On February 24 at 4 am CET, Russian troops have crossed into Ukraine at different sections of the border of Ukraine. Since then, there has been fighting in many parts of Ukraine. Russian troops are advancing in many parts of the country, but western military experts think that the advance is slower than Russia anticipated. Today, Russian troops entered the outskirts of Kiev, the Ukrainian capital.

After a slew of economic sanctions by European nations, including the exclusion of some Russians banks to the SWIFT system, it has been reported that [Putin put Russia’s nuclear deterrent on high alert on Sunday](https://www.reuters.com/world/india/war-with-ukraine-putin-puts-nuclear-deterrence-forces-alert-2022-02-27/).

# You can find constant updates in this [live thread](https://www.reddit.com/live/18hnzysb1elcs)

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**Donations:**

If you want to donate to Ukraine, check [this thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/t03lml/want_to_support_ukraine_heres_a_list_of_charities/) or [this fundraising account by the Ukrainian national bank](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/wiki/ukrainewar#wiki_donations).

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**Fleeing Ukraine**

We have set up a wiki page with the available information about the border situation for Ukraine [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/wiki/ukrainewar)

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[‘Dark day for Europe’: World leaders condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/24/leaders-of-us-uk-eu-and-canada-condemn-russian-invasion-on-ukraine.html)

**Background:**

*For a full background about the events that happened before the Russian-Ukrainian War, check [this post on r/OutOFTheLoop](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/sqhno0/megathread_whats_going_on_with_ukraine_and_russia/).

In early 2014, unmarked Russian troops invaded Crimea, which was officially annexed by Russia after holding a referendum that is considered invalid by the global community due to voter intimidation, irregularities during the voting process, vote manipulation and other issues. To this day, the annexation of Crimea has not been recognized internationally. Following the annexation, Western powers have implemented sanctions against various sectors of the Russian economy, which were met by Russian counter-sanctions against western goods. More or less simultaneously, pro-Russian separatists, which are assumed to be backed by Russia, started an uprising in the Donbass region . Ever since, the separatists have been engaged in a civil war with the regular Ukrainian forces, aided by a steady supply of Russian equipment, mercenaries and official Russian troops. During the conflict, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian BUK M1 missile over the conflict area which resulted in the death of 298 civilians. In 2014 and 2015, there were diplomatic attempts to curb the violence in the region through the ceasefire agreements in the protocol of Minsk and Minsk II, negotiated by Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in the so-called “Normandy Format”. In early 2021, Russia amassed roughly 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, which were withdrawn after a while and ongoing diplomatic criticism by other countries. Since the end of 2021, Russia has started deploying troops to the Ukrainian border again. Currently, there are roughly 115,000 Russian soldiers at the Ukrainian border plus another 30,000 Russian soldiers which are currently conducting a joint exercise with Belarusian troops near the northern Ukrainian border. Western military experts estimate that Russia would need roughly 150,000 Troops to overwhelm the Ukrainian army and successfully annex most of Ukraine, including Kiev. After a few days of uncertainty, Russia decided to recognize the independence of the two breakaway regions and moved troops into the area.

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**Rule changes effective immediately:**

Since we expect a Russian disinformation campaign to go along with this invasion, we have decided to implement a set of rules to combat the spread of misinformation as part of a hybrid warfare campaign.

* No unverified reports of any kind in the comments. We will remove videos of any kind unless they are verified by reputable outlets. This also affects videos published by Ukrainian and Russian government sources.
* Absolutely no justification of this invasion.
* No gore
* No calls for violence against *anyone*. Calling for the killing of invading troops or leaders is allowed. The limits of international law apply.
* No hatred against any group, including the populations of the combatants

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**Current Posting Rules:**

Given that the initial wave of posts about the issue is over, we have decided to relax the rules on allowing posts on the situation a bit.

Instead of fixing which kind of posts will be allowed, we will now move to a list of posts that are not allowed:

* Picture/Video posts about the war, about support/opposition protests in other countries and similar
* Self-Posts (text posts)
* Status reports about the war unless they have major implications (e.g. “City X still holding would” would not be allowed, “Russia takes major city” would be allowed. “Major attack on kiev repelled” would also be allowed.)
* The mere announcement of a diplomatic stance by a country (e.g. “Country changes its mind on SWIFT sanctions” would not be allowed, “SWIFT sanctions enacted” would be allowed)

If you have any questions, [click here to contact the mods of r/europe](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/europe).

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# Please obey the request of the Ukrainian government to [refrain from sharing info about Ukrainian troop movements](https://i.redd.it/5atggucaurj81.jpg)

31 comments

  1. The Russian Central Bank hiking interest rates and blocking trades on Moscow exchange is the equivalent of putting a bandaid on a hemorrhaging leg. Offshore markets have the ruble crashing 25% to the dollar.

  2. I am told that so far the Russians have not used their best airplanes to attack Ukraine, is that correct? Wikipedia mentions that a Su-25 was shot down/operator did something wrong, but Russia used Su-34 jets in Syria years ago.

