Category Russia and Ukraine

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. It was considered as an act of aggression globally. The invasion has triggered Europe’s largest refugee crisis after World War II. More than 4.3 million Ukrainians left the country and a quarter of the population got displaced.

In a broadcast shortly before the invasion, Russian president Vladimir Putin questioned Ukraine’s right to statehood, and alleged that Ukraine was dominated by neo-Nazis, who persecute the ethnic Russian minority. Putin also said that NATO has posed a threat to Russia’s security by expanding eastward since the early 2000s (this accusation was disputed by NATO.) On this premise, Russia demanded that Ukraine be barred from joining NATO.

The invasion began on the morning of 24 February, when Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine. Missiles and airstrikes hit across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, which was followed by a large ground invasion from multiple directions. In response to this attack, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted martial law and general mobilization. The country was severely affected, but Ukrainians put up a strong resistance against the mighty Russians.

Even in the middle of the invasion, peace talks were going on in Turkey. Several countries put sanctions on Russia and many multinational companies stopped their services in Russia.

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It is believed that Russian president Vladimir Putin has multiple goals in invading Ukraine. The Russian leader’s primary aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, and thereby end its desire to join NATO. Prior to launching the invasion on 24 February, he told the Russian people that his goal was to “demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine’, in order to safeguard the people who are subjected to what he called eight years of bullying and genocide by the Ukrainian government. These accusations of genocide in Ukraine are false according to several observers, and many say it is much like the Russian allegation that Ukraine was building a plutonium-based ‘dirty’ bomb.

Whatever its justification, Russia saw this as an important moment. Russia invaded from the north, through Belarus, and from the south and east, but Ukraine’s sturdy resistance has forced the Kremlin to drop its plan to oust the government.

After a month into the invasion, Russia declared that its main goal was the “liberation of Donbas”, referring to Ukraine’s eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. More than a third of this area was already seized by Russian-backed separatists in a war that began in 2014, and now Russia has plans to acquire all of it.

Cities like Mariupol and Odessa were destroyed almost completely. Towns in the area freed by Ukrainian armies faced severe damage from shelling and attacks, as well as casualties among civilians. In Bucha near Kyiv, images of bodies in the streets, some with hands bound, have raised concern about war crimes by Russia. But Russia has denied any involvement in civilian killings.

Apart from his military goals, President Putin’s broader demand is Ukraine’s future neutrality. Some fear that his military setbacks in Ukraine may pave the way to even bloodier scenes of retribution in the near future.

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Zelenskyy is the sixth and current president of Ukraine. Before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was often looked down upon as a comedian turned unlikely politician. But with social media support, he has become the leader Ukraine needed. Zelensky has inspired Ukrainians to fight for their country and the Europeans to view Ukraine as a victim of aggression, which resisted bravely for independence, freedom, and democracy.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih. Before getting into his acting career, he obtained a degree in law. He pursued comedy and created a production company Kvartal 95, which produced TV shows including the TV series Servant of the People, in which he enacted the role of the Ukrainian president. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95. Zelensky announced his candidature in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on the evening of 31 December 2018. After winning the election, he announced himself as an anti-establishment and anti-corruption figure.

During its invasion by Russia, more than 90 per cent of Ukrainians supported the decisions of Zelenskyy. His recognition grew across the globe as a wartime leader of Ukraine. He has been the target of more than a dozen assassination attempts during the invasion, but he survived all of them. He made efforts to bring the governments of western nations to isolate Russia. He has made numerous addresses to the legislatures of the EU, U.K, Poland and U.S. On March 27, 2022, Slovakia awarded Zelenskyy with one of the country’s top awards, the State Award of Alexander Dubcek.

Zelenskyy’s decision to remain in the capital, Kyiv, while it was under Russian attack and his family’s decision to stay in Ukraine was a decision which moved many including several European leaders. Appearing on screen during the emergency summit meeting of European Union leaders on February 24, he gave a passionate 10-minute speech that made some reluctant leaders endorse a harsher package of economic sanctions on Russia.

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Ukraine signed a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with the EU in 1994. It was based on common values around democracy, human rights and a market economy, which established the prospect of a future free trade area.

Russia was Ukraine’s largest export market as recently as 2012, but by 2018 after the signing of the 2014 Ukraine-EU Association Agreement, Russia’s share of Ukrainian exports fell to 15 per cent while the EU accounted for 41 per cent and imports also followed the same pattern.

The EU is currently Ukraine’s largest trading partner. About 40 per cent of its trade in 2019 was with the EU, with the total trade between the two sides worth 43.3 billion euro. During the post-Soviet period, Ukraine’s relations with the EU and the corresponding impact on its relationship with Russia played a critical role in the political development of the country.

In 2013, then Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych backed off from signing the EU Association Agreement, which eventually led to the Euromaidan Revolution. In February 2019 the Ukrainian parliament decided on a constitutional amendment making EU (and NATO) membership long-term goals for Ukraine.

