War of Broken Fraternity: Competing Explanations for the Outbreak of War in Ukraine in 2014

ABSTRACT This article deals with the origins and drivers of war in Ukraine from 2013-14 and onwards. A review of academic literature shows that most studies employ one of four explanatory frameworks: 1) realism, 2) Russian hybrid war, 3) Ukrainian domestic conflict, and 4) internationalized domestic conflict. This article argues that current research too often forces evidence into preexisting framings. While assumptions inherited in the hybrid war framework limits our understanding of the war, this framework is most convincingly supported by evidence. Russia´s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 puts discussions about the drivers of war in Ukraine in a new light. This article invites to a reassessment of the war in Ukraine since 2014. We must recognize that, already from 2014, the war in Ukraine was a Russia-driven war, and only then can aspects from the various frameworks shed light on the specifics that are present in any inter-state war.