The first aspect is the historical aspect. Ukraine and Russia have complex historical relations. After the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's main political leaders and Russia maintained relatively close and, to some extent, mutually recognized cooperative relations.
However, due to the change in the political direction of Ukraine, the shift to close to Western countries and the attempt to rely on the United States to sanction Russia led to the intensification of contradictions within the Ukrainian leadership, which also led to the gradual confrontation of political relations between Ukraine and Russia. Russia is worried that a Close-West Ukraine may later join NATO, affecting Russia's strategic buffer zone in the West, expanding Western military power to Russia's western gate, thus becoming a direct threat to Russia's Western security. Judging from the origins of this development, the historical differences between Russia and Ukraine have led to the desire of the pro-Russian Donbass region within Ukraine to break away from Ukraine and get closer to Russia, and Ukraine has become a junction of stalemate and confrontation between Russia and Western countries. It is clear that this pro-American and far-Russian change in Ukraine has led to a sharp confrontation between Russia and Ukraine in a state of extreme tension.
The second aspect is the result of the tilt of the international situation. The first is that there is a mutually antagonistic concern between the Atlantic and Europe and Russia, which includes the mutual antagonism between Russia and NATO, Russia and the United States, and Russia and Europe. At present, Ukraine and Russia are in a situation of direct confrontation under the constant stimulation of the United States.
From the perspective of western international political tradition, European and American countries have a concept of geopolitical theory, believing that Russia, as a land power country located in the key area of the heart of Eurasia, has always constituted a huge repressive force from land to sea to European countries and Atlantic countries on both sides of the strait, making European countries and Atlantic countries breathless and particularly uncomfortable, and this situation has existed for hundreds of years. The Soviet Union during the Cold War, or now Russia, has always had a prominent and repressive geopolitical advantage over Europe or NATO countries. In order to eliminate this potential threat, Western countries want to push this threat to the east as much as possible through NATO's eastward expansion, and even expand all the way east to Russia's borders, so as to greatly limit Russia's strategic behavior and ensure the absolute security of NATO or Europe. In this way, NATO and Europe will be able to sit back and relax, and Russia will no longer be able to suppress them and achieve the global alliance status of the United States.
During the Cold War, the United States had already formed a kind of control over the "periphery" of Eurasia to suppress the Soviet Union's careful thinking of "foreign expansion". Now it seems that the United States is trying to take advantage of the concerns of European powers and Russia about Ukraine's pro-American and anti-Russian interests to provoke European allies to oppose Russia.
In this way, the United States has forcefully grasped Europe, divided Germany, France, and other European powers into the geostrategic track of the United States, supported the United States' position as an ally, and fully served the strategic interests of the United States in pursuing global leadership. For such a delusional goal, the United States regards Russia as an important strategic opponent and pushes Russia into the trap of confrontation with Europe and even NATO, so as to absolutely control the whole of Europe to achieve its goals of the Earth Police.
The third aspect is caused by the current complex geopolitical changes around Russia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a series of independent sovereign states have emerged around Russia, and because they all once belonged to the Soviet Union, these countries have complex historical ties with Russia. The geographical proximity and history are inseparable, resulting in a complex geopolitical contradiction between Russia's neighboring countries and Russia itself.
There are complex geopolitical relations between the Russian border in three directions, the first is the Central Asian region, as exemplified by the recent turmoil in Kazakhstan and the intervention of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization; the second is the Caucasus region, where the War between Russia and Georgia broke out in 2008; and the third is the Eastern European region where Ukraine is located, where geopolitical relations are at stake with Russia's life and death.
In a word, if Ukraine joins NATO, then Russia will face to establish a defense on the vast plains and put the opponent on the pillow, which is a defensive pressure that has never been felt in the Soviet era, and Russia will certainly not agree, so the conflict between Ukraine and Russia will arise.