Located in the eastern part of Europe, Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe after Russia and the third largest republic of the Soviet Union, after Russia and Kazakhstan. Historically, eastern Ukraine has been the core territory of Kievan Rus' and one of the earliest regions of capitalist development in modern Russia. Because Ukraine is located in the heart of Russia and borders With European countries such as Poland, the contradictions between Russia and Ukraine must be closely integrated with the history of Russia and Eastern Europe.
Around the 10th century, East Slavic tribes united in present-day Ukraine to form the Ancient Rus' tribes and established the Kievan Rus' state. In the 12th and 14th centuries, due to feudal division, the Ancient Rus tribe was gradually divided into three branches: Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian. Kievan Rus' was occupied by the Mongol Golden Horde in the 13th century. From about the 14th century onwards, Ukrainians began to break away from Ancient Rus and form a single people with a unique language, culture and living customs. From the 13th to the 15th centuries, Ukraine fought against the invasion of the Mongols, Germans and Ottoman Turks, and from the 14th century onwards, it experienced the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland. In the 17th and 19th centuries, the modern ukrainian nation was formed around kiev, Poltava and Chernigov in the middle reaches of the Dnieper River.
In 1654, the Ukrainian Cossack leader Khmelnytsky signed the Treaty of Pereyaslav with the Russian Tsar, inviting Tsarist Russia to rule, and since then eastern Ukraine (on the left bank of the Dnieper River) has been formally merged with the Russian Empire, beginning the history of the alliance between Ukraine and Russia. From 1772 onwards, Prussia, Austria and Russia began to divide the Polish Commonwealth. By 1795, with the exception of Galicia (which belonged to Austria from 1772 to 1918), the rest of Ukraine was under Tsarist Russia.
During World War I, Poland, which had not achieved national independence, inevitably became a tool for the Allies and allies to weaken each other, and these countries also used the bait of polish independence to win Poland over. For example, in December 1916, Russia, Britain, France and other countries openly expressed their willingness to help Poland establish a free Polish government. But this is, after all, a lie of the imperialist countries. It was only in The Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, established in the February Revolution of Russia in 1917, that it truly proclaimed "the right of Poland to complete independence in national and international relations"
Workers' processions in the February Revolution
In October and November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany, two countries that had been involved in the partition of Poland three times, tended to collapse, creating favorable conditions for the restoration of Poland. On 29 August 1918, the Soviet government issued a decree abolishing all treaties and documents of Tsarist Russia concerning the partition of Poland. Britain, France, the United States and other major powers also want to see an independent Poland from their own interests. With the support and help of the Allies, the restoration of Poland was put on the agenda, but this also did not get rid of the Allies' use of Polish relations.
On October 23, 1918, the Polish government was finally formed in Warsaw, led by Piłsudski. In the course of the settlement of the Polish question in World War I, the question of the Soviet-Polish border was involved. The Western powers considered establishing a "defensive line" against the Soviet Union. With the support of the Allies, the Polish government arbitrarily sent troops to control western Ukraine and occupied Vilnius, morale was high. On 8 December, the Conference of Leaders of the Great Powers of the Entente declared that Poland had the right to establish its operational structures on the territory of the former Russian Empire up to the border between former Russia and Hungary, up to Eastern Galicia. This was in fact a legal determination of Poland's final borders, as the Polish Fuehrer at the time, General Piłsudski, believed. However, the immediate consequence of this reckless move was a war between the Soviet Union and The Waves in 1920.
In March 1921, Poland and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Riga, which recognized the independence of Ukraine and Belarus and demarcated Poland's eastern border (which assigned ukraine and the western part of Belarus to Poland) at 150 miles on the Curzon Line (Poland acquired territory east of the Curzon Line, previously under Russian rule). This territory subsequently formed the eastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic, including eastern Lviv Province, Novogrudek, Polşe, Stanisławiv, Tarnopol, Vilnius and eastern Białystok). In this way, the war between the two sides ended, but the war between the Soviet Union and The Poland had serious consequences and had a profound negative impact on the continued development of Soviet-Polish relations, which is difficult to eliminate to this day.
Due to the existence of the Riga Treaty and the territorial dispute between the Soviet Union, Germany and Poland, Poland was panicked about military threats from both the East and the West, especially the rearmament of Germany after Hitler came to power, which further alarmed the leaders of Warsaw. In mid-May 1939, the German Foreign Minister unabashedly and publicly stated that Germany intended to conclude treaties with the Soviet Union against Poland and Great Britain. While the British, French, and Soviet conferences were unlikely to achieve substantial results because of British and French suspicion of the Soviet Union, the Soviets and Germans signed the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact in Moscow on August 23, 1939, and also signed a Secret Additional Protocol, which stipulated the spheres of influence of the two countries in Eastern Europe. The treaty's provision concerning Poland reads: "In the event of territorial and governmental changes in the areas belonging to the Polish state, the spheres of influence of Germany and the Soviet Union were roughly bounded by the Naraf, Vistula and San lines (Curson Lines)." This Soviet-German treaty and its protocol paved the way for Nazi Germany to wage a war of aggression against Poland and laid the foundation for the future division of Poland between the Soviet Union and Germany.
The Soviet Union followed Germany's invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, and soon reached the agreed western border. On 22 September, the Soviet Union and Germany celebrated their success by holding a joint victory parade in Brest-Litovsk (now Brest). The Non-Aggression Pact signed on 29 September between the German Third Reich and the Soviet Union defined the borders of the two sides and also established their friendly relations. Communist governments in western Ukraine and western Belarus were formed and immediately declared their desire to join the Soviet Union. At this point, the historical pattern of western Ukraine (the eastern province of Poland) and eastern Ukraine being integrated into a unified Ukraine and becoming one of the Soviet republics was finalized.
Soviet military parade
On December 24, 1943, the soviet forces of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ukrainian Fronts launched the Right Bank Ukraine Campaign, which was aimed at counter-attacking The German occupation of Ukraine. It is worth mentioning that during World War II, the newly joined Western Ukraine of the Soviet Union showed pro-German tendencies during World War II, and a pro-German Ukrainian guerrilla even wounded the commander of the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front, Vatutin, and led to the death of this "tank warfare genius" more than 40 days later.
From the perspective of later historical research, the soviet army launched several large-scale offensive campaigns after the Ukrainian campaign on the right bank almost laid the boundaries of the future Soviet Union's three Baltic states, Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova and other constituent republics, and laid the groundwork for the geopolitical disputes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at this stage. In particular, after the war, the Soviet army gathered heavy troops in Lviv and Muchekavo and other places in the Carpathian Military Region, and mastered the key to Eastern Europe, and could break into the hinterland of Eastern Europe at any time and threaten the Warsaw Pact allies.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a large Soviet army was left in Ukraine, and Russia and Ukraine fought repeatedly over soviet military assets. Ukraine is the most important but at the same time the most complex and weak link in Russia's policy towards the CIS. Historical grievances, disputes over the inheritance of the "civilizational divorce" and differences in views on national interests and security, the CIS and even European security have made relations between the two geographically neighbouring Slavic states cold and difficult to get close. After Kuchma's election, Russian-Ukrainian relations improved and developed in the direction of partnership. The prospects for the development of bilateral relations will not only affect the security environment in western Russia, but also have a significant impact on the future development of the CIS and Russia's position in the future European security system.
Russia and Ukraine, including Belarus, played a decisive role in the process of promoting the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the cooperation between the two countries was seriously weakened, and contradictions and strife ensued. The first is the question of the nature of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia considers it to be an entity of a federal or confederate nature composed of the Republics of the Soviet Union on the basis of mutual recognition and respect for the sovereignty of the State, the right to self-determination, the principle of equality, etc., and that the Union will maintain a unified military, political and economic space;
Russia advocates the unity of the armed forces for a period of time after the collapse of the Soviet Union, while Ukraine is committed to the early formation of its own army. At the beginning of September 1991, Ukraine established its own Ministry of Defense, formed an armed force of 30,000 people, and on October 22, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the Ukrainian Defense Law and the Ukrainian Armed Forces Law. After Ukraine's independence, the pace of its army building accelerated. Three of the 14 military regions of the former Soviet Union were in Ukraine, with a total of 22 regular army divisions, 845 aircraft of the Air Force, and the Black Sea Fleet, one of the four major fleets of the Soviet Union.
Black Sea Fleet
In early January 1992, Ukraine announced that all troops stationed in Ukraine, with the exception of strategic forces, were under the command of the President of Ukraine. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine requires all officers and men, regardless of ethnic origin, to swear allegiance to Ukraine, otherwise they will be forced to leave the army or be transferred to other CIS countries. The move was opposed by Russia. Marshal Shaposhnikov, then commander of the Joint Ciettowe Forces, sent a telegram to the local commands, demanding their allegiance to Russia. In response to Russia's claim to maintain the unity of the armed forces, President Kravchuk stated on February 19 that the CIS is neither a state nor a confederation or federation, and there should be no unified armed forces. Ukraine refused to sign the CIS military agreement.
