Russia and Ukraine Background Information

News | Samantha Choung | Mar 1st, 2022.

In December of 2021, Russia put forth a list of demands they said would decrease tensions in Eastern Europe. The demands included that NATO stopped expanding, and specifically that the organization refused to allow Ukraine to enter the treaty. Russia also insisted that NATO withdrew all of its troops from Eastern Europe. It was implied that if these demands were not met, Russia would invade Ukraine.

NATO is a military alliance that was originally formed in order to deter the USSR and communist ideologies from expanding during the Cold War. Over the years, NATO has begun expanding, even recruiting several former Soviet states such as Bulgaria and Romania. However, Putin’s biggest concern has always been Ukraine, which has been drifting further West over the past years. In December of 2021, an IRI public survey reported that 54% of Ukrainians supported joining NATO, and 58% were in favor of joining the EU.

The history between Ukraine and Russia is long and complex. The Russian nation originated in modern-day Ukraine, and this region eventually became a part of the USSR. As a result, Ukraine and Russia are deeply connected politically, culturally, and economically. For instance, the final leader of the USSR before its collapse, Mikhail Gorbachev, was half Ukrainian and half Russian. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, Russia’s satellite states became independent, including Ukraine. However, the strong cultural ties between the two states were not broken. To many, Russia and Ukraine were one and the same, and there was major reluctance to accept that the two were separate countries.

On February 27, 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula, an area in Ukraine of Russian ethnic majority. While the war between Russia and Ukraine has been ongoing since the Crimean invasion, the story has since developed drastically. On February 24, 2022, Putin announced Russia could not feel “safe to develop and exist” with the threat of neighboring modern-day Ukraine. Putin argued that the Russian invasion of Ukraine aimed for the “demilitarization and de-Natzification” of the country, even though Ukraine is a democracy led by Jewish president Volodymr Zelensky. Putin believes that Ukraine and Russia should be united, and that the separation of the countries is due to a “deliberate effort by forces that sought to undermine unity.”

This new invasion has triggered the response of Western allies in order to prevent further escalation, including an emergency UN meeting, global sanctions on Russia, restricted airspace, and military support for Ukraine. These actions have triggered worldwide protests against Russia’s actions(and consequently many arrests within Russia against Russians protesting the war), worldwide support for Ukraine, and a financial crisis in Russia.