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In 2013, Ukrainians came out to the streets for peaceful protest after President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an agreement that would have led to Ukraine’s integration in the European Union. This led to a massive civil unrest in the country on 21 November 2013 with huge protests in the Independence Square in Kyiv. The effect of the protests intensified with calls for the resignation of the president.

As the protests in Kyiv’s Independence Square, also known as the Maidan, continued into 2014, the government began to take action on the protestors. This accelerated the revolt and turned it into what was called ‘the revolution of dignity’. The protestors in the Maidan risked assault, kidnapping, unlawful arrest, and loss of their jobs. On January 16, the state introduced a wave of repressive laws that severely restricted civil society and their right to protest. On January 22, the first protesters were killed in clashes in Kyiv and over 100 civilian protesters died subsequently, mostly between February 20 and 21.

On February 22, President Yanukovych fled the country and the parliament voted to remove him and hold new elections. On May 25, Ukrainians elected Petro Poroshenko as their president. After the October elections, a new pro-reform coalition government came into power in December 2014.

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In February and further in March of 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. On March 16, in a disputed referendum that Ukraine and the West claimed as illegal, a part of the Crimean population chose to separate from Ukraine. On March 18, Russian and Crimean leaders signed a pact in Moscow to join the region to Russia.

The peninsula of Crimea became part of the Russian Empire after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783. After the collapse of the empire, the territory came under the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic till 1954. Meanwhile a series of short-lived independent Crimean governments emerged during the Russian Civil War, and the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was later established. It became part of the Russian Soviet later on.

The status of the Crimean Soviet as an autonomous entity was downgraded to that of a federal unit of Russia in 1946. In 1954, the Crimean Oblast (administrative unit) was transferred from the Russian Soviet to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The autonomous status of Crimea was confirmed again with the ratification of the Constitution of Ukraine in 1996. The constitution termed Crimea as the “Autonomous Republic of Crimea,” with a clause that it is an “inseparable constituent part of Ukraine”.

But the status of Crimea as an autonomous Ukrainian entity gave rise to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Russia argued that it has a historical claim over the Crimean territory and its inhabitants, which can be traced back to the Russian Empire.

It is important to know the fact that there are a noticeable number of pro-Russian individuals in the Crimean territory. Demographically, the population is composed mainly of ethnic Russians along with significant Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar minorities.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict of 2014 came up due to Euromaidan protests and unrest that followed this event. Russia took the situation in Ukraine as a chance to invade and annex Crimea forever.

Masked Russian troops without insignia took over the Super Council of Crimea on 27 February 2014 and occupied other strategic sites across the peninsula.

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Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but it has repeatedly expressed its desire to become a member. This objective is even written into the country’s constitution! One of the main reasons is that joining NATO will boost Ukraine’s defensive strength because of NATO’s policy of collective defence, which we discussed before. According to Article 5 in NATO’s founding treaty, an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies, which commits them to protect each other.

In 2008, NATO leaders promised Ukraine it would be given the chance to join the alliance. Ukraine has been a strong partner with NATO but has not met all the criteria required to become a member nation. The rule is that all 30 NATO allies must unanimously approve a new country for it to become a part of the alliance.

Russian leaders have been against the eastward expansion of NATO. This is after the alliance admitted former Warsaw Pact states and ex-Soviet republics in the late 1990s (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland) and early 2000s (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia). Russia became disturbed in the late 2000s as the alliance expressed its plans to make Georgia and Ukraine a part of it in the future.

Under these circumstances, Russia argues that the Western countries are challenging Moscow by breaking the verbal agreements made at the end of the Cold War that NATO would not expand eastwards. Though NATO denies any such promises were made, this issue has had an indirect role in the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine.

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The Soviet Ukraine had to face a horrible famine from 1932 to 1933, which killed millions of people. This is known as the ‘Holodomor’, or the Great Famine or the Terror-Famine.

Many scholars today are of the opinion that the famine was man-made. Some historians even say that the famine was planned and made worse by Joseph Stalin, to put a stop to the Ukrainian independence movement. Some others say that the famine was a result of Soviet industrialization and collective farming.

Farmers in Ukraine had refused to join collective farms, giving away their lands, and many of them were put in prison. The Soviet government raised the Ukrainian harvest quotas in 1932, which meant much of the harvested grain was confiscated and sent to other parts of the Soviet Union. This left millions of Ukrainians starving, and many died.

There is a view since 2006, shared by Ukraine and some other countries, that the Holodomor was in fact a genocide carried out by the Soviet government to harass the Ukrainian people.

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Ukraine became an independent country with the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ukraine’s quest for independence began in August 1991 when the Ukrainian Parliament set out the Act of Declaration of Independence. On December 1, a referendum on the Act was held in Ukraine and 84 per cent of voters came to submit their votes. Over 92 per cent of the people voted to leave the Soviet Union. After this, an election was also held and Leonid Kravchuk was chosen as the country’s president.

Many important developments took place in Ukraine during this time, which include the dissolution of the Communist Party and development of a new infrastructure for a separate military. The country also managed to tackle the political pressure from Moscow to rethink its decision towards independence and become a part of a restructured Soviet Union. Ukraine stuck to its decision, and a week after the independence referendum, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus came together to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Soviet Union was formally dissolved on 26 December 1991. The presidents of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia (the founding members of the U.S.S.R) met in Bia?owie?a Forest to formally dissolve the Union according to the Soviet Constitution. With this, Ukraine’s independence was formally recognized by the international community.