The focus of the military power struggle between Ukraine and Russia was the question of the ownership of the Black Sea Fleet. Founded in 1783, the Black Sea Fleet now has about 380 ships of various types and 100,000 officers and men, including 45 large surface ships, 14 submarines, 300 aircraft and helicopters, and its headquarters is located in the port of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula. On December 30, 1991, the first CIS summit in Minsk reached an agreement to place the strategic forces of the USSR under the unified command of the CIS. But in terms of understanding "strategy", Ukraine and Russia are very different. Russia believes that military forces carrying out strategic tasks, including the Black Sea Fleet, should be regarded as strategic forces, and Ukraine opposes that strategic forces include only nuclear weapons and nuclear-armed forces. On January 3, 1992, Ukraine announced that it would place the three former Soviet military districts and the Black Sea Fleet under its jurisdiction, which caused an uproar.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin declared that "the Black Sea Fleet was, is and will remain Russian, and no one, including Ukrainian President Kravchuk, should try to take the Black Sea Fleet from Russia." The contradictions between the two countries on the issue of the ownership of the Black Sea Fleet have become increasingly acute, and on April 6 and 7, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia issued orders announcing that the Black Sea Fleet would come under their jurisdiction, and the relations between the two countries became increasingly tense. In case the situation escalated, the presidents of the two countries retracted their orders two days later. On June 23, 1992, the Presidents of the two countries met in Dagomes and signed an agreement on the development of relations between the two countries, in which the two sides agreed to continue consultations on the establishment of a Russian naval fleet and a Ukrainian naval fleet on the basis of the Black Sea Fleet and to resolve the issue through negotiations. On 21 July, a frigate of the Black Sea Fleet fled to the Ukrainian port of Odessa, and fighter jets and gunboats sent by the Ukrainian side came to intercept the Russian ship. The problem of the Black Sea Fleet became an urgent problem to be solved.
1 9 9 2 August 3, the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine met in Yalta and signed an agreement on the joint management of the Black Sea Fleet, stipulating that the Black Sea Fleet will be separated from the CIS, that the fleet will be divided between Ukraine and Russia, and that during the three-year transition period before the end of 1995, the Black Sea Fleet will be a joint Fleet of Russia and Ukraine, under the joint command of the Presidents of the two countries. However, the differences between Ukraine and Russia on the ownership of the bases and coastal facilities of the Black Sea Fleet have never been eliminated, friction has occurred between the two countries, and differences between Ukrainian and Russian personnel within the fleet have often occurred. In May 1993, the Auxiliary Ships of the Black Sea Fleet raised the Andrei flag of the Russian Navy without authorization, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense ordered the cessation of funding for these ships and gave them the status of "foreign ships", and their mooring in Ukraine would be considered a violation of Ukrainian law, resulting in a renewed struggle for ownership of the Black Sea Fleet.
Ukrainian soldiers
In order to solve the problem fundamentally, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia met in Moscow on June 17, 1993, and reached a decision on the establishment of a Russian fleet and a Ukrainian navy on the basis of the Black Sea Fleet. It is stipulated that from September onwards, the work of dividing the fleet shall be completed by the end of 1995; that the various branches of the fleet, surface ships, submarines, air forces, coastal forces, institutions, combat support measures, technical and logistical support facilities, weapons and ammunition, military technical equipment and other movable property of the Black Sea Fleet shall be distributed among Ukraine and Russia on the basis of reciprocity; the Russian side will participate in the construction of the Russian naval fleet base Sevastopol port and other ukrainian towns where the Russian Navy is stationed; until the fleet is divided, the fleet allocation shall be 50% from both Russia and Ukraine. The agreement ultimately resolved the Black Sea Fleet issue that has long plagued relations between the two countries, but its implementation remains questionable.
On June 25, 1993, the Black Sea Fleet Command Officers' Meeting and the Fleet Officers' Representative Meeting on June 29, both expressed their refusal to implement the Agreement on the Division of the Russian-Ukrainian Fleet and demanded that it be placed under the exclusive jurisdiction of Russia. The Ukrainian Naval Officers' Federation proposed to the Ukrainian president and parliament on the 30th to approve the agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet as soon as possible. In this regard, President Yeltsin declared on July 1 that Russia will be resolutely loyal to the agreement reached between the two sides on the Black Sea Fleet, and called on the officers and men of the Black Sea Fleet to exercise restraint, strictly abide by discipline and obey the orders of the Fleet Command. But the Russian parliament also opposed the division of the fleet, supported the idea of retaining a unified fleet, and on July 9 passed a resolution stating that the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, the city of Sevastopol, belonged to the Russian Federation, and that Russia had never handed over sovereignty over the city of Sevastopol to anyone, and that what had been handed over to Ukraine in 1954 was only part of the Crimean Oblast. Ukraine rejects the decision of the Russian parliament as undermining Ukraine's territorial integrity and wants the support of the international community. On July 20, the United Nations Security Council declared the resolution of the Russian parliament contrary to the CHARTER of the United Nations and invalid. But the Russian parliament has stubbornly refused to consider the UN Security Council statement. The question of Sevastopol's ownership became another contentious issue between Ukraine and Russia.
