Ukraine is toyed with by Europe and the United States as pawns, as a tool to provoke Russia, and as a victim of great power politics.
But Ukraine also has a glorious past.
It inherited a large military legacy from the Soviet Union, including 1,272 nuclear warheads and several aircraft carriers affiliated with the Black Sea Fleet.
The first aircraft carrier on the mainland, the Liaoning, was the Varyag from the Ukrainian Black Sea Shipyard.
In addition, Ukraine also has a vast black land, developed agriculture, known as the "granary of Europe"!
However, the glorious title of the past was replaced by the title of "European womb", and Ukraine, which has developed heavy industry and agriculture, has become a "surrogate country", and the Ukrainian crisis has become an international hot spot.
Such a fate is lamentable.
The famous American political scientist Mills Hay tacitly believes that the United States and its European allies are the initiators of the Ukrainian problem, rooted in NATO's eastward expansion.
Because Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made it clear many times that he will not sit idly by while Ukraine, a strategically important neighbor, becomes a fortress for the West.
So, when did the Ukraine crisis begin? What is the reason for Ukraine's current fate?
The reality and context of the crisis in Ukraine
In November 2013, Then-Ukrainian President Yanukovych announced to the outside world that it would suspend the signing of a associated country agreement with the EU, interrupting the EU integration process that people aspire to.
This caused a large number of pro-Western people in The country to take to the streets to protest, the scale of demonstrations continued to expand, and the Western forces, mainly represented by the United States and Germany, supported the opposition's violent seizure of power.
in Yanukovych
The Yanukovych regime collapsed in February 2014, creating chaos in Ukraine.
The following month, the people of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea launched a referendum and declared independence to join the Russian Federation, and large-scale pro-Russian demonstrations broke out in the luhansk, donetsk and other oblasts in eastern Ukraine.
The populace wants to restore traditional ties with Russia, and local militias have clashed with the Ukrainian regime on a large scale.
The people of the two oblasts declared the establishment of the "Luhansk People's Republic" and "Donetsk People's Republic" in a referendum, demanding secession from the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian regime.
(Location map of Ukraine)
Chaotic domestic politics dragged down Ukraine's industry and agriculture, and Ukraine's economy came to a complete standstill.
To make matters worse, prices in Ukraine are soaring, making it hard for ordinary people to afford it, and a large number of Ukrainian women have chosen to work in the sex industry and surrogacy.
Russian scholar Fyodor Lukyanov called the Ukraine crisis a belated eruption of the "Cold War" volcano.
It was caused by the West: the oblivious West saw its victory in the confrontation at the end of the 20th century as evidence of its moral and political superiority.
Some historians believe that in the long history of the years, Ukraine has always existed as a geographical concept and an ethnological concept.
Not a concept in a political sense.
Ukraine has been constantly struggling to survive between East and West, but it is constantly dismembered, dependent on others, occupied and ruled.
Historically, Kiev, Ukraine, was the birthplace of Slavic national culture and the spiritual sustenance of Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian cultures.
According to the analysis of practical factors, the main reasons for the continuous crisis in Ukraine are the following three points.
Second, one of the reasons for Ukraine's tragic fate: the shackles of history - the independence of the country in vain, there is no national identity
(Kiev, the capital of today's Ukraine)
Until independence in 1991, Ukraine was ruled and suffered from national division.
Because of its long period of division, Ukraine has been used as a geographical concept, and has long been subject to the rule of different countries and different cultures - the policy of Russification of Ukraine under Tsarist Rule.
Accepting the culture and values of the Tsarist period, and at the same time adopting "de-Russification" under the rule of Poland and Lithuania, and adopting appropriate and relaxed policies for the traditional culture of the Ukrainian nation, the Ukrainian people did not have a unified understanding of the historical concept and lacked a common concept of the modern nation-state.
At present, there are many different understandings of many historical issues in the east and west of Ukraine, such as the general belief that the Great Famine in Ukraine was an act of "genocide" in western Ukraine.
There are even extremists and ethnic elements who believe that this is the deliberate intention of Soviet policy.
The people in the east were more inclined to accept that this was the failure of the Soviet government's industrialization policy, and many peasants in Russia also starved to death.
Ukraine's first president, Kravchuk, said that "although Ukraine has gained the independence of the nation-state, it is far from having a problem of national state identity."
in Kravchuk
Due to the lack of identity, there is no centripetal force in Ukraine, as evidenced by Crimea's entry into Russia.
Due to the lack of national unity, Ukraine has difficulty balancing the East and the West in many policies, and there are many frictions between us and ut and do not show the posture of belonging to the same country at all.
This divided situation has led to Ukraine's inability to carry out infrastructure construction, and the living standards of the people have always been at a low level.
For the contradictions in Ukraine, Russia has vigorously mediated and sent a large amount of money to Ukraine to help Ukraine's construction.
However, Ukraine is constantly turning to the West, and even wants to join NATO, which is just stepping on Russia's red line, and in Putin's view, Ukraine's move is "a betrayal of the non-Western world."
