Russia and Ukraine History

Russia and Ukraine have had a series of long lasting conflicts. While they have had a variety of problems in the past, in more modern years it has intensified. I broke down the conflict into five different categories: historical background, events that led up to the conflict, geopolitical factors, current conflicts, and impacts & consequences locally and globally.

To start off, Russia and Ukraine have a deep historical background with centuries of history together, most of it with the Soviet Union. Ukraine gained their independence when the USSR fell, and since then Russia has been trying to reclaim that land back. Ukraine specifically has also been experiencing a lot of political instability prior to the modern conflict with having two revolutions. The Orange Revolution and the Euromaidan Revolution. Those both consisted of problems with their government and president at the time. 

Next, there were a variety of events that led up to this current conflict. As mentioned before, when the Soviet Union collapsed, tension has been increasing since. Ukraine has been seeking out ties with western countries while Russia is opposed to western ideologies which further escalated the problems. When Putin announced a full invasion of Ukraine, it significantly increased the conflict that had been ongoing since 2014. 

Now, there are quite a few geopolitical factors to discuss when learning about this topic. A major factor under this category is Ukraine’s location. Ukraine is located between Russia and smaller countries in Europe, making it extremely important for connections in the region. This factor and the fact that Ukraine carries a huge gas supply makes it an important land which is why Russia is trying to reclaim it again. NATO and EU influence has also affected this conflict because Russia views them both as a threat to their nation. Both of those organizations have expressed interest in Ukraine becoming a part of them, but Russia is preventing that from happening to keep Ukraine under their influence. 

Another factor is current conflicts. Putin launched the full scale invasion on the city Kyiv, which ultimately ended up failing. The failure led them to move onto other provinces in the area. Ukraine was able to carry out multiple attacks on Russia back, but none of the two countries have gained or lost much territory. This led to Russian troops to carry out extensive, discriminatory attacks on the civilians of Ukraine. They carried out multiple massacres of big populated cities to purposefully target and deport citizens in an attempt to get Ukraine to lose power. 

Lastly, there is the impact and consequences locally and globally. Locally, there has been extreme economic devastation in Ukraine with the destruction of buildings, disruption of industries, and agricultural works. All of these problems have led to an economic decline in Ukraine specifically. There has also been extreme political instability in Ukraine as well. Political shifts have been occurring as well as challenges with sovereignty within the country. Social disruption has also been happening with restrictions on citizens’ freedom, the loss of social networks, and long lasting traumatic impacts on the population, all mostly in Ukraine. Globally, there have also been political shifts occurring with the changes of alliances and increased tensions with the Western side of the world with Russia. Some experts are speculating that these tensions could escalate into a second Cold War. There has also been an extreme humanitarian crisis with the extreme need for international aid in Ukraine due to the devastations that have occurred. These organizations and refugee resettlement programs now had an intense pressure on them due to the amount of help Ukraine needs from this conflict.

Overall, this crisis in Russia and Ukraine is absolutely devastating and I hope that this conflict doesn’t last much longer than it already has. Learning about this makes me feel extreme sympathy for the innocent victims in this conflict. Hopefully Ukraine gets the help they need from other more influential countries.

Image Courtesy of Oleksandr on Flickr.