Ukraine : Russia And Russia

“The West must understand that, to Russia, Ukraine can never be just a foreign country. Russian history began in what was called Kievan-Rus. The Russian religion spread from there. Ukraine has been part of Russia for centuries, and their histories were intertwined before then.” (Kissinger). Ukraine has been a focal point in Eastern Europe and foreign policy for hundreds of years. From the Crimean war, to Hitler’s operation Barbarossa the territory we know today as Ukraine has fallen under multiple conflicting spheres of influence. Over the past year it has been difficult to avoid hearing of the crisis in Ukraine; but depending on who you ask, the responses are just as confusing as the questions at hand. How do we respond? Why should we care? The ongoing crisis is important for a multitude of reasons, mainly because it sets a very dangerous precedent on the world stage. Starting a crisis is surprisingly easy, but it is dealing with it and ending it which is incredulously difficult. It is easy to use the intelligence and special operations arms of a country to agitate situations and create unrest, like in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. The problem is once you get the ball rolling it adopts a dangerous dynamic all on its own, and can quickly fester into a firestorm. Russia’s tactics in Ukraine and Crimea have been dubbed by many as what it is, ‘Hybrid War’. Despite being war wary, the U.S. must

Starting out with the differences the first things that I realized was the size of the population, Ukraine has 42.3 million people, while the US has 325.4 million people. I believe the U.S. has a bigger population because there are more opportunities in this country and you can have a better quality of life. The other major differences between these two countries is that Ukraine has a higher mortality rate almost double the U.S. rate. Also the life expectancy in the U.S. is about ten years higher for males and females than in Ukraine. I believe these differences exist because there is currently a war going on between Ukraine and Russia and a lot of people die in wars. Also there are lower life

The two countries, Russia and Ukraine, had different reactions towards the armed violence and impeachment of the Ukrainian president. Although the majority of the Ukrainians opposed Viktor’s decision to procrastinate the signing the EU-Ukraine integration agreement, all the ex-presidents accused for its interference with the affairs of Crimean. The former presidents of Ukraine, including Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma described the present crisis as Russia’s political interventions designed to interfere with the internal affairs of Ukraine and its relationship with the European Union (Hanschke 1). The people of Crimea have not been seeking for secession from Ukraine, but their interest is to have extended autonomy and rights to govern the Crimean affairs with minimum involvement of the government of Ukraine. Russia, on the other hand, have dismissed the accusation and stated that it is pursuing the interest of the people of Crimea to join the Federation of Russia. Russia holds that the people of Crimea have the power to decide the future of their territory and Russia will be ready to respect their decision. Study shows that about 90

Armed men in unmarked combat uniforms seize Simferopol International Airport and a military airport in Crimea. Moscow claims this military movement is within the line of previous agreements to protect its fleet in the Black Sea. Putin then got the rights from the Russian government to wage war against the Ukraine to protect the ethnic russians that are in the area of Crimea. The Crimea then holds a referendum to leave the Ukraine and to join Russia, of which the world condemns and Russia welcomes with open arms. They vote to join Russia and they do with an overwhelming majority on May 6. As Moscow welcomes their newly acquired land into the Russian Federation with open arms, western nation explode in disapproving comments and minor threats. Sanctions are placed on Russian individuals who are close to Putin and his Regime while western leaders condemn the referendum, claiming it was set up by the Russian government and did not actually convey the will of the people of Crimea. Russian troops were planted in the Crimea and Russian troops were lined up along the border of Ukraine, creating fear that may have swayed people’s opinions. In fact, the vote received very little ethnic Ukrainians and the vote had a 97% approval to joining Russia. Since then, the mainland of Ukraine has been facing a lot of upheaval. Pro-Russian protesters have been fighting for their turn to be a part of Russia. All along the Eastern side of the Ukraine, protesters have been taking over

On November of 2013 the citizens of Ukraine took to Kiev’s streets. Mass protests broke out in dispute of the governments plan to drop agreements with the European Union and instead seek closer economic ties with Russia. Since the protests broke out Ukraine has seen an ongoing conflict in the east of the country. In order to illustrate a clearer understanding of the current situation in Ukrainian I will first discuss a brief history of Ukraine and its relationship with Russian since the fall of the Soviet Union.