Third, the second reason for Ukraine's tragic end: mispositioning - intending to join NATO and confront Russia
In the past, the East and the West used to ideologically distinguish between the Western and Eastern camps, and after the fall of the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union, the United States regarded Russian civilization as a non-Western world.
The United States believes that it has an obligation to transform Eastern European countries into the orbit of Western civilization, while Russia has always adhered to the ambitions of great powers, taking it as its mission to restore the glory of the Russian Empire, using the Collective Security Treaty Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union to integrate Eurasian countries, with the intention of reviving the glory of Russian civilization.
(Ukrainian soldier)
Because of its special geographical location, Ukraine is an important battlefield for the United States and Russia.
Because of its complex historical, cultural, religious and other reasons, Ukraine has highlighted its rifts and tears in the east and west under the frontal collision of swords and swords and shadows between the two sides.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Fierce Scramble between American-led Western Civilization and Russia for Ukraine further exacerbated the rift between Ukraine's east and west.
The focus of contention between the two sides is mainly on the diplomatic direction of the Ukrainian state to the west or east, and the question is reflected in whether Ukraine joins NATO and the European Union.
In the post-Cold War world, NATO was the security organization of Western civilization, and after the end of the Cold War, NATO's goal was to prevent the socialist camp from exerting political and military influence on Central and Eastern European countries.
NATO has undergone two large-scale membership expansions, growing from 12 to 26 countries, but NATO did not meet the requirements and extended its tentacles to the CIS country of Ukraine.
Historically, Ukraine was under Tsarist rule for more than 300 years, and many Russian nationalists believed that the Ukrainian nation was not an independent nation, but that it was the unity of the Russian nation.
(Ukrainian flag and NATO flag)
Speaking about Ukraine in 2013, Putin said that "we are a unique people." We share common beliefs, religions, cultures, and languages. ”
The West believes that Ukraine has a very special strategic significance, and controlling Ukraine can form a strategic containment of Russia, compress Russia's strategic space, and NATO's sphere of influence reaches Russia's "doorstep".
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the NATO Rome summit determined the basic idea of NATO's eastward expansion, and Ukraine chose to stay away from Russia in order to catch the express train of the Western camp.
However, at this time, Russia and western countries have a common interest, that is, they will not allow a country with a large number of nuclear weapons to suddenly appear in the world.
Under the leadership of the United States, Britain, and Russia, Ukraine signed the Budapest Memorandum with the three countries, committing themselves to eliminating all nuclear weapons in their territory. In return, the United States and Russia will provide military support to Ukraine.
(Scene of signing the Budapest Memorandum)
In the end, Ukraine "abolished its martial arts", destroyed all nuclear weapons within 7 years, and even personally blew up the missile silo, and Ukraine, which was once expected to become a "military power", suddenly became a small country to be slaughtered.
However, it is such a small country that blindly chooses sides without considering its own economic strength.
Two years after the signing of the Treaty, NATO and Ukraine established the "Ukraine-NATO Committee", which is responsible for day-to-day cooperation between Ukraine and NATO as a permanent body.
Six years later, the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan was formulated at the NATO Summit in Prague, which clearly stated that Ukraine would make NATO integration a diplomatic priority.
However, Ukraine ignores the weakness of its own national strength, does not have enough military strength, and even if it becomes a priority for NATO, how can it protect itself?
Unfortunately, the Already Dazed Ukrainians were completely blind to the situation.
In 2004, a "color revolution" broke out in Ukraine, and the pro-Western Yushchenko ignored the opposition of Russia and the opposition of the ukrainian people, immediately took office to join NATO as a diplomatic priority, and immediately submitted an application for an action plan for member states to join NATO.
(Yushchenko)
Ukraine is on the road to anti-Russians forever.
During the Yushchenko administration, Russian-Ukrainian relations deteriorated in an all-round way, and in order to stagnate the pace of Ukraine's accession to NATO, Russia frequently made moves on issues such as energy issues, border demarcation, and the Black Sea Fleet, and took a series of retaliatory measures against the opposite.
Ukraine is short of natural gas, dependent on Russian imports, consuming 80 billion cubic meters of natural gas every year, about three-quarters of which needs to be imported.
At the end of 2005, during the heating season, Russia offered the energy card of natural gas, unilaterally raised the price of natural gas from $95 per cubic meter to $230, and demanded that Ukraine repay the arrears.
Yushchenko showed a tough refusal, threatening Russia to increase the rent of Russia's military base in Sevastopol, Crimea, and the two sides fell into a stalemate in negotiations, and Russia closed the valve of the gas pipeline and announced the cessation of gas supply to Ukraine.
The gas outage storm has a huge impact on Europe, and Germany is the first importer of Gazprom in Europe.
Since then, Russia has once again used the means of natural gas outage to knock Ukraine into the Western process, and Russian-Ukrainian relations have dropped to a freezing point.
Under The sanctions of Russia, Ukraine is full of mourning, and in the case of insufficient energy supply, industrial development has almost come to a standstill, and the people's living standards have dropped sharply.
