Shadowing Practice: Putin's war on Ukraine, explained - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Putin called this a special military operation, but it's clear this is a full -scale invasion.
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Russian troops and tanks have entered Ukraine on all fronts.
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All these cities are under attack, including the capital of Kyiv, which has become Putin's main target.
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Many are sheltering in basements and metro stations across Ukraine.
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There have been hundreds of casualties, and over half a million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.
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This is one of Europe's largest wars since World War II.
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Since then, Europe's map has been shaped by political alliances.
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But now Putin wants to redraw Europe's map — by force.
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Putin has long claimed Ukraine belongs to Russia and they are one people.
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We're not just close neighbors.
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We're one nation.
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But Ukraine is a sovereign nation with its own language, culture, and political system.
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And while the two countries do have a shared history, Ukraine has fought hard for its own identity.
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Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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In 1917, the Russian Revolution brought down the empire and the region spiraled into a civil war.
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Ukraine briefly gained independence from Russian rule, but was quickly taken over by the newly created
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Soviet Union as one of its first republics.
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Over the next decade, the Soviet Union brutally expanded its control.
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And by the end of World War II, it forged a sphere of influence over here, while the West held its influence over here,
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essentially dividing Europe and marking the beginning of the Cold War.
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The Soviet Union installed communist governments on their side, which were easy for them to control.
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But the West developed into democracies with capitalist economies.
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The deep ideological divide fueled distrust and tensions between the two sides, and soon these fears hardened into military alliances.
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In 1949, these countries, along with the U .S and Canada, formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
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or NATO, and promised to defend each other from invasion.
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A few years later, these countries joined the Soviet -led
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Warsaw Pact alliance, and each side built up its military to protect itself from the other.
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Europe remained this way for decades, until one side finally collapsed.
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By late 1991, republics like Ukraine began declaring independence from Soviet domination.
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The Soviet Union dissolved into 15 independent countries, including a much weaker Russia.
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And the Soviet sphere of influence disappeared as many countries overthrew their communist governments.
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Even though the Cold War ended, the alliance on the other side of Europe was still going strong.
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In fact, it was expanding.
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In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined NATO.
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In 2004, seven more countries joined.
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That moved NATO into the old
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Soviet sphere of influence, making NATO's border with Russia the longest it's ever been.
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Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia were now the last post -Soviet countries left between
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Russia and NATO.
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But Ukraine and Georgia both wanted to join NATO for a long time.
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And that made them prime targets for Russia.
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Ukraine became a NATO partner in 1994, which brought them a step closer to becoming a member.
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And in 2013, they reached an association agreement with the European Union.
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But when it came time to sign the deal, Ukraine's pro -Russian government refused.
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Instead, they chose to strengthen ties with Russia.
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After the decision was announced, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets to demand the agreement be signed.
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Ukraine!
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Europe!
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Ukraine!
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Europe!
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After months of peaceful protests, the Ukrainian president cracked down and killed more than 100 people sparking more protests,
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which eventually drove the president out of office and the country.
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This meant Putin was losing political influence over Ukraine.
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So he decided to use force instead.
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First, he invaded and annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.
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Then, Russia -backed separatists captured the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and declared them independent of Ukraine.
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Since then, Ukraine has been locked in a conflict with Russia that has killed 14 ,000 people and displaced nearly 2 million.
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For nearly eight years, Putin has held on to these regions, destabilizing Ukraine and keeping it from moving closer to the West.
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But in November 2021, Putin decided to go all in.
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Satellite images showed at least 100 ,000 Russian troops and military equipment piling up along the border of Ukraine.
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Putin repeatedly denied any plans to invade.
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But weeks later, he presented his demands to the West.
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His main demand was that NATO stop expanding and move its military borders back to where they were in 1997, away from Russia's.
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Western leaders rejected his demands.
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Instead, they put forces on standby and reinforced their military presence in Eastern Europe.
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Back at Ukraine's border, Russian troops continued to gather.
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And over here, along its border with Belarus, Russia began conducting huge military drills.
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On February 21st, the threat of war became real.
