Besplatna lekcija engleskog jezika bavi se aktuelnim političkim temama i obrađuje pojmove iz oblasti diplomatije, međunarodnih odnosa, vojnih aktivnosti, finansijske krize, međunarodnih investicija, ali i emocija i pitanja etičnosti.
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Nivo:
Vreme izrade:
Sadržaj:
Breaking News, Behaviour, War, Conflict and Peace, Financial Crisis, International Investment, Ethics and Conduct
RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE
I Warm up – Reflect on the following questions.
- What do you know about Ukraine?
- Is being a soldier compulsory in your country?
- Would you fight for another country other than your own?
- How can countries prevent conflicts when other nations are not trying to bring peace?
U nastavku lekcije ćete:
a) pročitati tekst o pozadini sukoba između Rusije i Ukrajine. Izvor za tekst bili su članci agencija BBC, AlJazeera i Euronews.
b) odgovoriti na pitanja u vezi sa tekstom (Reading Comprehension)
c) vežbati tematski povezan vokabular u različitoj formi (Part A and Part B)
RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE
After months of tension Russia attacks its neighbour
On Thursday, February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, a European democracy of 44 million people. For months, President Vladimir Putin had denied he wanted to attack his neighbour, but then he went back on his word and sent forces across Ukraine’s northern, eastern and southern borders, resulting in the first major war in Europe since the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Let’s take a look at how all this began.
Ukraine was part of the Russian empire for centuries before becoming a Soviet republic. It became a fully independent country in 1991. In 2014, its proRussian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from power after months of protests against his rule, which Putin saw as a Western-backed coup.
He retaliated by seizing the southern region of Crimea and triggered a rebellion in the east, backing separatists in the two regions Donetsk and Luhansk. The separatists have fought Ukrainian forces in a war that has claimed 14,000 lives according to Ukrainian authorities.
Most of the country enjoyed peace until the spring of last year, when a massive build-up of Russian troops near the Ukrainian border raised concerns. But the troops eventually pulled out after a few weeks.
Then in November 2021, satellite imagery showed a new build-up of Russian troops on the border
with Ukraine, around 100,000 soldiers along with tanks and other military equipment. Over the next few months, the US insisted that Russia intended to invade Ukraine, while Russia maintained its troops were carrying out military exercises.
On Monday, February 21, after months of speculation about his motives, President Putin
suddenly recognized the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions as independent and the Russian parliament granted him permission to send in what he called “peacekeepers”. The West called this the start of an invasion. Then, after the separatists asked Russia for help to stop Ukrainian aggression (which the US dismissed as Russian propaganda), Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Putin gave a number of reasons to justify his actions. Among them, he wanted to make sure that Ukraine never joins the West’s defensive military alliance NATO, which he argued was a threat to Russia’s security. But he also gave several other irrational arguments including the need to protect people from genocide and Ukraine’s “Nazi” leaders, even though there is no evidence of any genocide in Ukraine and the country is led by a president who is Jewish.
American president Joe Biden simply believes that Putin secretly wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.
Sources: BBC, AlJazeera, Euronews
II Reading Comprehension – Background to the Conflict
III Vocabulary
Part A: Match the words to their correct definitions.
Part B: Now put the vocabulary from Part A into the correct gaps in the following sentences. You may
need to change the form of the word.