The conflict between Russia and Ukraine

Right now the world is tight at the door of the Third World War. The conflict

between Ukraine and Russia was not anticipated the way it has evolved.

It was the night of February 27, 2014. Armed men took control of parliament and

council of ministers in Crimea, Ukraine, and waved Russian flags over them. Early

the next morning on 28 February, more people in unmarked uniforms also

occupied the airports in Sevastopol and Simferopol. A Russian naval vessel

blocked the port at Balaklava near Sevastopol, where Ukrainian Marine Guard

troops were stationed, and Russian military combat helicopters headed for

Ukraine's Crimea. Eighteen days later, after a hurried referendum, Vladimir Putin

signed the documents formally adding Crimea to the Russian Federation. Thus, on

March 18, 2014, Russia and the self-declared Republic of Crimea signed the

Treaty of Accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to the Russian

Federation. The United Nations General Assembly immediately responded by

passing resolution 68/262 that the referendum was invalid and that Ukraine's

territorial integrity should remain. Only Russia voted against this proposal. This

proposal could not be implemented. Attempts to pass enforceable resolutions in the

UN Security Council were blocked by a Russian veto.

How to relate Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 to today's Ukraine crisis? Is

there any continuity in this? Or a new change? Why are two countries, which were

an integral part of the same union for decades, and were part of one empire for a

long period of history, today they are caught in the midst of the horrors of war? It

is important to answer these questions so that we can properly understand the crisis

that is occurring.

The Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) was established in 1917, emerging from

the shadow of imperialism in the middle of World War I. After the fall of the Tsar,

the UNR declared itself independent. However, during the Russian Civil War

(1917–22) that followed the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), the UNR could not

escape the fierce conflict between the Russian Reds and the Whites as both the

powers did not recognize Ukrainian sovereignty. But the precedent of Ukrainian independence forced the Bolsheviks to create a Soviet Ukrainian republic which 

became a founding member of the Soviet Union in 1922.

However, in the early 1930s Joseph Stalin was determined to complete the 

unfinished task of crushing the Ukrainian political nation. This political nation 

developed in the background of the Bolshevik Revolution as mentioned above. The 

state-sponsored famine of 1932–33 killed about four million Ukrainian farmers, 

known in Ukraine as 'holodomor' (ie, killing through starvation) and considered a 

genocide. Stalin also destroyed the Ukrainian cultural elite and began to promote 

the popular notion that Ukrainians were the "younger brothers" of the Russians 

since the time of the Czars.

Similarly, Ukraine as a whole forcibly remained a part of the Soviet Union as a 

"little brother". After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian 

referendum withdrew itself from the Soviet Union in December of the same year. 

As economic reforms stalled, Boris Yeltsin and other Russian figures began to 

remind domestic nationalists of the Soviet Empire by criticizing Ukrainian cultural 

policies and questioning the annexation of Crimea.

In 1997 a comprehensive treaty between Russia and Ukraine reaffirmed the 

integrity of the Ukrainian borders. The treaty was guaranteed by Russia and the 

Western nuclear powers in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum when Ukraine agreed 

to surrender its Soviet-built nuclear arsenal. This treaty expired on March 31, 2019.

Ukraine has been an important US strategic partner outside the NATO framework 

since the mid-1990s. This position has been formalized in the Strategic Partnership 

under the US-Ukraine Charter (2008; the new treaty was signed again in 2021.). 

The current charter reaffirms the US commitment to enhancing Ukraine's security 

in "countering Russian aggression" but the specific measures listed are focused 

only on improving the Ukrainian military and US assistance in data-sharing. No 

current treaty requires the US to defend Ukraine in case of war. The purpose of 

joining NATO is now enshrined in the Ukrainian constitution and its armed forces 

are gradually transitioning to NATO standards. But the last time NATO members

discussed Ukraine's accession idea was in 2008, Germany and France blocked it so 

that Russia would not have a chance to go on the offensive. Ukraine's continued allying with the Western camp for the past two decades has not gone down well 

with Vladimir Putin's aggressive nationalist Russia.

In 2014, when a popular revolution in Ukraine ousted pro-Russian President Viktor 

Yanukovich and brought pro-Western democratic forces to power, Crimea was 

plunged into a crisis. As in an interview with The New Yorker (February 23, 2022) 

Ukrainian historian Serhi Plokhi said on the idea that a populist group in Ukraine 

still associates itself with Russian imperialism, "Certainly that idea got traction in 

Crimea in 2014. Most of the population there was Russian by ethnicity. And it also 

found traction in the Donbass among a section of the population that had a popular 

Soviet identity. The people there were really denying this idea of an exclusionary 

identity and it created some basis for the idea that yes, maybe we're Ukrainians, but 

there's room for a bigger Russian role among us as well."Donetsk and Luhansk are 

two states located in eastern Ukraine that share a border with Russia. 

Within these two states are two separatist regions known as the Donetsk People's 

Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) run by Russian-backed 

separatists. This entire region which includes Donetsk, Luhansk and their 

respective separatist regions is generally referred to as the 'Donbass' region. Russia 

has long claimed that since these are predominantly Russian-speaking regions, they 

need to be protected from "Ukrainian nationalism". The presence of Russian 

speakers continued to grow during the Soviet period as many Russian workers 

were sent there after World War II.

So now you know that there are more cultural issues of nationalism here than just 

strategic power or regional hegemony. At the same time, due to the obstinate 

attitude of NATO and Western countries, these issues have become more 

complicated instead of being resolved. In many countries like Syria, Iraq, Libya, 

Lebanon, Venezuela, the repercussions of the Western nations to build a 

democratic system like them by setting up governments supported by them, the 

consequences are very serious. Similar horrors were seen many times in Europe, Asian and African countries in the Cold War. While Russia and Ukraine could

settle their issues in their own history and cultural differences, Western

interference and insistence on Vladimir Putin as their "dictator" compounded the

conflict. Since Putin is the leader of a nuclear-powered nation, he cannot be

removed like Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi.