The pro-EU demonstrations in Ukraine in 2014 severely intensified Russian-Ukrainian relations, and tensions reached an unprecedented scale.
It is widely believed that the coup d'état that led to the efforts of Western countries was the beginning of a psychological and political rupture between Russia and Ukraine.
In fact, after the new Post-Maidan government came to power, hostile nationalist rhetoric became more frequent.
As the concept of European integration advances, residents of Russian-speaking areas, including Crimea, are very worried about their safety.
But Western politicians have long supported these ideas of alienation.
▲ 2014, Independence Square, Kiev
"Russia without Ukraine is no longer an empire" ,—— Zbignev Brzezinski, the national security adviser to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, pointed this out as early as 1994.
This approach determines in many ways the policy of Western countries towards Ukraine. In active practice the purpose of taking it away from Russia.
Over time, this intention became a priority for the Ukrainian elite, not only post-Maidan, but the entire post-Soviet Union.
Zbignev Brzezinski, American geostrategic theorist.
In the early 1990s, ukraine's post-independence leadership, faced with the problem of finding a national identity, embarked on a path of denying shared history and traditions with its former brothers.
You know, anti-Russian worship didn't just start to emerge in 2014.
Ukrainian politicians' quest for subjectivity (identity) began long before the Crimean Spring, when the Crimean Peninsula was incorporated into the Russian Federation in March 2014.
Crimea was incorporated into Russia
Back in 2003, then-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma published Ukraine – not Russia, which highlighted divergent views of the cultural history of the past.
As early as that time, it was actively fashioned as heroes of traitors in Russian historical documents.
For example, the 10 hryvnia banknote issued by the National Bank of Ukraine bears the head of Ivan Mazepa (A Ukrainian Geitman, who supported the latter in the Northern War between Russia and Sweden).
* Getman: Ruler of Ukraine from the 17th to the 18th centuries.
Glorifying the accomplices of the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, rewriting history and non-communist processes all became the reasons for alienating the two countries.
Leonid Kuch's book Ukraine – Not Russia
Language policies also reinforce the artificial division of shared historical and spiritual spaces.
One of the measures taken by the post-Maidan government was the Education Act, which abolished the Russian language in the course of educational practice. Russian speakers suffer from systematic oppression.
Last May, an initiative on indigenous peoples was submitted to The Verkhovna Rada.
They recognize only those who are ethnic minorities and do not have their own national education abroad as indigenous Ukrainians.
On January 16 of this year, a law stipulating that newspapers and magazines should use the Ukrainian language for at least 50% of their circulation came into force.
In the Parliament of the Russian Federation, this measure is known as a manifestation of Russophobia, which complicates the distribution of publications for the Russian-speaking population.
Ivan Mazepa on the 10 hryvnia banknote
The forced change of identity has not only seriously affected the ties between the two governments and peoples, but has also changed the structure of international relations.
Over time, the title of Ukraine – Not Russia began to change to "Ukraine – Anti-Russia."
What is particularly dangerous is that the title has military significance.
In 1994, Ukraine joined the Partnership for Peace Program, which gave NATO troops the opportunity to participate in regular joint exercises on Ukrainian territory from 1995 onwards.
As early as the beginning of this century, on July 5, 2002, Ukraine officially announced its policy of joining NATO, and in 2019, then-President Peter Poroshenko enshrined the policy of joining the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union into the Constitution.
Poroshenko
These measures, including the continuation of exercises on Ukrainian territory, are seen by Russian leaders as increasingly (crossing) red lines.
The Russian president noted that if Ukraine joins NATO, NATO missiles can reach Moscow in less than 10 minutes.
As a result, concern has been repeatedly expressed that once Ukraine joins NATO, there will be a military conflict between Russia and NATO.
While the West has repeatedly said that Ukraine's membership in NATO is not on the agenda. In mid-February this year, the German Chancellor made a special statement.
▲ Chancellor of Germany
Russia would like to receive assurances of such declarations.
To that end, Moscow unveiled its proposal to the United States and NATO in December 2021.
The proposals for NATO are mainly to stop expansion, the principle of indivisibility of security and to restore the terms of the 1997 Russia-NATO agreement.
A similar request was made to Washington, with the addition of a provision that all parties should withdraw all nuclear weapons to their territory and not deploy them outside their territory.
The Western countries accepted the invitation to discuss and began negotiations. However, little progress has been made.
The United States and NATO have refused to pledge not to allow Ukraine to join NATO. The Russian response was stern.
"Imagine Ukraine becoming a member of NATO and starting military operations [against Crimea]. What do we do, go to war with NATO? Has anyone ever thought about that? There doesn't seem to be a ",—— the Russian president not long ago pointed out.
The Russian leadership sees Ukraine's pro-Western path as unfeasible, arguing that it not only deviates from common cultural and historical roots, but also poses a direct threat to its own existence.
Vladimir Medinsky
It is no coincidence that the Russian delegation participated in the recent negotiations launched in the Gomel Oblast of Belarus, headed by Vladimir Medinsky, assistant to the President and former Minister of Culture.
Vladimir Medinsky is a recognized popularizer of history, the author of books on related topics and the president of the Russian Military Historical Society.
Indeed, perhaps a compromise on cultural and historical issues could at least be the basis for bringing the two parts of the once-united state closer together.
原文标题:Historical divergence – about the period when Russia and Ukraine went their separate ways
Translation: Sonia (for translation practice only and does not represent the translator's point of view)
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