In the very early days of central Europe, there was such a people, their name was Slavs. Although the Slavs were numerous, they were not very united, and they parted ways and divided into three branches. One of them, the East Slavs, lived mainly in today's Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
The Slavs split into three branches
The most powerful of the three brothers is Russia. When Russia was once a powerful Russian Empire, the leaders of Ukraine invited Tsarist Russia to rule eastern Ukraine, and at its peak, the rest of Ukraine was under the rule of the Russian Empire except galicia.
In 1922, Eastern Ukraine joined the Soviet Union and became one of the founding members of the Soviet Union. After the outbreak of World War II, Eastern Ukraine merged with Western Ukraine, and Ukraine became the second largest republic of the Soviet Union. Because of Ukraine's geographical proximity to the West, as a member of the Soviet Union in World War II, the flames of war first reached Ukraine. The Soviet Union and Germany broke out in the Ukrainian region, and during World War II, Ukraine became the hardest hit area of the war, with heavy casualties and uncountable material losses.
A nuclear spill occurred at the Soviet Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine
In 1985, the Soviet Union entered Gorbachev's administration. He abandoned the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union over the country and implemented a multi-party system, which led to ideological confusion in the Soviet Union and the beginning of rapid political turmoil. Ukraine began its first steps towards independence.
On August 24, 1991, Ukraine officially declared its independence from the Soviet Union, and on December 8 of the same year, the Soviet Union declared disintegration, and Ukraine's independence was finally completed.
The Black Sea Fleet was one of the most powerful fleets of the Soviet era. At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the entire Soviet fleet was divided among the then independent states. For Russia, the Black Sea Fleet has very important historical and political value, and the Black Sea Fleet was in an unclear state for many years until the Soviet Union and Ukraine reached an agreement.
Crimea is home to the main base of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1918, Crimea came under the jurisdiction of Soviet Russia. Later, the Soviet Union changed Crimea into a state and placed it under Ukrainian administration. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were constant calls within Crimea for independence or return to Russian jurisdiction.
In 1965 the Black Sea Fleet was awarded the Order of the Red Banner to commemorate the victory over fascism
Russia and Ukraine have been in dispute over Crimea for more than a decade. Crimea declared its independence, Ukraine did not recognize it, and Russia announced that the document that classified Crimea to Ukraine was no longer valid. Until March 16, 2014, Crimea held a referendum in which 96% of the voters approved of Crimea joining Russia. On the 17th, Ukraine decided to independent Crimea. On the same day, there were 85 people in Crimea's 100 seats, and the proposal was unanimously approved.
On the same day, Russia also declared its recognition of Crimea as an independent sovereign state.
Crimea, which finally became independent from Ukraine, did not indulge in the joy of its own sovereignty. On the 18th, Putin ratified Crimea's treaty of accession to Russia. Crimea's incorporation into Russia was the first major territorial change since the Cold War without a U.S. nod.
Ukraine, feeling backstabbed, was outraged by declaring the referendum in Crimea illegal and would not recognize its outcome. A group of seven Western countries, including the United States, also said it would not recognize the referendum result and concluded in the United Nations General Assembly that the referendum on the secession from Ukraine and joining Russia in Crimea "undermines the country's territorial integrity, violates international law, and is an illegal voting exercise."
Ukraine, once the collapse of the Soviet Union, was the world's third-largest military power after the United States and Russia. During the Soviet era, a large number of nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, as well as space engineering, were deployed in Ukraine. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West promised that as long as Ukraine destroyed bombers and nuclear weapons, the West would provide a large number of interest-free loans for Ukraine's development.
Ukraine did not hesitate to cut off its wings, but the West seemed to have forgotten its promises.
Like dissoluted Belarus, Ukraine used shock therapy, shrinking its GDP by three-quarters over the years and its economy collapsing for a time. In terms of political system, Western Ukraine prefers to join Europe, while Eastern Ukraine wants to return to Russia. The ruling power has changed back and forth between the two factions, and domestic politics is chaotic.
Subsequently, with the tacit support of Western countries, the contradictions between Ukraine and Russia intensified.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the small allies at that time fell into the arms of the West and sought refuge. Ukraine is no exception and wants to join NATO.
By 2020, NATO has a total of 30 member states, which have expanded eastward in recent years. Russia's West is separated only by Belarus and Ukraine, and almost all the countries to the west have joined NATO, encircling Russia in it. It can be said that White Russia and Ukraine are now Russia's only remaining buffer zones.
White Russia is currently Russia's hardcore brother, and Ukraine, which has always been in conflict with Russia, seems a bit embarrassed.
With a history during World War II, Ukraine naturally does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past as a buffer zone between Russia and the West, so it wants to join NATO and seek asylum.
But Russia is unlikely to witness its loss of its last line of defense, and it has repeatedly blocked Ukraine's path to NATO.
If Ukraine joins NATO, NATO could deploy cruise missiles in Ukraine, hitting Moscow in as little as eight minutes. Lying on the side of the bed, it is absolutely intolerable for Russia to snore others.
The West obviously does not want to clash with Russia so soon, on the matter of Ukraine's accession to NATO, German Chancellor Scholz also said for the first time that rejecting Ukraine's accession to NATO is a very correct decision, but in the past or in the future, Ukraine will not be within the scope of NATO's inspection.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy played the president of Ukraine in the play
At present, a large number of Ukrainian people have chosen to flee their homeland and stay away from the front line of the conflict. And the final result of the war has been presented before everyone's eyes.