If you ask the average person on the street when the war in Ukraine started, they’ll almost certainly point to February 24, 2022. They remember the terrifying news footage of tanks rolling toward Kyiv and the sirens wailing over Independence Square. But honestly? They’re off by about eight years.
To really answer when did russia first invade ukraine, you have to look back to a freezing February in 2014. It wasn't a "special military operation" with a televised declaration of war back then. It was quiet. It was confusing. It involved a lot of men in green uniforms who refused to say who they worked for.
Most people think of 2022 as the beginning. In reality, that was just the moment the mask finally slipped. The actual invasion began when the world was distracted by the closing ceremonies of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
The Secret Start: February 20, 2014
While the world was watching athletes pick up medals in Russia, the Kremlin was already moving pieces on a much darker chessboard. The official date recognized by the Ukrainian government for the start of the invasion is February 20, 2014.
This wasn't a sudden surge of 200,000 troops. It started with "Little Green Men."
You’ve probably heard that term. These were highly professional soldiers wearing Russian-style combat gear but with every single patch, flag, and name tag ripped off. They just... appeared. They started surrounding Ukrainian military bases in Crimea and taking over government buildings.
When journalists asked who they were, Vladimir Putin basically shrugged. He called them "local self-defense units" and famously joked that you could buy those uniforms at any local hunting shop. It was a lie, obviously. He later admitted they were Russian special forces (Spetsnaz) and GRU operatives.
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Why Crimea?
Russia has always been obsessed with Crimea because of the Port of Sevastopol. It’s their only warm-water naval base for the Black Sea Fleet. When the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted during the Maidan protests in Kyiv, Putin panicked. He didn't want a pro-Western Ukraine kicking his fleet out.
So, he took it. By the time the West even realized what was happening, the peninsula was effectively under Russian control.
The Donbas Escalation: April 2014
If Crimea was the "quiet" part of the invasion, the Donbas was the bloody part. By April 2014, the conflict shifted to eastern Ukraine. This is where things get messy and where a lot of people get confused.
Russia tried to frame this as a "civil war" between Russian-speaking locals and the "junta" in Kyiv. But the evidence tells a different story. Men like Igor Girkin (a former FSB officer) led the armed takeovers of cities like Sloviansk.
- April 12, 2014: Armed groups seize the police station in Sloviansk.
- August 2014: Ukraine was actually winning the fight against the "separatists" until Russia sent in regular army units (the 76th Guards Air Assault Division, for example) to stop them from losing.
- The MH17 Tragedy: In July 2014, a Buk missile system—provided by Russia—shot down a civilian airliner, killing 298 people.
By this point, the question of when did russia first invade ukraine should have been settled. It was a full-scale military intervention, just hidden behind proxies and propaganda.
The Eight-Year "Stalemate"
Between 2015 and 2022, the war didn't stop. It just moved slower. They called it a "frozen conflict," but that’s a bit of a slap in the face to the soldiers dying in trenches every week.
The Minsk Agreements were supposed to fix things. They didn't. Russia kept claiming it wasn't a party to the conflict, which made negotiating basically impossible. It was like trying to settle a divorce where one spouse pretends they don't exist.
During these years, the frontline in eastern Ukraine turned into a scene from World War I. Trenches, snipers, and occasional artillery duels. Over 14,000 people died before the 2022 invasion even started.
Why the 2022 Date Stuck
So, if the invasion started in 2014, why does everyone say 2022?
Basically, it's about scale. In 2014, Russia tried to keep "plausible deniability." They used proxies, mercenaries like the Wagner Group (before they were famous), and covert ops.
On February 24, 2022, they stopped pretending. They attacked from three sides—north, east, and south. They targeted the capital. They used cruise missiles on apartment buildings in cities like Lviv, hundreds of miles from the front.
It was the difference between a break-in and a home invasion. In 2014, they picked the lock and sat in the guest room. In 2022, they kicked down the front door with a sledgehammer.
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What Most People Get Wrong
One of the biggest misconceptions is that Ukraine was "threatening" Russia back in 2014. Honestly, the Ukrainian military was in shambles back then. They had almost no functional air force and their equipment was literal Soviet leftovers.
Russia didn't invade because they were scared of a military threat; they invaded because they were scared of a political one. A democratic, European-aligned Ukraine was a threat to the Kremlin’s sphere of influence.
Another weird myth is that the people of Crimea "voted" to join Russia. That referendum happened after Russian troops had already seized the government buildings at gunpoint. There were no independent observers. It was a sham, plain and simple.
Quick Timeline Recap:
- Feb 20, 2014: Russian troops begin moving into Crimea (The real start).
- Feb 27, 2014: "Little Green Men" seize the Crimean parliament.
- March 18, 2014: Russia formally "annexes" Crimea.
- April 2014: Fighting breaks out in the Donbas.
- Feb 24, 2022: Full-scale invasion begins.
Actionable Insights: How to Track the History Correctly
If you're trying to understand the nuances of this conflict, don't just look at the headlines from the last two years. You've got to dig into the legal and historical archives that predate the 2022 media blitz.
- Check International Rulings: Look at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). They ruled that Russia had "effective control" over parts of eastern Ukraine as early as May 2014.
- Follow Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT): Groups like Bellingcat have documented Russian military equipment (like the Buk that hit MH17) moving across the border long before the "full-scale" war.
- Read the 1994 Budapest Memorandum: This is the document where Russia actually promised to respect Ukraine's borders in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons. It's the ultimate proof that the 2014 invasion was a direct violation of international law.
Understanding that the war is over a decade old changes how you see the current situation. It’s not a sudden flare-up; it’s a long-term project of territorial expansion that started the moment Ukraine tried to choose its own future.
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To get a clearer picture of the current frontline dynamics, you should look into recent maps from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) or follow journalists who have been on the ground since the Maidan era. Comparing the 2014 "hybrid" tactics to the current "attrition" warfare reveals exactly how Russia's strategy has evolved—and where it hasn't.