Historical terms involved: NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization - Military Alliance Organization)
Warsaw Pact (historically defunct military alliance organization against NATO)
Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union (a form of confrontation other than resorting to war)
European Union (a coalition organization that seeks a voice to speak for)
First of all, let me briefly introduce Russia. Russia, also known as the Russian Federation. It is a federal semi-presidential republic composed of 22 autonomous republics, 46 oblasts, 9 krai regions, 4 autonomous regions, 1 autonomous prefecture and 3 federal municipalities directly under the central government. Located in the northern part of Eurasia, spanning two continents of Eurasia, with a land area of 17.0982 million square kilometers, it is the largest country in the world, and it is also a unified multi-ethnic country composed of 194 ethnic groups, the main ethnic group is Russians, accounting for about 77.7% of the total population of the country. The ancestors of the Russians were the East Slavic Rus tribes. At the end of the 15th century, a unified feudal state was gradually formed with the Grand Duchy of Moscow as the center. In 1547 Ivan IV changed the title of Grand Duke to Tsar, and in 1721 Peter I was awarded the title of "All-Russian Emperor" by the Senate and established the Russian Empire. It has historically annexed several Countries in Eurasia and reached its peak during the reign of Catherine II Alexeyevna in the mid-to-late 18th century. Soviet Russia was established after the October Revolution of 1917. On December 30, 1922, the Soviet Union formed the Soviet Union with the countries that had become independent from the Russian Empire after the same war. During the Cold War, it became a superpower and competed with the United States for hegemony by vigorously developing military power.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, the largest member state, inherited most of the Soviet Union's military power. It has the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world. In the international system of "one superpower and many strong", Russia is a powerful country with great influence, and its military industrial strength is strong, especially higher education and aerospace technology, ranking the forefront of the world. Russia is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and has a veto over Security Council bills. In addition, it is a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and one of the BRICS countries.
Next, let's talk about Ukraine. The land area is 603,700 square kilometers, with a length of 1,300 kilometers from east to west and 900 kilometers from north to south. Beijing area: 16,410 square kilometers, equivalent to 60 Beijing. Official language: Ukrainian (the language is also different from Russia). Two-thirds of Ukraine's land area is black, accounting for 1/4 of the world's total black soil. Forest resources are relatively rich, with a forest coverage rate of 43%, spanning three vegetation belts, and most of the areas have a temperate continental climate. The whole country of Ukraine is divided into 24 oblasts, 1 autonomous republic, 2 municipalities directly under the central government, a total of 27 first-level administrative regions. Capital: Kiev (historically powerful Principality of Kievan Rus' where Ukraine has always been at odds with Russia, who considers himself the heir of Kievan Rus'); Population: 2.78 million. It has an area of 827 square kilometers. National political, economic, cultural and scientific center. Ukraine was divided in the 9th century (called Kievan Rus') → the 12th century→ was ruled by three countries in turn in the middle of the 14th century→ partitioned in 1700-1721→ most of the 19th century was classified as Russia, the rest belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire → the brief independence of 1917-1921→ the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (the founding member of the Soviet Union) in 1922 → the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the independence of Ukraine.
So, after Ukraine's independence in history, how did it have relations with world powers and international organizations? Let's take a look at it.
Ukraine and Russia:
On August 24, 1991, after the independence of Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine had great contradictions over the "separation of ownership" of the Black Sea Fleet. In early 2005, former Ukrainian President Yushchenko pursued a foreign policy of "alienating Russia and pro-Europe" after coming to power, vigorously pursued NATO membership, and repeatedly engaged in fierce disputes with Russia on issues such as natural gas transit, black sea fleet garrison, and border demarcation, resulting in a stalemate in bilateral relations.
In March 2014, Putin signed crimea's treaty with Russia, and relations between the two countries deteriorated. On June 8, 2014, Ukraine's new president said he would never recognize Russia's territorial occupation of Crimea.
In September 2018, Ukraine announced the abrogation of the Treaty of Friendship and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia.
In November 2018, the Ukrainian and Russian navies engaged in maritime military friction in the Kerch Strait, in which the two sides accused each other of violating international law and violating their own sovereignty.
Since January 2020, Ukraine has imposed a full change to Ukrainian in the service sector, prohibiting the use of Russian.
From 16 January 2022, the relevant legal provisions on the use of the language of the national print media in Ukraine will be implemented. Newspapers, magazines, and even crossword puzzle books will only be published in Ukrainian.
From July 16, 2022, those who communicate with customers in Russian in the service sector will be fined up to about 2760 yuan.
Ukraine's Constitutional Court approved a law in February 2021 prohibiting the broadcasting of Russian movies and television programs on state television.
