Ukraine ------- a geostrategic and tragic country, from the "third military power in the world" at the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union to the imminent disintegration of the Soviet Union.
In just over 30 years, this country, which has one of the world's most famous black lands, once owned thousands of strategic nuclear bombs, and which once inherited the rich legacy of the Soviet Union, has become seemingly dispossessed in the cracks between the United States and Russia, and even the remaining land and population are difficult to keep, sinking into the world's biggest laughing stock.
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Ukraine is bordered by Russia to the east, Central Europe to the west, the Black Sea to the south, and Belarus to the north.
For NATO, Ukraine is the forward guard post to encircle Russia; for Russia, Ukraine is the western gate to resist NATO, especially in the case that only Ukraine and Belarus have not yet joined NATO in Eastern European countries, Ukraine's geographical strategic location is no less than Russia's "throat".
Therefore, Ukraine and non-accession to NATO is the bottom line of Putin's war against Europe, thanks to the rapid eastward expansion of NATO in the post-Soviet era, Russia has been forced to red eyes, in addition to trying to prevent Ukraine from entering the European Union, there seems to be no second way to go, which is a threshold that has long been blocked in the face of Russian-Ukrainian relations.
In fact, with the gradual complication of practical problems, the contradiction between Russia and Ukraine today is no longer simply a question of whether Ukraine can enter the European Union and whether NATO can expand eastward.
With the intervention of the United States, which is known as the "world's churning stick", the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has long been no longer a matter of two countries.
As we all know, in the Baltic Sea and Germany, there is a natural gas supply pipeline called "Nord Stream II". The pipeline is exclusively owned by Gazprom and by January 2021 the project has completed 90% of its overall progress.
At this rate, it will not take long for the new pipeline of gas supply between Russia and Europe to be fully ventilated. Once the two sides form a mutually beneficial situation, U.S. natural gas in Europe is not a competitor to Russian gas at all.
This is not the point, the crux of the matter is that Russia and Europe have left the United States aside and settled it in euros. For challenging the dollar hegemonic system, this is not something that the United States can tolerate.
Therefore, from the end of 2021, when the contradictions between Russia and Ukraine are in friction, the United States uses the right to speak of world public opinion to desperately play up that Russia will "invade" Ukraine and render the huge "threat" that Russia will bring to Europe, in order to yellow the "Nord Stream II" and prevent euro settlement between Russia and Germany.
The United States took the opportunity to incite the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, not only to defend the dollar hegemonic system, but also to achieve the close integration of Europe into the arms of the United States by increasing the number of troops in Germany, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and other places. On the other hand, the United States can also contain Russia through this move, and Biden's wishful thinking can really be described as killing two birds with one stone.
The United States and Russia have their own plans for the Ukrainian issue, but Zelenskiy, who came from a comedy background, did not turn the country into a comedy, but made it a great tragedy.
Zelenskiy knew Putin's bottom line, but he fantasized about joining NATO one by one, and after getting the arms "knife handed over" by the United States and Europe, he was even more dizzy. The final result was also seen by everyone: the United States and Europe did not help Ukraine resist the Russian army, the Russians drove all the way in, and Zelensky estimated that the intestines were remorseful.
One of the tragedies of Ukraine is the absence of a good president.
Whether it is the first president since the post-Soviet era Kravchuk, or the current president Zelenskiy, they are either born as scientists, or candy traders, or comedians, and some have squatted in prison, each with a different starting point in politics.
Of course, the heroes do not ask the provenance, but among all the Ukrainian presidents up to now, there is no recognized heroic figure, if you want to talk about their "heroic deeds", then their most prominent "contribution" is to gradually on the verge of death crazy temptation.
On December 8, 1991, Ukraine's first president, Kravchuk, signed a sensational Belovezh Agreement with Russia's Yeltsin and Belarus' Shushkovich.
After the signing of the agreement, Ukraine became a member of the "Commonwealth of Independent States", and Kravchuk's presidential status achieved universally recognized legitimacy.
From a central official in the Soviet Union to becoming the president of a country, the triumphant Kravchuk said excitedly: "I support the collapse of the Soviet Union, in accordance with the opinion of the vast majority of Ukrainians, we should decide the future of the country ourselves."
