In recent weeks, these strange names have been present in practically every news and newspaper in the world. When the generation that today borders on forty years of life, in Universal History classes and books we were told about the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) but after the emergence of nations produced at the beginning of the 1990s, new names on the map of the Russian Confederation, not at all familiar with what people used to hear and learn about this part of the world in years past. Today, two of these names are the protagonists of one of the last multi-ethnic conflicts in Eastern Europe, which also contain long-standing economic and political interests. We are talking about Ukraine and Crimea , but do we have summary information about these nations that have gradually entered our information bank, in the face of the insistent question of some student interested in knowing more about this topic? Perhaps in this note you can find the answer you are looking for on this geopolitical and historical problem that confronts nations that share their origins, languages and histories.
The Russian Empire, like all the great Empires that have existed, has always had the intention of expanding in a way that allows it to safeguard its geopolitical interests. Most of the time, these geopolitical interests are closely related to the exploitation of natural resources that ensure the survival of peoples and serve to protect them from their historical enemies.
After the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991, Ukraine , like many of the countries that made up the great communist bloc of Eastern Europe, gained its independence. Ukraine It is a country that has an extension of 603,000 square km and 48 million inhabitants. Of these 48 million, 73 percent are of Ukrainian origin, 22 percent of Russian origin, and the rest are of Moldovan, Romanian, Bulgarian, Belarusian, Tatar, and Polish origin.
Ukraine , due to its geographical situation that places it between Russia and the European Union, it is a territory that is in the middle of the political-economic interests of these two great blocs. To the west, Ukraine It borders Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, all countries belonging to the European Union, with the exception of Moldova. To the east, its extensive border with Russia has made this country a republic dependent on the government of Vladimir Putin.
Russia has been seen since the 14th century as the heir to the first Slavic state, born in kyiv. This situation explains the Putin government's refusal to allow Ukraine close relations with the European Union. Russia perceived the independence of Ukraine in 1991 as the loss of a territory whose identity is closely linked to theirs. The remoteness of the Russian border from central Europe and also from the Black Sea (Ukraine has a part of the port of Sevastopol leased so that Russia can maintain a naval fleet there for twenty years), was understood by the Russian authorities as a danger to their geopolitical interests.
The region of Crimea offered by Nikita Khrushchev to Ukraine in 1954, it has 70% of the population of Russian origin, this region is essential to exercise control over the black sea. Until 2004, the economic growth of Ukraine it benefited in large part from the strong economy of its largest trading partner, Russia, a country that supplies kyiv with a large amount of oil and gas. For its part, Ukraine It has the largest network of oil and gas pipelines in Europe. The European Union is dependent on gas and oil from Ukraine , situation by which most Western European countries seek to approach Ukraine and have good relations with this young Republic.
In the year 2004, Victor Yanukovych, who was Prime Minister of Ukraine , resorts to electoral fraud to stop the possible victory in the presidential elections of Victor Yushchenko, the opposition candidate. Yanukovych won the elections that year, sparking a wave of protests across the country. The orange revolution, as the movement formed to protest against the illegitimate election was known, got the supreme court of Ukraine invalidate the elections and call for new ones. The opposition candidate, Yushchenko, emerged victorious in an election that was not contested.
In 2009, new presidential elections were held in which Yanukovych triumphed against the right-wing opposition candidate, Yulia Tymoschenko. Despite his pro-Russian conviction, Yanukovych approached the European Union during the years of his government in a commercial way, being the Association led by France and Germany, the largest commercial partner of Ukraine at present.
In March 2012, Yanukovych signed an accession agreement for Ukraine to the European Union, an agreement that was not carried out because Yanukovych did not agree to release Yulia Tymoschenko, the right-wing opposition leader, from prison. Throughout 2013, the sharp drop in industrial production in Ukraine caused Yanukovych to approach the European Union again in search of help and in order to sign the accession treaty that would allow Ukraine get out of the acute economic crisis in which he still finds himself.
At the last moment and when everything seemed to indicate that Ukraine would sign the Association agreement with the EU, Yanukovych backed down on his promises, provoking a wave of protests and clashes throughout the Ukrainian territory. Victor Yanukovych disappeared from Ukraine on February 21, 2014, leaving the country submerged in a climate of violence and confrontation. Seven days later he reappeared on Russian territory to give a press conference in which he denounced the perpetrators of an alleged coup.
Currently, Ukraine It is governed by the Verkhovna Rada, a pro-European institution that will hold elections again on May 25, 2014.
The conflict in Ukraine It is long-standing and has been the result of ancestral history and the different periods that this country has gone through. The key to understanding the dispute over Ukrainian territory lies in understanding the interests of two powers that claim to have rights over the Slavic Republic. Russia does not look favorably on the rapprochement of Ukraine to the EU because this would also mean having the United States of America in front of your house.