  3. You can read translated Russian military communications on justpade (twitch). Google it. Interesting stuff.

    Or just listen to it yourself if you know Russian (7933.00 khz)

  4. Hello everyone, I am Italian.
    A Ukrainian friend of mine, some years ago returned to his country to join the army.
    Since the war started, I don’t know anything about him anymore. I only know that a few days before he was patrolling the border with Belarus.
    How can I get information about him? At least know if he is still alive.
    Thank you all

  7. Sanctions against Russia are the biggest possible mistake the west could make only second to nuclear warfare. Devaluating the currency forces the country into a conversion to totalitarian communism, rendering the innocent civilians dependent on the state. It wouldn’t be a bad idea especially if you take in consideration how f.e. Hitler had built his military, however that doesn’t apply to Russia because Russia is a country rich with natural resources, capable of expanding its military without the help of third parties.

    ​

    ​

    Sanctions hurt the people but benefit the government.

  9. I think Ukraine’s gonna have the upper hand in negotiations since they’ve given the Russian army such hell. Putin’s only advantage is his nuclear bombs.

  10. A Swedish newspaper says that there will be more sanctions if Russia doesn’t leave Ukraine. We could make the following depends:

    1. If Russia leaves but keeps Crimea and Donbass, the current sanctions stay but the West won’t escalate further.
    2. If Russia returns the stolen land and also accepts NATO membership for Ukraine, all sanctions can be removed.
    3. If Russia stays in Ukraine, the West _will_ escalate.

  12. Why is Reddit so passive in regards of r/russia? I’ve seen them banning subreddits for mild trump bullshit but it seems that russian propaganda is ok for some reason.

  14. Duping my message from yesterday, just in case more people will find it useful:

    Hi, I am from Russia and believe that more sanctions mean that Putin will struggle with economy and less people will go to war, sooner some assassin will kill this shithead of a dictator. I like that for us. One cool IT person Mikhail Klimarev from telegram channel zatelekom invent some sanctions that people in Russia and outside can create themselves by writing to corporations:

    1.Disable Google Pay as it was in Crimea

    2.Disable all Apple services. Our oligarchs and corrupt ministers sure love their Iphone 13 Pro Max 1Tb

    3.Block Office-356 and Azure

    4.Block updates for Cisco/Juniper

    Also:Jira/Atlassian, GitHub, GitLab, Stackoverflow and all linux repositories

  17. Watching Russian media is wild; like yes, there’s propaganda on both sides but the hosts and commentators just drank all the koolaid. Talking about how Germany returned to fascism, how to split up Ukraine, executing all the ‘Nazi’ men no trial. Not one person to ask even a slightly truthful question, hard to watch more than a few minutes it’s so sickening. Truly hope their system is overthrown and truth wins, it hurts to see them fooling themselves into killing their brethren.

  21. Dominique Reynié : “On a retrouvé des financements de Gazprom en particulier dans des ONG écologistes qui ont fourni des ministres à certains pays d’Europe comme la Belgique et qui ensuite sont embarqués dans une sorte de retour d’ascenseur en défendant la sortie du nucléaire”

    Quick translation: We found Gazprom funding, in particular in environmental NGOs which provided ministers to certain European countries such as Belgium and which then embarked on a sort of return trip by defending the exit from nuclear.

    https://twitter.com/KaplanBen_Fr/status/1497663247071203333

    Again, the enemy trying to fund useful idiots.

  22. Honestly, what Putin and the Russian government are doing is so wrong and unneeded. But anyone calling Zelensky a hero has to be an idiot, there’s no other explanation I can use. The guy is literally using Palestinian battle tactics.

  24. Are there any good youtubers who round up news / information about the conflict once a day or something? I’m trying to stay updated on events, but it can be a bit tough with how much is happening and the fact that I can’t just do that all the time. It would be really helpful to have a daily round-up for anything I might have missed.

  25. Perhaps the wrong sub to ask this, but what happens if Putin decides to cut gas export to Europe? I assume prices are gonna get higher, but can other resources/importing from other nations compensate for the loss? How bad would it be? Would stopping the gas export hurt Russia more than Europe?

    Not trying to imply that standing up to Putins invasion is not worth the risk.

  27. i have one more question- once the conflict would be over, are the sanctions cancelled? or will they be applied for longer time? also regarding the no-fly zone for example

  28. Guess the Ruble is all over the place? Icelandic news reported a 30% drop but I just saw Al-jazeera claiming a 40% drop?

  29. The Lower House of Dutch parliament is breaking recess and convening to debate events in Ukraine today. Proceedings are expected to start ~ 11AM local time and last the rest of the day. Parliament and Cabinet had initially hoped to convene earlier, but rapid developments and international consultation forced rescheduling to today. Prime Minister Rutte, and Ministers Ollongren (Defence) and Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) will be present. Rutte will deliver a statement from the Cabinet on ‘our current position and how we will proceed’. NOS expects that the debat will cover the efficacy of sanctions against Russia, and possibly the Netherlands’ defence expenditures. For Dutch people here: you’ll be able to follow it live on NPO politiek if you want, but I expect NOS and other media will do running summaries.

    Source: [NOS liveblog](https://nos.nl/collectie/13888/liveblog/2419177-delegaties-naar-grensstreek-russen-nog-op-30-km-van-kiev-gevechten-om-charkov-en-tsjernigov)

  31. I heard there was 60 trillion in Russian deposits available to be donated, any idea where I can sign up to receiving this free money?

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