For a state to survive, it must pursue power. From Putin’s point of view, NATO’s expansion lessened Russia’s ability to influence its neighbors in terms of economic and foreign policy. For example, Putin offered to buy $15 billion dollars in Ukrainian government bonds in exchange for Ukraine buying gas from Russia instead of the European Union, a move that would keep Ukraine within its sphere of influence. When the protests erupted in Kiev after President Yanukovych accepted the deal and Ukraine became destabilized, Russia appeared to lose its ability to influence Eastern Europe’s largest state which was historically part of the Russia and still has a large Russian speaking population, Russia was perceived as to have lost the image of power

However, a few possible solutions are raised within the text the first being that if Hilary Clinton were to become president she would try to reach a compromise with Russia about Ukraine, however this would be a dangerous decision because although it would reduce short-term tensions it could cause Russia to become more aggressive in the long-term. Donald Trump has hinted that if he were to become president he would have a much more relaxed and friendly relationship with Russia, trying to work closer with the Kremlin on how to defeat the so-called Islamic State to help improve the interstate relationship between the two powers, hoping that this would also distract Putin so he slows his aggressive

In 2013 as Ukraine was negotiating with the European Union, President Putin was also conducting secret meetings with the president of Ukraine. These secret meetings helped sway the President of Ukraine to decide against joining the union and striking a deal with Russia for oil and natural gas. This was the starting point for the Ukrainian revolution in 2014. The Ukrainian President found refuge in Russia after he was exiled for his decision to join Russia and not the European Union. Now with Ukraine in disarray, Putin had a new plan; he secretly sent soldiers into Crimea. Putin saw Crimea as a vital piece of land that could help Russia by giving them a seaport, which is more accessible to the rest of the world. This would also give Russia the chance to strengthen their navy by giving them a more direct route to the west in order to defend themselves from the west. Starting October 2014 reports surfaced that there were troops in Crimea. Putin and Russia’s government denied all claims that the troops were Russian soldiers. By March 2, 2015, Russia acknowledged that they had sent troops to the border of Ukraine to protect Russia from any actions towards Russia. By March 16, Russia announced that troops are in Ukraine and that they held the majority of the government buildings in Crimea. This sparked the first set of sanctions from the west. Mostly economic, Russia was able to hold out and not be affected by these sanctions. The second set of sanctions hit their businesses and many of Putin’s friends, which he appointed. This is when Putin started to negotiate with the west. Crimea then held a vote to see if they would join Russia or stay part of Ukraine. 90% voted in favor of joining Russia. Putin’s controversial and secretive acts had paid off and Crimea is now part of

This is where Ukraine adopted the anti Russia political identity known today. The candidate Yushchenko did not want russia interfering in ukraine and its politics. Leading the political party “Our Ukraine” Yushchenko became seeing as a reformer with pro west attitude. However, this would cost him as he was poison during the election. The country became divided on the issue of russian interference. Thus, the country was split politically with the western part being pro russia. This is due to when Ukraine was urbanized and many ethnic russian migrated to this region. Furthermore, this area is where Crimea is were russian backed militia are currently fighting the Ukrainian government. The election was rigged in favor of Yanukovich and it would lead to the Orange Revolution. The revolution led to millions of people taking to the street to express their

In March, Russia annexed Crimea by a referendum with an unrealistic 97% in favor, claiming that they were protecting ethnic Russians. This Russian move was criticized by the international community since Russia was violating its promise. In foreign policy, countries priorities are in order from security, economy, autonomy, environment, identity and then prestige. Russia knew by annexing Crimea, it would ensure the safety of Crimea’s ethnic Russians. However, Russia needs Crimea for potential long term economic gains and better security in the Black Sea. Russia is also being suspected of supplying weapons to separatist held territories through dubious aid trucks. Again, Russia is supplying so called aid in the name of protecting ethnic Russians, though it is clear he has other economic and security reasons in

The conflict between the Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).

Ukraine was divided and ruled by variety of powers in different times and has very old history. But the last power which occupied Ukraine or took Ukraine under its control was Soviet Union. Ukraine was under control of Soviet Union for long time and after the collapse of Soviet Union on 24 August 1991 Ukraine was formed as an independent and democratic state. During being part of Soviet Union most of people in Ukraine were russified and after the collapse of Soviet Union they had very tight relations with Russia. And its not because of russification of the country but its because of lack of capital and power with in country. During the Soviet time Ukraine was the second largest

The political relations between Ukraine and Russia as the two independent subjects of international relations were established in 1991 after the eighth December of the same year signed the Belavezha agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which marked the end of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as " subject of international law and geopolitical reality "and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. From that moment we can talk about the beginning of the existence of full political relations between Russia and Ukraine.

U.S was always a supportive friend. America helps Ukraine as much as it can. Americans didn’t know a lot about Ukraine before the war, but now they know. Now Americans know that Russians are bad. Obama tries to help Ukraine with different thinks.

The major trading partners of Ukraine in 2014 were Germany (17.9%), Poland (13.5%), and Italy (9.3%).