After independence, Ukraine received a rich inheritance from the Soviet Union's separated families, including 800,000 troops, 6,500 tanks, 7,000 armored vehicles, more than 1,000 aircraft, more than 300 warships, and more than 2,700 nuclear weapons.
This is still the existing direct weaponry, and in terms of pure hardware strength, Ukraine has received 35% of the military enterprises in the entire Soviet Union.
Three of the 6 shipyards in the SOVIET Union alone were in Ukraine. A large number of top giants in the industry, such as the Antonov Design Bureau, the Southern Machinery Factory, and the Black Sea Shipyard, are all unique to Ukraine.
Don't underestimate these military technology companies, in terms of military production capacity alone, these major enterprises in The Soviet Era Ukraine can share about 35%. For example, the Antonov Design Bureau, a well-known aviation giant, produced the An-225 transport aircraft, which is still the largest aircraft in the world.
Another example is the Black Sea Shipyard, which was a century-old famous enterprise that was born in the Tsarist era. Not only does it have a long history, it is also incredibly powerful. In the Soviet era, it was the only aircraft carrier assembly plant, and all soviet aircraft carriers came out of here, even the predecessor of the Liaoning, the Varyag aircraft carrier, which is also the masterpiece of the Black Sea Shipyard.
The hardware is so strong, and Ukraine's software strength should not be underestimated. Ukraine, which has just become independent from the Soviet Union, has 40% of the high-tech talents in the entire Soviet Union, a large number of technical personnel, the overall education ratio of the people is also very high, the human resources are abundant, and the advantage of being a latecomer is obvious.
On these two levels alone, it can be said that the military strength of Ukraine at this time is the "third military power in the world" besides the United States and Russia.
However, in the face of such a strong family foundation, After coming to power, Kravchuk implemented the bloodletting style of "shock therapy" as usual. In the privatization of state-owned enterprises, the full opening of the market, the introduction of a large amount of money to the market, and many other aspects, Kravchuk went straight to the end and directly carried out the whole economic situation in Ukraine.
As a result, oligarchs rose, officials became corrupt, prices soared, coins depreciated, and people suddenly realized from their original fantasies of a good life after independence that they were not living as well as they were in the Soviet era.
If We say that Crawchuk did it in the economic aspect, after all, the economic downturn is at best hungry and hungry, and social security is not good. But then he operated a fierce rhythm, which really frightened people.
In 1994, under the influence of the United States and Russia, Ukraine went so far as to sign the Budapest Memorandum of Understanding on Security Assurances with the United States, Russia, and other countries, announcing that it would renounce all nuclear weapons.
Under the influence of the United States and Russia, part of Ukraine's nuclear weapons were dismembered and "bones", and the other part was sold to Russia. Since then, Ukraine has changed from a "nuclear power" to a "small non-nuclear power".
Not only nuclear weapons, Kravchuk also dismantled missiles and strategic bombers into scrap iron, and even the Varyag aircraft carrier was turned into a bunch of useless empty shells under the flicker of the Americans.
The United States and Russia also promised that as long as Ukraine dealt with all those "useless" things, the United States and Russia could provide security for Ukraine.
In this way, with the efforts of Kravchuk and his successor Kuchma, and with the added efforts of the United States and Russia, the Americans, who were active and enthusiastic about destroying the country, lame Ukraine's military, the economy fell, and the talent flickered away, and the whole of Ukraine became a living "walking dead" and never had the opportunity to "the world's third military power" again.
At this time, although Kravchuk and Kuchma had made a mess in Ukraine, and the defense and military were even more messed up, the Ukrainians could barely live a few days of peace.
Kravchuk and Kuchma know how to play a balanced diplomacy between the United States and Russia, but their level of governance is indeed a little worse than Putin's, but they do not want to put Ukraine out of flames.
But then the completely pro-American Yushchenko, Poroshenko, and Zelensky unleashed a wave of quick-pulling hate.
In 2005, after the Orange Revolution, Yushchenko ascended to the presidency. If Ukraine's first two presidents only hoped that the country could live a few days of comfort in the great power game, then the "pro-American" Yushchenko opened Pandora's box.
After Yushchenko came to power, in the spirit of a determined attitude of life and entry into Europe, he publicly stated: "My soul belongs to Europe... Ukraine's strategic goal is to become a member of the European Union. ”
To that end, Yushchenko was busy like a gyroscope, agitating everywhere for the Ukrainian government to join the European Union and NATO. Under his personal practice, the pro-Western forces within the Ukrainian government have soared, and Ukraine has launched a three-year reform plan for this.
