admission to the European Union on 28 February 2022 in response to the invasion.
Size: 2348px × 2380px
Location: Ukraine
Photo credit: © American Photo Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: aircraft, ambush, anti-aircraft, antiaircraft, armed, army, battle, crash, crashing, crime, criminal, death, defence, defense, explode, exploding, explosion, forces, helicopter, hit, minister, missile, oleksii, president, putin, reznikov, russia, russian, shoot, shootdown, strike, ukraine, ukrainian, vladiimir, war, zelensky
