3 years of war: Experts weigh in on the challenges of finding peace in Ukraine
CBC Kids News, CBC Kids News, February 26, 2025
⭐️HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW⭐️
- It’s been 3 years since the war between Ukraine and Russia began.
- Tens of thousands have died and Ukraine has lost a lot of territory.
- Russia says it won’t agree to peace unless it can keep the Ukrainian territory it has captured, but many countries think that giving Russian President Vladimir Putin what he wants could encourage him to attack other countries.
- The U.S. has traditionally supported Ukraine, but now President Donald Trump is echoing Russia’s positions.
- Read on to find out more about why this war continues.⬇️⬇️⬇️
Feb. 24 marked three years since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Since then, tens of thousands of people on both sides have been killed, parts of Ukraine have been destroyed, millions have fled the country and both countries have suffered great economic losses.
Now, U.S. President Donald Trump has been signalling he may be more inclined to support the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin than that of Ukraine.
Experts say Trump’s actions could undermine efforts by Ukraine’s allies to hold Russia accountable under international law, but they’re stepping up to support Ukraine despite him.
First, some history behind the war
This conflict has to do with the close history between Ukraine and Russia.
Ukraine and Russia — who share a large border — were once part of the same country called the Soviet Union.
But when the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Russia, Ukraine and many other republics became their own independent countries.
New alliances were formed.
Many of those countries joined a security alliance called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which includes countries like Canada and the U.S, among others.
For years now, Ukraine has also expressed interest in joining NATO for protection.
But experts say Putin sees the continued growth of NATO as a threat to Russian influence in eastern Europe, including the possibility of neighbouring Ukraine joining the alliance.
Although Putin has expressed his own reasons for invading Ukraine, experts say that the threat of NATO is a primary factor.
Indeed, upon announcing his invasion of Ukraine, Putin accused NATO of threatening “[Russia’s] historic future as a nation.”
The other reason has to do with land.
Some in Russia, including Putin, continue to view Ukraine as a historical part of Russia and have tried to justify the invasion as an attempt to liberate areas like Donetsk and Luhansk, which Putin has claimed are independent from Ukraine.
Putin’s demands for peace
According to Marta Dyczok, an associate professor of history and political science at Western University in London, Ontario, Russia has several key demands for peace.
Russia wants to keep all of the Ukrainian territory it has seized, to force people in those areas to adopt the Russian identity and language, and for Ukraine to abandon its goal of joining NATO.
Ukraine, on the other hand, wants Russia to give back all of the territory it has occupied, and for Russia to pay to rebuild the parts of Ukraine that have been destroyed in the fighting.
It also wants the promise of security: If Ukraine can’t join NATO, it wants its allies to guarantee they will protect Ukraine from future Russian attacks — for example, by sending in European peacekeepers.
The problem with Putin’s demands and why the war rages on
Because the two sides are so far apart in their goals, peace feels far off.
Russia isn’t actually interested in compromise, said Dyczok.
“They’re saying they want to keep the territory they’ve taken. That’s not a negotiation, it’s an ultimatum,” she said.
She said the problem with that demand — and why Canada, the United States, and many European countries have supported Ukraine through the war — is that invading other countries in the first place violates long-standing international laws that Russia has committed to obey.
Those laws are part of the UN Charter signed by many countries just after the Second World War, which we have relied upon to maintain global peace.
Giving Russia Ukrainian territory would suggest that those laws don’t matter anymore.
“If you allow a bully to get away with something, they’ll continue to behave that way,” said Dyczok.
“European countries have made it very clear that they want to stop Russian aggression because they’re not far from Russia. They’d be next, and they know it.”
This idea was echoed at a summit earlier this week in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, where Ukraine’s allies vowed to keep providing billions of dollars of aid to Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke to why it’s important to hold Russia accountable for breaking international law.
Dictators around the world are “watching very carefully” to see if Putin faces any consequences for invading his neighbour, she said — and if he doesn’t, they might feel empowered to do the same thing.
Trump siding with Putin further undermines UN charter
According to Lisa Sundstrom, a political science professor from the University of British Columbia, Trump has signalled he is no longer interested in the U.S. joining the other allies of Ukraine in holding Russia accountable.
In a call on Feb. 12, Trump and Putin agreed to work together to end the war, marking the first time in three years that the United States had engaged with the Russian leader.
Following the call, Trump told reporters he thought Ukraine's goal to join NATO was impractical and that getting its territory back from Russia would be unrealistic — echoing Russia’s position.
On Feb. 18, the U.S. began peace talks with Russia at a summit in Saudi Arabia, without inviting Ukraine or other European countries to participate.
The same week, Trump also called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and said Ukraine was responsible for the war — claims both experts we talked to said were untrue and “ridiculous.”
Sundstrom said these actions are all a part of the promise Trump made during his election campaign to swiftly end the war in Ukraine.
She said Trump recognizes that the only path to a quick deal is one that Russia can get on board with, and it’s better for him politically if he paints Ukraine in a bad light.
“Trump is trying to justify to Americans why he is taking this approach to work with the Russians and not with Ukrainians," said Sundstrom.
Dyczok shared the same view.
“Trump wants to step in and say, ‘I made peace, I’m so great, I forced them to surrender by cutting off their aid,’” she said.
Trump may also pull back aid for Ukraine
Throughout the war, the United States has provided more financial support to Ukraine than any other ally, according to monitoring from a German research institute called the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
However, since Trump’s re-election, he has signalled in several ways that the U.S. may pull back its funding.
On Feb. 3, for example, Trump pressed Ukraine to trade access to its rare and valuable minerals — such as graphite and lithium — in exchange for continued U.S. support.
According to Sundstrom, Ukraine would be in a tough position without the U.S.
“They can’t win the war on their own, and probably not without the United States,” she said.
Dyczok, however, said Ukraine’s fate isn’t sealed.
Although Ukraine was excluded from the recent U.S.-Russia talks, she said it’s Ukrainian territory that is being discussed, so there won’t be a deal without Ukraine at the table.
She also said people have repeatedly underestimated the ability of Ukrainians to fight and persist.
“I think that Ukrainians have made it very clear that they do not intend to surrender and will continue fighting. And the question is who will support them now,” said Dyczok.
Canada and other European countries are stepping up to support Ukraine, even without the United States, she said.
“All of these other countries are choosing to stand up for democracy, even if Trump is not,” she said.