In terms of implementing reforms, Yushchenko, a banker by birth, directly distributed 80% of the Ukrainian government's financial expenditure to the people, hoping to make the people rich. As a result, after a large amount of cash flow entered the pockets of the people, the people's livelihood in Ukraine not only did not improve, but also caused prices to soar, and inflation continued to soar.
A banker who was able to change economic reforms into this way has to say that Ukraine's third president was indeed a "genius."
The economic side is not yet finished, and Yushchenko, who is trying to bridge the rift between ukraine's east and west, has made a brainchild of nationalism. Bandera, who served as Hitler's lackey in World War II, was brought out to whitewash and praised Bandera as a "national hero" . Under his strong advocacy, the Nazi forces in Ukraine rose rapidly.
Since then, whether it is diplomacy, economy, or internal national painting style in Ukraine, under the madness of Yushchenko, Ukraine's out-of-control carriage has accelerated naked along this road that cannot be turned back.
After Yushchenko began to move closer to the West in an all-round way, Yanukovych, the fourth president of Ukraine, who was immediately followed, suddenly slammed the brakes and pulled Ukraine back into the arms of Russia.
At the beginning of his term of office, the "pro-Russian faction" Yanukovych said unabashedly: "Friendship with Russia is the basis of Ukraine's revival, without Russia, Ukraine has no future."
Under the guidance of this idea, the leaders of Russia and Ukraine have frequently exchanged visits and reached a number of cooperation agreements in the fields of science, education and culture. Mr. Yanukovych extended the charter of the Crimean naval base to Russia, while Russia cut the price of natural gas by 30 percent, saving Ukraine more than $40 billion.
During this period, Russia and Ukraine spent a short "honeymoon period", and Ukraine's poor economic situation improved slightly.
But Yanukovych's pro-Russian attitude does not mean that the Ukrainian people will follow suit, especially in the western part of Ukraine, which can be called an old pro-Western faction, and will not agree.
Yanukovych terminated the signing of a free trade agreement with the European Union to show his determination to follow Russia. This means that Yanukovych's government will have the potential to turn completely to Russia, something that many pro-Western Ukrainians cannot tolerate.
As a result, at the end of 2013, a large number of Ukrainians took to the streets in protest, demanding that Yanukovych step down. Soon, the demonstrations turned violent, and Yanukovych was forced into exile in Russia after being removed from the presidency.
But then came Yanukovych another wave of riots: he asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to intervene and stop the riots in Ukraine.
Anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine is high, out of consideration of practical interests, Putin decisively intervened, and secretly took the Ukrainian military stronghold in crimea with lightning speed and cover-up, and actually controlled the local area.
As everyone knows after that, the Crimean referendum was incorporated into the Russian Federation. At the same time, the people of eastern Ukraine became agitated, demanding secession from Ukraine and organizing militias to engage in firefights with Ukrainian government forces.
At this point, Ukraine, which was once the "third military power in the world", is about to embark on a road of no return that is falling apart. But the divisive rivalry within Ukraine is far from over.
Poroshenko was a Ukrainian oligarch by birth as a "confectionery trader.". During his reign, apart from corruption and the use of his power to do business, he really couldn't think of a way to get Ukraine out of its predicament.
As soon as he took office, Poroshenko slammed the brakes on the brakes again, pushing Ukraine rapidly closer to the Camp of Western powers. At this time, Crimea was incorporated into Russia, and eastern Ukraine was in a state of partition.
Poroshenko, in order to show the posture of "strongman politics", wanted to send two small boats, threatened to crash into the Russian troops cruising on the Kerch Strait, and for a time, became the laughing stock of the world.
In dealing with the problem in eastern Ukraine, Poroshenko declared to the outside world that it would take 3 months to quell the chaos in eastern Ukraine. As a result, the 3 brigades he sent out were beaten by the militia in eastern Ukraine, and more than 3,000 Ukrainian troops were killed on the battlefield.
But Poroshenko was still not dead hearted, and continued to send a large number of elite troops to fight in the eastern region of Ukraine, and it is no doubt that these troops have become cannon fodder.
