Victoria Derbyshire explains in less than a minute why Russia has invaded Ukraine

Victoria Derbyshire has succinctly explained the Ukraine-Russia war in just one minute.

Posting on TikTok, the BBC journalist summed up how the crisis in the region has escalated since 2014 and explained Putin's motivations for announcing he was sending troops into the country early this morning.

With an image of a map of Ukraine behind her, Derbyshire pointed to the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and said:

"These two areas in eastern Ukraine broke away from Ukraine government control in 2014. Some who live here mostly speak Russian and frankly would rather be a part of Russia.

"Since 2014 these people known as separatists have been fighting the Ukraine army, thousands have died. Ukraine reckons Russia has been helping the separatists with money and weapons, Russia says it hasn't."

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She continued: "It was during this fighting that flight MH17 was shot down in easter Ukraine in 2017 killing everyone on board including 80 children. An international investigation showed the missile that hit it was brought in from Russia and fired by Russian-backed separatists."

Pointing again to Donetsk and Luhansk, she added: "Now President Putin has said for the first time he recognises these two bits of Ukraine as independent. He's sent his own soldiers in there, he says they're 'peacekeepers', Western leaders say that's nonsense, and that's why the British government says the Russian invasion of Ukraine has begun."

Indeed that is why. Explosions were reported in the outskirts of the cities of Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Mariupol and the capital after Putin claimed he was helping with the "denazification" of Ukraine with the attack, while also warning other countries not to respond. In a video message, he said: "If you do you will face consequences greater than any of you have faced in history”.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has introduced martial law on all territories of the state, while also urging people to stay at home where they can.

In response, Boris Johnson has promised: "a massive package of economic sanctions" to "hobble the Russian economy" though people have criticised his previous measures for not going far enough.

“This crisis is about the right of a free, sovereign independent European people to choose their own future, and that is a right that the UK will always defend,” he said.

He added: “Diplomatically, politically, economically – and eventually, militarily – this hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.”

In a second video, Derbyshire explained other options available to the UK, US, France and other Western allies in their response to Putin, like stopping Russians from sending their children to British schools, and explained that Germany had cancelled a new gas pipeline to the country to impact them.

"Remember President Putin is doing all this because he doesn't want Ukraine, his neighbour, to join the military club of 30 nations called NATO," she explained.

Pretty comprehensive if you ask us.

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