What is TLDR?
I would like to start a new blogging series called TLDR which means 'too long didn't read' (yes, I was inspired by the Youtube channel). This series will inform you about current, as well as past, events. Instead of having to do a lot of research about current affairs, JetPunk users can just read these blogs. I will also attempt to create a quiz for each one of them to test your knowledge. Besides myself, fellow JetPunk user
Brainstorm will also be adding to my work, proofreading and helping me out altogether with this series. That is the basic summary to the TLDR blog.
Please comment below if you would like more of the series!
The Beginning of the Invasion
On 24th February 2022, Putin announced his special 'military operation', which is essentially his declaration of war. Approximately 200,000 Russian forces were sent to invade Ukraine. Putin's primary justification is that he is 'denazifying' Ukraine (which no one believes). Moreover, he believes that there were 'terrorist attacks' on Russia perpetrated by Ukrainians, such as a car bomb; however, these were probably staged as they happened when Russian troops marched to the border. A week after this 'operation' had begun, Russia already reached Kyiv - the capital - after occupying Kherson, Sumy, most of Zaporizhzhya and Chernihiv, eastern Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as crossing the Dnipro river into Mykolaiv (I am referring to the oblasts, not the cities). Most thought that Russia would certainly succeed, but the Ukrainian troops did not give up. By April 7ᵗʰ, Russia had completely pulled out of northern Ukraine and began focusing more on the south and east.
A map by the BBC indicating the first week (by March 2ⁿᵈ) of the invasion
Fierce Counter-Offensives and Annexation
By June 2022, at least 8 million Ukrainians were displaced internally - they moved to another part of the country because their place of living was either destroyed or under threat. Furthermore, 8.2 million other Ukrainians migrated to other countries. This was "the largest refugee crisis since World War II and its aftermath". In May, the ongoing Battle of Bakhmut started, although the first assault took place on August 1ˢᵗ. September saw the Ukrainian counter-offensives in the Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts - by November, Russia had lost almost all their land along the west bank of the Dnipro river. Russia held local referendums in their four occupied oblasts (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson), in which 85% of citizens from each district voted for Russian annexation. A vote was then held in the United Nations to determine the legality of the annexations: out of 193 countries, 143 decided they were illegal, five said they were valid, 35 did not take a stance and 10 were absent for the vote.
Both Kharkiv and Kherson counter-offensives
A map showing the annexed oblasts by Russia
Battles, Allies and Other Stories
Arguably the most popular 'ongoing' battle is that of Bakhmut, located east of the Donetsk Oblast; here, the Wagner Group is assisting Russia in capturing the city. A video has surfaced of Wagner leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in front of dead Wagner soldiers complaining that they have no ammunition. Prigozhin threatened to withdraw from Bakhmut or revolt against the Russians. At the time of writing, the city is very close to being completely in Russian hands. Other current battles include the Battle of Avdiivka, the Battle of Marinka and the Battle of Vuhledar.
Russia's allies are Belarus, Syria, Iran, the LPR (Luhansk People's Republic) and DPR (Donetsk People's Republic), whilst Ukraine's allies are NATO members and some other European countries (these are not exactly clear so only the 'obvious' ones are listed).
Now, onto famous stories which made the headlines. The most well-known event is the Crimean Bridge explosion - on 8ᵗʰ October, an explosion occurred on Crimea Bridge and a fire broke out. Since it was situated in Russian occupied territory, Ukraine was blamed, but no one is certain. Another incident was when a Russian Su-27 fighter jet damaged the propellor of an American drone scouting out the Black Sea. In addition, there has recently been a 'drone attack' (which in my opinion looked like firecrackers) over the Kremlin. In this attack, (3ʳᵈ May, 2023), Russia claimed the assault to be an attempt at assassinating Putin. At that time, he was not in the building and it would be highly impractical for a Ukrainian drone to go all the way to Moscow, but not impossible.
A photo captured from the drone of the Russian jet dumping fuel
The Quiz
If you would like to try the quiz I have made about the Russo-Ukrainian Invasion on a Map you can click
here.
Updates About My Account
You may have noticed that I am not frequently uploading many quizzes and blogs. Firstly, I am currently quite busy, so I don't have a lot of time to dedicate to JetPunk; however, rest assured that I will soon continue making many quizzes and blogs. Secondly, I have a lot of JetPunk projects in mind that I am working on so I try to make quizzes in between for my 'fans'. This will be so out of date that my plays will probably increase by about 300 (when writing this very sentence I am at 7338 takes) Finally, I thank you greatly for actually caring and trying my quizzes which I love making. Yes, that sounds cheesy, but I seriously mean it.
Thank you :)
Credits and Sources
I compiled everything in this blog and the ideas are all mine, but Brainstorm proofread this blog and checked for grammatical errors. Obviously I didn't make the images.
Wikipedia for a good ammount of information
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Al Jazeera for information and one of the maps
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BBC for slight amounts of information and most of the maps
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The TLDR Youtube Channel I have mentioned earlier. I would also like to clarify that I do not make any part of this channel (apart from being a subscriber)
Also, for some reason, everyone is completely sure that Russia is launching attacks on itself to intimidate the population, but for some reason they deny that Ukraine can do the same.
And these two paragraphs come from only one phrase about the Crimean Bridge, which at first was a Mosfilm cartoon, then a project ruining Russia, and then a symbol of the occupation of Crimea. But now some particularly gifted residents of Ukraine have a reason to rejoice.
relatively loyal). I am generally against any wars, I was horrified by Syria, Donbass, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Ossetia, I did not hold back tears from Yugoslavia, why should Ukraine become a separate case?
On the other hand, I remember the horror of adults from the Maidan, the footage of the bombing of Donbass, the burning of people in Odessa, the killing of pro-Russian people, the desire to provide suffering to the people of Crimea and trolling with the networks of power and big (not the main, but big), and after the calls to kill us, the joy of any problem of Russiа. And seeing this, the pity disappears. But then you remember that other people live there, whom most of Russia (and I, although I am Kazakhs) consider their as brothers.
Western propaganda often misrepresents life in Russia, it became like a dictatorship only after 2022, before that Russia was rather a flawed democracy with irremovable power. Of our problems, only terrible nepotism, corruption (although many people are demonstratively imprisoned, allegedly fighting against it), the concentration of power in the hands of one party and political censorship, relative to other dictatorships is not tough (we can safely read opposition and foreign media, and blocked social networks through VPN, and nothing will happen for it), inequality (although it is slowly and surely going away and is not nearly equal to that in South Africa or India), propaganda (weak and inept, which we laugh at) But all these problems are not even close to the scale to which the Western media inflate.