The legacy of the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union is one of the crucial factors for an
understanding and an explanation of current affairs in the post-Soviet space. This is
especially true for Ukraine and for Russian-Ukrainian relations. Russia regards Ukraine as a part
of its own strategic orbit, while many Ukrainians want to liberate themselves from the Russian
hegemony and advocate a closer cooperation with the European Union. This controversy
culminated in late 2013 when Russian pressure led to a re-orientation of Ukrainian policy
and a rapprochement with Russia. Hello everyone, welcome back again with us
in another episode of Military TV. Today, we are going to discuss about “Ukraine-Russia
in History and Their Conflict” So sit back, relax and enjoy this video!
23 years ago Ukraine and Russia became independent states after being Soviet republics for 70
years. The separation of the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic under Leonid Kravchuk and
of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic under Boris Yeltsin from the Soviet
Union and their common alliance against the Soviet President Gorbachev were the decisive
factors for the dissolution of the Soviet state in December 1991. Moscow (the president
of Russia) fought together with Kiev (the president of Ukraine) against another Moscow
(the president of the Soviet Union). However, the Russian society and the Russian politicians
were shocked, when they realized that the Commonwealth of Independent States did not
become, as expected, the successor of the Soviet Union, headed by Russia. They were
surprised by the fact that Ukraine now was an independent state in reality and not only
formally (as the former Ukrainian Soviet Republic). They were not prepared and unwilling to recognize
Ukraine as an equal state and as a separate nation. On the other hand, the Ukrainian government
aimed at the maintenance and extension of state's sovereignty and at relations with
Russia on the basis of equality. Currently, the two countries are engaged in
the Russo-Ukrainian War which started in 2014 following Russian annexation of Crimea from
Ukraine. The modern bilateral relationship between the Russian Federation and Ukraine
formally started during World War I as the former Russian Empire was going through its
political reform. In 1920, the bilateral relationship between two countries was changed as Ukraine
was conquered by the Russian Red Army and Polish Army. In 1990s, immediately upon the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, of which both Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine had
been formally founding constituent republics, bilateral relations were revived. Relations
between the two countries have severely fallen apart since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution,
followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and over Russia's backing for
the separatists fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic
in a war that by early 2020 had killed more than 13,000 people and brought Western sanctions
on Russia. The relations between the two independent
states were from the very beginning difficult. Almost all issues have their roots in the
imperial past, and Russia has a long imperial past. For the record, at the end of the 19th
century, the huge territory of the Russian Empire extended from Poland in the West to
the Korean border in the East, from the coast of the Arctic Sea to the oases and deserts
of Central Asia and to the Caucasus in the South. Its population of 140 million was composed
of 44% ethnic Russians, 18% Ukrainians, 11% Muslims, 7% Poles, 5% Belorussians, 4% Jews,
and 11% other groups. Well, let's now have a look at the border.
Russia and Ukraine share 2,295 kilometers of border. In 2014, the Ukrainian government
unveiled a plan to build a defensive walled system along the border with Russia, named
"Project Wall". It was expected to cost almost $520 million, take four years to complete
and has been under construction as of 2015. In June 2020 the State Border Guard of Ukraine
expected that the project would be finished by 2025.
On 22 March 2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that required Russian
citizens and individuals without citizenship, who come from migration risk countries to
notify the Ukrainian authorities in advance about their reason for travelling to Ukraine,
and since 30 November 2018 Ukraine bans all Russian men between 16 and 60 from entering
the country with exceptions for humanitarian purposes.
So, the big question is... Why is Ukraine so important to Russia? And
what are Russia’s objectives in Ukraine? The two neighboring countries have been intertwined
for over 1,000 years of tumultuous history. Today, Ukraine is one of Russia's biggest
markets for natural gas exports, a crucial transit route to the rest of Europe, and home
to an estimated 7.5 million ethnic Russians who mostly live in eastern Ukraine and the
southern region of Crimea. (All told, about 25 percent of Ukraine's 46 million people
claim Russian as their mother tongue.) Russia lacks natural borders like rivers and mountains
along its western frontier, so its leaders have traditionally seen the maintenance of
a sphere of influence over the countries around it as source of security. That's especially
true of Ukraine, which Russia regards as its little brother. As Kremlin adviser Sergei
Markov said, "Everybody knows that Ukrainians are Russians, "Except for the Galicians" a
reference to the Ukrainian-speaking residents of western Ukraine.
Under Putin, Russia has been described as a revanchist power, keen to regain its former
power and prestige. “It was always Putin’s goal to restore Russia to the status of a
great power in northern Eurasia,” said Gerard Toal, an international affairs professor at
Virginia Tech, in his book Near Abroad. “The end goal was not to re-create the Soviet Union
but to make Russia great again.” By seizing Crimea, Russia has solidified its control
of a critical foothold on the Black Sea. With a larger and more sophisticated military presence
there, Russia can project power deeper into the Mediterranean, Middle East, and North
Africa, where it has traditionally had limited influence. Meanwhile, to the south, Russia
is strengthening its military and energy ties with Turkey, another Black Sea power. Russia’s
strategic gains in the Donbas are more fragile. Supporting the separatists have, at least
temporarily, increased Russia’s bargaining power against Ukraine, but the region’s
future is highly uncertain. Fostering political instability there may be Russia’s aim until
other factors shift in its favor. In conclusion:
Again Ukraine is the most important and disputed region. Russia fears a complete separation
of Ukraine from Russia and its entrance into the European Union and the NATO. As already
in tsarist Russia this is regarded as a threat for Russia's position as a great power and
also a threat for the Russian nation, imagined again as an Orthodox “all-Russian” nation.
So, the asymmetry of the relationship persists until today. Russia exerts considerable economic
and political pressure to keep Ukraine in its imperial strategic realm and tries to
prevent the integration of Ukraine to EU and NATO. As already mentioned, this problem is
on today’s political agenda. Thanks for watching, and as always if you
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