In fact, after Ukraine's independence, the West did not pay attention to it, did not provide effective assistance to Ukraine, Russia also continued to put pressure on Ukraine on the price of oil and gas, Ukraine wanted to use nuclear weapons as bargaining capital, as Kravchuk said: "We do not want to be stupid, we do not want to win applause for handing over our missiles, and then be forgotten." "Russia and Ukraine have held consultations on this issue many times, and Russia is willing to provide security guarantees to Ukraine." On January 15, 1993, the two sides also reached a preliminary agreement on exchanging nuclear fuel for nuclear weapons. However, because Ukraine is wary of Russia, in order to compete with Russia, Ukraine has no intention of losing its status as a nuclear power as soon as possible. On 2 July 1993, the Ukrainian Parliament declared itself in possession of all nuclear weapons deployed by the Soviet Union on its territory and refused to make any transfers.
The struggle for ownership of the Crimean Peninsula has been the focus of the Russian-Ukrainian dispute since the beginning of Ukraine's independence. The Crimean Peninsula is strategically located in the southern part of the former Soviet European part. It dominates the hinterland of the Black Sea, extends eastward out of the Kerch Peninsula, locks the outlet of the Sea of Azov, and borders the Ukrainian mainland to the north by the Isthmus of Pelekop, where it is the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet. The island was annexed by Tsarist Russia after the Russo-Turkish War in 1783, came under Russian jurisdiction after the October Revolution, and in February 1954, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the union of Ukraine and Russia, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union headed by Khrushchev ordered the transfer of crimea oblast to Ukraine. The Crimean Peninsula was inhabited by 2.62 million people at the time, of which ethnic Russians were the majority, with a total of 1.7 million, Ukrainians 700,000 and Tatars with 173,000. In a referendum of 1 December 1991, Crimea voted in favour only by a narrow majority.
Young Russian soldiers
On January 23, 1992, while resisting Ukraine's request to share the fleet, the Russian parliament proposed to reconsider whether the 1954 decision to transfer Russia's Crimean Oblast to Ukraine was constitutional, and on May 21, it passed a resolution declaring that the 1954 Soviet Resolution on the Transfer of Crimea to Ukraine no longer had legal effect, and asked Russia, Ukraine and Crimea to negotiate the status of the peninsula. Ukraine reacted immediately, stating that "Ukraine will not accept any territorial claims from any side". On 6 February, the Ukrainian parliament passed a resolution reaffirming that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine.
At the same time, calls from Russians on the island for a return to Russia are high. On 26 February 1992, the Parliament of the Peninsula adopted the "Regulations on the Laws of the Republic of Crimea", which decided to delete the original constitution that "Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine" and intended to hold a referendum on independence at an appropriate time. The Central Assembly of Ukraine went to the peninsula for negotiations, and on April 29 the Ukrainian Parliament passed a resolution to restore the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. On 1 June, the Ukrainian parliament and the Peninsula Parliament reached a compromise, and the Peninsula Parliament withdrew its decision to grant national independence and hold a referendum. On September 25, the Crimean Parliament passed an amendment to the Constitution of the Republic stating that it was a state in Ukraine, and that Crimean citizens were also residents of Ukraine, and the Crimean dispute was temporarily settled.
Although the Ukrainian parliament at that time made Crimea remain in Ukraine in this form, all analysts around the world believe that the Crimean problem may recur in the future. In June 1993, officers of the Black Sea Fleet opposed the division of the fleet and demanded that it be placed under exclusive Russian jurisdiction, and The inhabitants of Crimea also held a rally to demand the return to Russia. Because Ukraine's economic crisis is worse than Russia's, and Crimea's residents are mostly Russians, the issue of Crimea's ownership has been a sensitive issue affecting relations between the two countries since then. In the process of consolidating the achievements of independence, Ukraine has serious contradictions and differences with Russia, and in January 1993, Ukraine refused to sign the new CIS charter, which aggravated Russia's dissatisfaction.
On March 16, 2014, Crimea held a referendum in which more than 96 percent of the voters in all of Crimea voted in favor of Crimea joining Russia. Two days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin ratified the signing of Crimea's treaty to join Russia, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseni said Ukraine would not recognize the so-called Crimean referendum.
Crimean referendum
The contradictions and differences between Russia and Ukraine are difficult to eliminate for a while. Ukraine is the second largest European country after Russia in terms of territory, population and military power, and its economic potential is also very large, and as the economic situation improves, Ukraine will inevitably seek more say in international affairs, which will inevitably create new contradictions and conflicts with Russia. But after all, the Ukrainian and Russian ethnic groups have lived together for hundreds of years, and there is an inseparable connection between them. Therefore, despite the constant contradictions and conflicts between the two countries, and even armed conflicts, the development of friendly and cooperative relations is certainly an inevitable trend after the dispute.