Ukraine and the United States:
After independence in 1991, Kuch President Ma took office in 1994, and he struggled to adopt a balanced policy: for Russia, he was willing to defend the interests of the Russian-speaking population at home; for western countries led by the United States, he maintained a cautious anti-Russian tone in public. In order to establish a pro-Western regime, the United States carefully cultivated their counterpart Yushchenko, nicknamed "American son-in-law". In 1998, during Yushchenko's visit to the United States, he fell in love with Chumachenko, a Ukrainian-American woman who accompanied him, and soon held a wedding. In 2004, Yushchenko came to power with the help of the United States. During his term of office, Yushchenko had strained relations with Russia. In the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, Yushchenko received only 5.45% of the vote and stepped down, while the pro-Russian Yanukovych was elected president. The United States and other Western countries refused to give up, and launched another color revolution in Ukraine at the end of 2013, and pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in early 2014. In this case, in order to prevent Ukraine from falling to the West in an all-round way, Russia sent troops to the Crimean Peninsula, causing Crimea to "break away from Ukraine and enter Russia." The United States has recently continued to play up "Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine" to create tensions, just as Russian officials have called it, the United States has continued to "arch fire" on the Ukraine issue and has been "hysterical to the extreme."
Ukraine and the European Union:
Ukraine's western borders on the European Union. Ukraine is working to deepen relations with the EU. On 30 March 2012, Ukraine and the EUROPEAN Union initialled a Treaty of Associated States, which was originally planned to be signed on 28 November 2013. But suspended due to Russian relations. On June 7, 2014, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wanted the country to become a member of the European Union, and the signing of the Associated States Agreement with the EU was seen as a prospect for joining the EU, and hoped to sign an Associated States Agreement with the EU as soon as possible. On 16 September 2014, Parliament formally ratified the Associated States Agreement with the European Union. In January 2016, the UEU-China FTA was officially launched. In September 2017, the Agreement between the Associated States of Ukraine and Europe entered into force.
Ukraine and NATO:
On 23 December, Parliament passed by an absolute majority the waiver of the Non-Aligned Status Bill, deciding to strengthen cooperation with NATO. On June 12, 2020, the Ukrainian foreign minister said that Ukraine had been given the opportunity of NATO to strengthen its status as a partner country.
So why Russia and Ukraine are fighting, the reasons are very clear:
1. Ukraine joins NATO
In the early morning of February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unusual national speech, officially announcing the Russian military operation in the eastern part of Ukraine, which also means that the "powder keg" of Ukraine that the world has been watching for months has finally exploded, and Russia has chosen to confront Ukraine and NATO behind it in the most drastic way.
In the 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West has deceived Russia many times and expanded NATO eastward step by step, so that Russia's core interests have been seriously threatened.
Western countries, led by the United States, have always adopted a step-by-step "encroachment" strategy against Russia, that is, economic sanctions are the mainstay, supplemented by military deterrence. From the perspective of military strength, the United States and its NATO allies have far surpassed Russia in conventional strength, but Russia has one of the world's largest nuclear arsenals, and it is precisely because of its powerful trinity nuclear forces that Western countries have never clashed head-on with Russia.
2. Historical origins. Ukraine, like Russia, was a member of the Soviet Union, and the two countries were both from the Slavic nation, but in the following hundreds of years, the two countries embarked on completely different paths, with obvious differences in economic development, culture and language, and ideology, and Russia and Ukraine began to form a grudge. In terms of ethnicity, both the Russian and Ukrainian communities consider themselves to be authentic descendants of Kievan Rus' and this is also one of the contradictions between the two;
3. Conflict in the Donbass region. Donbass is the abbreviation of the Donetsk Basin, its area is only more than 60,000 square kilometers, but it is distributed in the "Donetsk People's Republic" and "Luhansk People's Republic" two "countries" that are not widely recognized by the international community. Historically, regions such as donbass have been dominated by ethnic Russians. However, after Khrushchev came to power, the Soviet Union officially included The Donbass into the territory of Ukraine, which also laid hidden dangers for the border dispute after the collapse of the Soviet Union;
4. The United States stirs up dissension. The US side continues to hype up the situation between Russia and Ukraine, with the intention of making a profit in the European energy supply market by creating a Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Recently, the United States and other Western countries have continued to hype the threat of Russia's imminent "invasion" of Ukraine. On February 13, the United States aided the Ukrainian government with 180 tons of ammunition. The Russian Foreign Ministry accuses the United States and other Western countries of provoking a wave of "toxic" propaganda wars, according to "Russia Today", the United States intends to make a lot of money in the European energy supply market by creating a Russian-Ukrainian conflict;
5. Extraterritorial forces add fuel to the fire. Ukraine has long been seen as a strategic bridgehead to contain Russia. During the Cold War, former US Secretary of State and strategist Brzezinski declared that "without Ukraine, Russia would no longer be a Eurasian empire." At present, NATO is carrying out a "strategic eastward shift" in Europe, and the United States has increased military and economic assistance to Ukraine.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Bach said: Thank you for the Winter Olympics and give peace a reason.
Putin is very face-saving, the Winter Olympics are lively and lively, and he has endured until the end of the fight.
Finally, may there be peace in the world.
#Russia ##Chechnya##Ukraine##乌方: Russian troops enter the Kiev region of the capital of Ukraine #