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His troops immediately crossed the Ukrainian border into Russian -backed separatist regions under the pretense of peacekeeping.
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Ukraine announced a state of emergency, and President Zelenskyy made a direct appeal to the Russian people.
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Hours later, on February 24th, Putin launched a full -scale invasion in Ukraine.
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World leaders have spoken out against Russia's invasion.
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We condemn this barbaric attack and the cynical arguments to justify it.
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This hideous and barbaric venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure.
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Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences.
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Anti -war protests have broken out around the world, including in Russia, despite the risk of arrest.
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Neighboring nations have opened their borders as hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians attempt to flee.
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NATO's response force has been activated for the first time in history.
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And the U .S has sent additional troops to Eastern Europe.
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But in many ways, the world is treading carefully.
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Putin controls the world's largest arsenal of nuclear weapons, and has already threatened anyone who might interfere.
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So countries around the world are imposing some of the harshest economic sanctions to slow Putin down, and sending tons of military aid to support Ukraine.
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For now, Russian forces keep pushing deeper, but Ukraine is fighting back.
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our independence, our state.
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And so it will continue.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Putin's war on Ukraine, explained”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Ukraine, Putin, Russia, Russian, Soviet. This video has 78 sentences and 1172 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:29. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| troop noun | /tɹup/ | A collection of people; a number; a multitude (in general). |
| alliance noun | /əˈlaɪ.əns/ | The state of being allied. |
| invasion noun | /ɪnˈveɪʒən/ | A military action consisting of a large armed force of one geopolitical entity entering territory controlled by another such entity, generally with the… |
| sphere noun | /sfɪɚ/ | A surface in three dimensions consisting of all points equidistant from a center. . |
| protest noun | /ˈpɹoʊ.tɛst/ | A formal objection, especially one by a group. |
| expand verb | /ɪkˈspænd/ | To change (something) from a smaller form or size to a larger one; to spread out or lay open. |
| guarantee noun | /ˌɡæɹ.ənˈtiː/ | Anything that assures a certain outcome. |
| communist noun | /ˈkɑ.mjə.nɪst/ | An advocate of a society based on the common ownership of property; a proponent of communism. |
| announce verb | /əˈnaʊn(t)s/ | To give public notice of, especially for the first time; to make known. |
| divide verb | /dɪˈvaɪd/ | To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. |
| consequence noun | /ˈkɑn.sɪ.kwəns/ | An effect; something that follows a cause as a result. |
| declare verb | /dɪˈklɛɚ/ | To assert or announce formally, officially, explicitly, or emphatically. |
| flee verb | /ˈfliː/ | To run away; to escape. |
| invade verb | /ɪnˈveɪd/ | To move into. |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| break out verb | To escape, especially forcefully or defiantly. | |
| bring down verb | To make (a ruler or government) lose their position of power. | |
| build up verb | To erect; to construct. | |
| carry out verb | /ˈkæ.ɹi aʊt/ | To hold while moving it out. |
| crack down verb | /kɹæk ˈdaʊn/ | To take harsh action (against), as when enforcing a law or rule more stringently than before. |
| fight back verb | /faɪt bæk/ | To defend oneself by fighting. |
| pile up verb | To form a pile, stack, or heap. | |
| take away verb | /ˌteɪk əˈweɪ/ | To remove something and put it in a different place. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have entered · has become · have been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | have been forced · has been shaped · was quickly taken |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | Kyiv, which has · side, which were · anyone who might |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 5 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, doesn't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: gather /ˈɡæðɚ/, strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, overthrow /ˌoʊvɚˈθɹoʊ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: invasion /ɪnˈveɪʒən/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, shelter /ˈʃɛltə/, tension /ˈtɛnʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: essentially /ɪˈsɛnʃəli/, repeatedly /ɹɪˈpiːtɪdli/, sovereignty /ˈsɑv(ə)ɹənti/, capitalist /ˈkæp.ɪ.tə.lɪst/, ideological /ˌaɪ.di.əˈlɑ.d͡ʒɪ.kəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like troop, alliance, invasion.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.