Although Ukraine was part of the CIS, it formally ended all participation in the CIS after 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.

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The series of protests and political events that took place throughout Ukraine between 2004-2005 is called the Orange Revolution. The reason for this revolution was the people’s response to massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. The protests succeeded in preventing Russian-backed candidate Victor Yanukovych from becoming the president and made the election of his reformist rival, Viktor Yushchenko successful. Yushchenko’s campaign colour was Orange and thus the revolution was named the Orange Revolution. The Orange Revolution happened as a result of the reports and the public feeling that the result of the vote of November 21, 2004 between Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych was altered in favour of Yanukovych.

Ukrainians gathered in huge numbers to support Victor Yushchenko, the internationally recognised winner of their election, and demanded to allow him to fulfil his mandate. Mi lions of Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv, the centre of the revolution, and this public outpouring led the Supreme Court to order a second election for December 26, 2004. Under intense international scrutiny, the official results of this election came out to be problem-free, legally valid and in favour of Yushchenko. He was declared the official winner and became the third president of Ukraine on January 23, 2005. With this the Orange Revolution reached its successful and peaceful end.

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A policy of Russification was the hallmark of tsarist dominance. They made strong attempts to suppress ethnic identities and languages, and this affected the Ukrainians, too. The rulers wanted to assimilate Ukrainians into the Russian culture. The empire moved a lot of Russians into Ukraine in the 18th century, to ensure that the region’s population would be loyal to the throne. At the same time, however, many Ukrainians rose to high positions in the Russian empire and moved to live in other parts of Russia.

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Right after the February Revolution in Russia, a new country was formed in the Ukrainian region, called the Ukrainian People’s Republic or the Ukrainian National Republic (UNR). It functioned as an autonomous republic at first, in the Russian Republic, and elected a Central Council composed of socialist parties. However, its relations with Russia started to change after the October Revolution, when the Bolshevik government made aggressive moves against Ukraine. It declared its independence on 25th January, 1918. For a short period the UNR became an ally of the Second Polish Republic, but the Bolsheviks took over many of its territories in November 1921. The state was then forced to sign the Peace Treaty of Riga, which made the Ukrainian Republic one of the founding members of the Soviet Union.

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Ukraine became an integral part of the Soviet Union, named as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (the Ukrainian SSR). Also called Soviet Ukraine, its political system was shaped exactly like that of the U.S.S.R. The ruling force was the Communist Party of Ukraine, which was only a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The government institutions and the laws were all copied from the Russian system.

The Ukrainian SSR (the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) was part of the Soviet Union right from its start in 1922 and until its breakup in 1991. The third largest Soviet republic, the Ukraine SSR’s borders changed several times. A major portion of today’s western Ukraine was annexed by the Soviet forces in 1939 from Poland, and Crimea was added in 1954. The Republic’s capital was at first Kharkiv in the east, but later it was moved to Kyiv.

As the Soviet Union was dissolved, the Ukrainian SSR ceased to exist, too. Thus, on 24th August 1991, the independent Ukraine we see today came into being.

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After the time of Kievan Rus, the Ukrainian territories came to be ruled by three external powers. They were the Golden Horde, the grand duchy of Lithuania, and the kingdom of Poland.

The steppe and Crimea came under the direct rule of the Golden Horde of Tatars. They were successors of Genghis Khan’s Mongol empire, with their khan living at Sarai on the Volga River. The Golden Horde started to disintegrate by the mid-15th century. The Crimean khanate, one of its successor states accepted the supremacy of the Ottoman sultans. However, the Crimean Peninsula and large areas of the steppe continued to be ruled by the khans, until they were annexed to the Russian Empire in 1783.

A new power that rose in the 13th century spread its dominance to the North-western and central Ukraine. It was the grand duchy of Lithuania, which occupied Chernihiv and adjacent areas in the 1350’s, and Kyiv Pereyaslav and Podolia (Podillya) in the 1360’s.

There was competition between Lithuania and the kingdom of Poland over the former Galician-Volhynian principality, which ended in the 1380’s with a partition. Lithuania then took over Volhynia and Poland gained possession of Galicia. Thus, most of the Ukrainian lands were once under the control of Lithuania.

Then, in 1569, Poland and Lithuania formed a constitutional union as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For a hundred years after that, the Ukrainian lands were exposed to the direct impact of Poland, politically and culturally.

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The Cossacks gradually grew into a power to be reckoned with. They revolted against the Poles in 1648, under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnystsky, and founded the state of Cossack Hetmanate in today’s central Ukraine. However, it lasted only about a century. The Russian empress Catherine the Great abolished the state and annexed the whole Cossack territory to the Russian empire. The Cossacks were happy to be part of the Russian empire, as many privileges were offered to them. This annexation was part of the early efforts of Russia to expand into the Balkans and the Black Sea region.

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