The regular elite troops were almost exhausted, and Poroshenko took the initiative to make friends with the Nazi forces in Ukraine, which were actually legitimized under his divine operation.
Then, Poroshenko sent these Nazi organizations to the eastern region to carry out assassinations, kidnappings and other terrorist incidents, but the combat effectiveness of these organizations was too poor, how could they withstand the blows of the militia in eastern Ukraine backed by Russia? After several times, it was beaten down again.
Poroshenko, who was suspicious of his life, had no choice but to sign the Minsk Agreement with Russia. At this point, Ukraine not only lost Crimea, but also completely lost control of the Donbass region.
After Poroshenko's "grand finale" performance, the comedian Zelenskiy also ran to Ukrainian politics to join in the fun. At this time, the fragmentation of Ukraine is a foregone conclusion, the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine is still continuing, especially under the rendering of the United States, the tension is constantly increasing, and Russia is not fooled by the Americans, and it has announced the withdrawal of its troops from the border.
Zelenskiy, who played comedy, saw that the Russian army was running away, so while ordering the Ukrainian army to continue to march eastward, vowing to recover Donbass, he also asked Europe and the United States for military support.
The Americans agreed: You just have to fight, and we are covered in the back! What are you afraid of?!
With the support of the Americans, Zelenskiy had the courage to rush forward in eastern Ukraine, and the result did not expect that Russia was real, a shot directly touched Kiev, Zelenskiy found that comedy turned into tragedy, and finally saw the true face of the Americans, crying and shouting: Liar! Americans this big liar!
From kravchuk in the post-Soviet era to Zelenskiy today, as ukraine's presidents have been, it is not surprising that Ukraine has fallen into what it is today.
Ukrainians and Russians belong to the same East Slavs, and after all, they share a common ancestor. From the 3rd to the 8th century AD, the East Slavs' sphere of influence encompassed what is now Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia.
At this time, the East Slavs did not separate their families, and they all existed as tribes.
By about the 9th century, the Varyags of Northern Europe had fused with the local East Slavs to form Kievan Rus', with Orthodoxy as the state religion, and the East Slavs began to form the state of Kievan Rus' at this time.
The East Slavs at this time were called "Rus' people". In fact, the "Rus' people" are also the name of "Russians", but later with the strength of the Russian Empire, Tsarist Russia inherited the mantle of "Rus'. Thus, the term "Russian" became their exclusive.
Thus, from the point of view of this title shift, there was no difference between Russians and Ukrainians a long time ago.
But this originally undifferentiated geographical and cultural identity, with the arrival of the Mongols, everything changed dramatically.
In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire arose, coinciding with the long-standing chaos and infighting in Kievan Rus' and the Mongols effortlessly conquered the Rus' in kievan rus' territory.
In order to preserve its strength, the Grand Duchy of Moscow (the predecessor of the Russian Empire) had to avoid the subjugation of the country through generous bribes, and from then on the Grand Duchy of Moscow became the tax collector for the Mongols in the former Kievan Rus' territory.
During the hundred years that the Golden Horde established by the Mongols ruled the Rus' region, the Grand Duchy of Moscow continued to intermarry with the upper echelons of the Mongol nobility, and under the profound influence of the Mongols, the Russians not only underwent great changes in blood, but also in the political, economic, cultural, military and social systems and many other aspects of fundamental changes.
It was also from this time that the cultural and ethnic differences between Ukrainians and Russians began to drift apart.
However, ukrainians at this time still did not have a national identity.
After the decline of the Golden Horde, the mighty Grand Duchy of Moscow expanded wildly, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow was rapidly transformed into the Russian Empire (also known as Tsarist Russia).
In 1569, with the birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the territory of Ukrainian life was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which is not a cultural identity with the Russians, ruled Ukrainian territory while the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was heavily catholic in its western part, while eastern Ukraine remained Orthodox.
From this time on, Ukrainians gradually developed a sense of national identity, but the problem of trouble also came. The Cossacks of eastern Ukraine were at odds with the Ukrainians due to cultural differences and religious beliefs, and during their belonging to Ukraine, they believed that the rights given to them by the Ukrainians were too small, so they defected to the Tsarist banner of the East Slavs.
Tsarist Russia accepted them with open arms, and later the Cossacks believed that they were in an unequal position with Tsarist Russia, so they wanted to return to the arms of the Ukrainians, so Tsarist Russia simply sent troops to pacify the Cossacks, and the eastern region of Ukraine was since incorporated into the territory of the Russian Empire.
