In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia, leading to a short war where Russia recognized the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, effectively taking control and occupying about 20% of Georgian territory, though not annexing the entire country. This conflict solidified Russian influence in the region, establishing military bases and creating long-term instability.
Today we mark sixteen years since Russia invaded the sovereign nation of Georgia and remember those killed, injured, or displaced by Russia's military campaign and illegal occupation.
In Moldova: Transnistria (1), since 1992. In Georgia: Abkhazia (2) and South Ossetia (3), since 2008. In Ukraine: Crimea (4) and parts of Luhansk Oblast (5) and Donetsk Oblast (6), since 2014; and parts of Zaporizhzhia Oblast (7) and Kherson Oblast (8), since 2022.
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it.
Russia established direct rule over Chechnya in May 2000, although Chechen militant resistance throughout the North Caucasus region continued to inflict many Russian casualties and challenge Russian political control over Chechnya for several years. Both sides carried out attacks against civilians.
Russia falsely accused Georgia of committing "genocide" and "aggression against South Ossetia"—and launched a full-scale land, air and sea invasion of Georgia, including its undisputed territory, on 8 August.
In 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The territory had been recognized within the Soviet Union as having "close ties" to the Ukrainian SSR, and the transfer commemorated the Union of Russia and Ukraine Tercentenary.
He confirmed that he had withheld aid from Ukraine, while offering contradicting reasons for doing so. Trump first claimed it was withheld because of corruption in Ukraine, but later said it was because other nations, including those in Europe, were not contributing enough aid to Ukraine.
The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian-backed armed groups who started a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military.
Most of the wars fought by Russia over the past four centuries (about 70%) have been conflicts in various frontier zones: four of the most significant ones being the Baltic states, Poland, the Black Sea region, and the Caucasus, and two less significant zones: Central Asia and the Far East.
During the whole of 2023, Russian forces captured an estimated net 487 km2 (188 sq mi) of Ukrainian territory. In 2024, Russian forces captured an estimated 4,168 km2 (1,609 sq mi) in both Ukraine and Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine had previously launched a cross-border offensive.
In 1957, an agreement was signed and later came into force which delimited the border between the Polish People's Republic (a Soviet satellite state at the time) and the Soviet Union. The region was added as a semi-exclave to the Russian SFSR; since 1946 it has been known as the Kaliningrad Oblast.
Currently 20% of Georgia's internationally recognized territory is under Russian military occupation.
Due to constitutional limitations on two consecutive presidential terms, Putin served as prime minister again from 2008 to 2012 under Dmitry Medvedev. He returned to the presidency in 2012, following an election marked by allegations of fraud and protests, and was reelected in 2018.
But the Russian economy was hit hard. The world financial crisis and the bursting of the asset bubble presented Russia with a double shock. Oil prices collapsed, which had a huge direct impact. And capital was withdrawn from Russia in the flight to safety.
Russian opposition to Ukrainian NATO membership has grown during the Russo-Ukrainian War. In late 2021, there was a massive Russian military buildup around Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry demanded that Ukraine be forbidden from ever joining NATO.
According to defence expert Malcolm Chalmers, at the beginning of 2025, the US provided 20% of all military equipment Ukraine was using, with 25% supplied by Europe and 55% produced by Ukraine. However, the 20% provided by the US "is the most lethal and important."
He fled to Russia, claiming to still be the head of state. In 2019, he was sentenced in absentia to a thirteen-year prison term for high treason by a Ukrainian court. In polling conducted since he left office, Yanukovych has ranked as one of the worst presidents in Ukrainian history.
In 2014, the peninsula was occupied by Russian forces and annexed by Russia, but most countries recognise Crimea as Ukrainian territory.
From 1922 until 1991, Ukraine was the informal name of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union (annexed by Germany as Reichskommissariat Ukraine during 1941–1944).
Putin espoused irredentist and imperialist views challenging Ukraine's legitimacy as a state, baselessly claimed that the Ukrainian government were neo-Nazis committing genocide against the Russian minority in the Donbas, and said that Russia's goal was to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine.
The United States is generally considered more powerful overall due to its vastly larger defense budget, superior military technology, and broader global reach, but Russia boasts significant strengths, particularly in nuclear warheads, ground forces (tanks), and a high percentage of GDP dedicated to defense, with some rankings placing it second militarily, though recent conflicts challenge its battlefield perception.
Japan won a convincing victory over Russia, becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power.