When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February, he wanted its neighbor to “de-nazify, de-militarize and its neutrality” in relation to its strategic conflict with the West.
After the invasion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to give up demanding his country to be a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and accepted the border of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of the Donbass as independent states.