The wrong choices made by the top echelons of the Ukrainian government have had serious consequences, but these consequences are largely paid for by ordinary people.
But Ukraine's tragic end is also to blame by the government.
Fourth, the third reason for Ukraine's tragic end: the change of political system is controlled by Europe and the United States, and the authority of oligarchs has declined
Since independence in 1991, Ukraine has been a semi-president as a form of state government.
In the specific division of power in the semi-presidential system, the political struggle between the president and the prime minister representing the parliament constituted a distinctive feature of the post-Ukrainian political scene.
Moreover, Ukraine's form of government is not stable and unchanging, and its form of government, along with the constant changes in the Constitution, has also seen many iterations between the presidential parliamentary system and the prime minister's presidential system.
The ever-changing form of government has enabled Europe and the United States to take advantage of the void and install their own spokesmen.
(Parliament of Ukraine)
The president and the prime minister, two leaders selected by different authoritative subjects, work together naturally prone to contradictions, in which case the confrontation between the two is more intense, resulting in a series of crises.
In ukraine's presidential election at the end of 2004, there was a series of political crises: in the first round of voting, there was no result, and in the second round of voting, then-Prime Minister Yanukovych and opposition leader Yushchenko received very similar votes, Yanukovych was slightly ahead, and both claimed to have won.
On this issue, the United States and Russia have expressed their positions: Russian President Putin and the Russian State Duma have expressed support and congratulations on Yanukovych's successful election as president, while the United States and the European Union have accused the election of fraud and should be re-elected.
Under pressure from the domestic opposition and the United States and Europe, Ukraine was forced to hold a third round of presidential voting. The round of voting ended in Yushchenko's victory.
Both the United States and the European Union have endorsed Ukraine's Supreme Court ruling, while Russia has accused the United States and Europe of interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs and demanded respect for the Ukrainian Constitution.
(U.S. interference in Ukrainian politics)
The two opposing sides also blamed each other, which once threatened to divide the country.
In addition, The Ukrainian oligarchs have a strong penetration into the Ukrainian political situation.
The Ukrainian oligarchs are financial-industrial groups with enormous economic wealth.
They have an absolute monopoly on the economy, control the main economic sectors and media of Ukrainian society, and train political agents by funding the activities of political parties, and even participate directly in political elections to hold senior state administrative positions.
After they had gained enough profits in the economic sphere, they began to venture into politics.
The ambitions of power drive them to arbitrarily intervene in the political affairs of the country, to maintain their economic monopoly position through politics, and to earn excess profits.
Since independence, Ukraine's politics and economy have been manipulated by oligarchic interest groups, and the dealings of government officials with oligarchs have led to government corruption.
Ukraine has long ranked around 140 in the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International, in league with The Saharan countries of Africa, which is extremely dissatisfied.
(Ukrainian oligarchy)
How can Ukraine, which is troubled at home and abroad, have a good ending?
epilogue:
The famous scholar Huntington's "civilization theory" provides a novel theoretical interpretation paradigm for racial contradictions and regional wars that occurred after the Cold War. He believes that the root cause of regional contradictions is cultural contradictions.
The history, origins, and differences of culture have played an increasing role in the national and international order, and the most dangerous civilizational contradictions occur along the "civilization fault line."
According to Huntington's theory, Ukraine happens to be on a "civilizational rupture", making Ukraine a "country with two cultural divisions".
The suspension of the association agreement is only the trigger for the Ukraine crisis, and the deep level is the long-standing difference in the cultural identity of Ukraine's east and west regions and the civilizational contradictions between the East and the West.
Historically, although Kiev was the birthplace of Slavic national culture, Ukraine has been constantly striving for independence between the East and the West for a long time, but it has been constantly colonized, dependent on others, occupied and ruled.
(East Slavs)
Nato, more than 20 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has made great efforts to co-opt Ukraine, intending to integrate it into the cultural circle of Western civilization and prevent the influence of Eurasian civilization centered on Moscow.
Russia, on the other hand, has spared no effort to include Ukraine in its own sphere of power as its basic goal, advocating the integration of Ukraine into the Eurasian Economic Union.
(The future of Ukraine is uncertain)
At present, the crisis in Ukraine has turned into war, the conflict in the east is still continuing, the country is divided, and the prospects for crisis are uncertain.
The West should respect Russian civilization and take into account Russia's demands, and should not blindly force Ukraine's east and west to accept Western civilization, but should fully consider the demands of the Ukrainian people according to local conditions.
Ukraine should play a buffer role between Russia and the West, and Ukraine should not be the forefront of the confrontation between Russia and the West.
Ukraine's miserable end may improve.
Resources:
"The Ukraine Crisis from the Perspective of The Transformation of the International Order: An Analysis Based on the Evolutionary Process, Deep Structure and Solutions", Feng Shaolei, Institute of International Relations and Regional Development, East China Normal University
"Russia's "Hybrid War" in Ukraine" Han Kedi, Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Ukrainian Oligarchic System: Its Formation, Characteristics and Influences, Bi Hongye, Shanghai Overseas Chinese University, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Russia