During Tsarist rule in eastern Ukraine, Russians continued to inculcate their cultural values in the area while migrating to the area. After more than 300 years of assimilation, eastern Ukraine was basically and completely assimilated by Russia in all respects.
After the 18th century, the mighty Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth gradually declined and withdrew from the historical stage, and western Ukraine was repeatedly divided between Russia, Prussia, Austria and other countries. After that, Tsarist Russia finally gained complete control of the entire Ukrainian region through a series of wars.
However, at this time, the Russian Empire was in decline, and by the time of World War I, it had completely collapsed, and the Soviet Union, which had been replaced by The Soviet Union, continued to rule Ukraine.
However, it is worth mentioning that in the Soviet era, Ukraine became a member of the Soviet family in the form of a union republic, and it was not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that Ukraine officially appeared as an independent sovereign state in the world political landscape.
From the historical evolution of Ukraine, we can see that Ukraine has been repeatedly ruled by different countries and nations in history, especially the Color of Europeanization in the West is more obvious, while the East is in the process of Russification. The different cultural beliefs that followed from the East and the West laid the groundwork for the future tragedy of Ukraine.
From the geographical point of view, Ukraine is located between Central Europe, Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe and the Black Sea, the geostrategic position is extremely dangerous, who controls Ukraine, means who can control the Black Sea, who can open the door between Eastern Europe and Central and Western Europe.
The precarious geostrategic location means that this place has always been a place of four battles that must be fought by soldiers. As a result of the scramble, Ukraine has been repeatedly infiltrated by different cultures and nationalities, which has led to the formation of culturally diverse and ethnically complex characteristics in the Ukrainian region.
Unfortunately, Ukraine itself has never produced a regime strong enough to protect itself in history, so under the great power game, the country inevitably becomes a tool of the game of other countries.
This is the misfortune of Ukraine's geopolitical position, and it is also the sadness of Ukraine's national fortunes.
In fact, from another perspective, the continuation of a mature civilization is often inseparable from an excellent geostrategic position. Take ancient China, for example. In the thousands of years of historical evolution of China, civilization has never been interrupted.
There are many reasons for the lack of interruption, which cannot be rolled out in detail here, but from the perspective of pure geographical location, China's geographical location is an important guarantee for the survival of Chinese civilization for thousands of years.
China's western part is the Himalayas, the northwest is the Yellow Sand Desert, the northeast is steep mountains, the east and south are barriered by the sea, and the north is the Mongolian Plateau.
Judging from this particular geographical structure, only the nomadic tribes in the north were the greatest threat to ancient China, and historical facts have proved that for thousands of years, our main threat came from the nomadic peoples in the north.
In the era of low productivity and underdeveloped science and technology in ancient times, special geological structures such as mountains, oceans and deserts undoubtedly provided an important guarantee for production and life for the Ancestors of China.
And Ukraine? Located on the vast plains of Eastern Europe, with no strategic points to defend, coupled with the fact that it was a place of four wars and no powerful home state, Ukraine's geopolitical position was unfortunate, making his national fortunes always bumpy.
Geopolitical dangers are difficult to defend, exacerbating the difficulties in the rise of Ukraine's own political power, the difficulties in the rise of the local regime, and exacerbating the ukrainian rulers are bound to be difficult to do, and the arbitrary actions of the rulers of the past have magnified the geographical disadvantages that are already fragile and difficult to protect themselves, and then count the long history of the great power game, under the overlapping and counterforce of these factors, the situation of a scattered sand within Ukraine is even more difficult to end, and the final disaster is that Ukraine, which once enjoyed the "world's third military power", We are about to embark on a path of disintegration.
Ukraine's impending disintegration is much more than that. Located in western Ukraine, Ternopil, Chernivtsi, Warren, Lviv and other places have historically been the land of Hungary, Poland and Romania, and once Ukraine is completely in decline in the gap between the United States and Russia, it is guaranteed that these countries will propose territorial rights to Ukraine, at that time, Ukraine will really collapse.
This is the misfortune of Ukraine, and it is also the sadness of small countries under the great power game. How long can Ukraine go on the road of safeguarding national unity and sovereign integrity? Let's wait and see!
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