Decoding the language around Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

The breakaway territories have been the site of a low-intensity war since 2014, when Russian-backed rebels seized government buildings across the region. The eight-year conflict has left more than 14,000 people dead.

Kyiv and the West insist that the self-declared republics are part of Ukraine, although the Ukrainian government asserts that the two regions are, in effect, Russian-occupied, and refuses to talk directly with either the DPR or LPR.

On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the separatist territories, and ordered his troops into the region on what the Kremlin called a “peacekeeping” operation.

The move was widely seen by the West as the opening salvo of a larger military operation targeting Ukraine. Three days later, Russian forces invaded the country.

Shelling

Russia has relied heavily on shelling key Ukrainian cities and towns as it seeks to seize control of locations in the country.

Shelling refers to artillery fire from large guns, and has been used against administrative and residential buildings. Dozens of deaths as a result of Russian shelling have been reported by Ukrainian emergency services.

United Nations officials say more than 500 civilians have died since the invasion, from all causes including air strikes and shelling — though they caution that the true number is likely to be far higher.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian forces of shelling indiscriminately since the invasion began. In a message on his Facebook page last Friday, he said Russian troops have been “shelling our people, our children, residential neighborhoods, churches, schools, destroying everything that provides a normal life, human life.”

‘Humanitarian corridors’

Humanitarian corridors are demilitarized pathways out of or into fighting zones during a war, which allow people to flee conflict or allow aid to be brought in. They are intended to reduce civilian casualties.

Ukraine has called on global leaders to pressure Putin to open such corridors and “prevent a large scale humanitarian catastrophe” in Ukrainian cities.

But the “humanitarian corridors” being discussed by Russian officials in the Ukraine conflict largely do not meet this description. Ukrainian officials rejected one unilateral Kremlin proposal for evacuation corridors for civilians as an unacceptable non-starter — since most of the routes lead to Russia or its staunch ally Belarus, and would require people to travel through active areas of fighting.

In recent days, hopes for opening up safe evacuation corridors for civilians out of a number of cities have been repeatedly dashed, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking escape routes.

“Evacuation through humanitarian corridors is only possible when the ceasefire regime is fully upheld. The Ukrainian side is ready for that,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

NATO

The group was created in 1949, as the Cold War escalated. Its original purpose was to protect the West from the threat posed by the Soviet Union.

Since the end of the Cold War, many former Soviet nations have joined NATO, to the frustration of Putin, who sees it as a threat. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but has long hoped to join the alliance — something Russia vehemently opposes.

Since Ukraine is not part of NATO, the alliance is not compelled to protect the country in the same way it would if a NATO member nation was attacked; indeed, countries from the alliance have said they have no intention of sending their troops into Ukraine. But many of Ukraine’s neighbors are members, and if a Russian attack extended into one of those countries, Article 5 could trigger direct involvement from the US and other NATO members.

No-fly zone

A no-fly zone is an area where certain aircraft cannot fly for any number of reasons. In the context of this invasion, it would likely mean a zone where Russian planes are not allowed to fly, in order to prevent them from carrying out airstrikes on Ukraine.

If it imposed a no-fly zone over Ukraine, NATO would likely have to step in to enforce it, at the risk of escalating the conflict.

Javelins and Stingers

The US and other Western nations have been sending key military equipment to Ukraine to assist in its fight against Russia. These include portable anti-aircraft missiles known as Stingers, which are launched by soldiers on the ground to bring down aircraft flying overhead. They allow troops on foot to engage in the battle for Ukraine’s skies.

Portable anti-tank weapons, including US-made Javelin missiles, are also being sent to Ukrainian forces. Also launched by ground troops, these target heavy-duty military vehicles including tanks, and work to slow and disrupt Russian military convoys as they move towards key locations.

Cluster and ‘vacuum’ bombs

US President Joe Biden’s envoy to the United Nations has separately accused Russia of preparing to use banned weapons, including “cluster munitions and vacuum bombs,” in Ukraine.

“Vacuum bombs,” or thermobaric weapons, suck in the oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a powerful explosion and a large pressure wave that can have enormous destructive effects.

A CNN team spotted a Russian thermobaric multiple rockets launcher near the border with Ukraine in late February.

War crimes

The Geneva Convention, signed in 1949 in the wake of World War II, establishes global standards that must be observed during warfare.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, can prosecute grave breaches of those standards; it has specific definitions for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

The US Embassy in Kyiv alleged on Friday that Russia had committed a war crime by attacking the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine — the largest in Europe. “It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant,” the embassy said on its official Twitter feed. “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further.”

Sanctions

Sanctions are economic penalties applied by one country against another, or against specific companies or people. Western nations have imposed a stream of tough sanctions on Russia that have stunned its economy since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Key individuals linked to the Kremlin have also been targeted, with Western nations moving to seize their properties or assets.

SWIFT

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication was founded in 1973, replacing the telex, and is now used by more than 11,000 financial institutions to send secure messages and payment orders.

SWIFT doesn’t move money around the world. What it does is allow banks to send each other instructions on how to transfer funds across borders. With no globally accepted alternative, it is essential plumbing for global finance.

Disconnecting an entire country from SWIFT is considered the nuclear option of economic sanctions.