Russia and Ukraine have deep historical ties. For a time in history, Ukraine belonged to the Russian Empire. In 1654, the Ukrainian Cossack leader Khmelnytsky signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar, inviting Tsarist Russia to rule eastern Ukraine, and since then Eastern Ukraine (on the left bank of the Dnieper River) has been formally merged with the Russian Empire, beginning a history of alliance between Ukraine and Russia.
In the 18th century, Russia successively incorporated Ukraine and large areas of the northern shore of the Black Sea into its own territory. By 1795, the rest of Ukraine, with the exception of Galicia (which belonged to Austria from 1772 to 1918), was under the rule of the Russian Empire. During the chaotic period of World War I and the Russian Revolution, Ukraine was briefly independent from 1917 to 1921. After the Civil War in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union in 1922, the second largest republic after Russia. In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed, and Eastern Ukraine joined the Union, becoming one of the founding members of the Soviet Union. Under the Treaty of Riga signed between Poland and the Soviet Union, Western Ukraine became Polish territory, and in November 1939, When World War II broke out, Poland was divided and occupied, and Western Ukraine was merged with the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In 1985, when Gorbachev came to power, the contradictions accumulated in the history and reality of the Soviet Union began to surface, nationalist and separatist tendencies rose rapidly, the political situation in the country began to be sharply turbulent, and at the same time, Ukraine began its independence.
On August 24, 1991, the Ukrainian government issued a declaration of national independence, officially declaring independence from the Soviet Union and changing the name of the country to Ukraine. On December 8, the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus signed the Belovezh Agreement in Minsk, declaring the soviet union no longer existing, establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, and finally completing Ukraine's independence.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine ended its 337-year history of alliance with Russia and became an independent country.
For Ukraine, whose military strength is much weaker than Russia's, it is natural that Russia does not want Russia to have troops stationed in Ukraine. But as Russia is concerned, the loss of the Black Sea Fleet is equivalent to losing control of the Black Sea region, which Russia cannot tolerate, with the change of Ukraine's political orientation, turning to the pro-West and trying to control Russia according to the United States, leading to the emergence of ethnic contradictions within Ukraine, but also led to the political relations between Russia and Ukraine into a state of confrontation. Russia is concerned that a pro-Western Ukraine may even join NATO, completely eliminating its strategic buffer belt and allowing Western military power to reach its doorstep completely, thus becoming a strategic and direct threat to Russia. Judging from the historical entanglements found in Russia and Ukraine, a russo-Ukrainian war is inevitable.
