A few days ago, Russia and Ukraine launched a third negotiation on the cessation of war as the core, but only a little progress has been made on the humanitarian side, and there is still no consensus on the core issues. So, why are Russia and Ukraine, which were originally "family", now drifting apart, and even now to the point of waging war? What is the history between Russia and Ukraine?
1. Russia originated in Ukraine, and the two countries have the same roots
Dating back to the time of the Roman Empire, the Slavs living in the Vistula Valley, which is now Poland, migrated to the Dnieper River, which is now Ukraine, because of the war, this part of the people is also called "East Slavs", East Slavs are one of the oldest and largest tribes in Europe, and "Slavs" originally meant actually "slaves", so their social status was very low, in the slave society at that time, The Romans of high social status could buy, sell, and humiliate them at will, and they could live unhappily.
By the ninth century, a group of pirates had arrived in the land where the East Slavs lived, and quickly began colonizing and established the Kingdom of Rus', historically known as "Kievan Rus'" and the current capital of Ukraine is Kiev.
Subsequently, the Kingdom of Rus expanded rapidly, conquered many nearby countries, the Kingdom of Rus became more and more powerful, and even most of the European land belonged to the Kingdom of Rus, coupled with the vigorous development of agriculture in the Kingdom of Rus, the economic level was improved, the economy of the Kingdom of Rus was unprecedentedly prosperous, but with the continuous enhancement of feudal power in Kievan Rus' territory, disobeying the rule of the Grand Duke of Kiev, coupled with the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Rus also slowly appeared many problems, so there was war,
Then the Kingdom of Rus disintegrated into many countries, large and small, and some of the countries located in the frontier were called "Ukraine", so what did Ukraine mean? In fact, this is recorded in the "History of Rus'" that "Ukraine refers to the frontier land", and slowly the Ukrainian nation gradually expanded into the territory of today's Ukraine.
In 1240, the Mongols marched west, genghis Khan's descendants came to the Ukrainian region, but the Ukrainian people at that time thought that their strength was very strong and would not be defeated, so they did not accept the surrender of the Mongols, chose to meet the Mongols, who knew that the Mongols were so strong, only one day of fighting, the Mongols successfully occupied the capital of Ukraine Kiev, so the "Golden Horde" was established here.
But some of the remote territories were not occupied by the Mongols, so they migrated to Moscow and established the "Moscow Dynasty", more than 200 years later, the Moscow Dynasty launched a war against the Golden Horde, and won the victory, so the Golden Horde split into many countries large and small, some of which established the Belarusian state, while the other is now the Russian state, and a small part of the area was divided by Lithuania, Poland, which is now the Ukrainian region.
2. Russia sent Ukraine a large military stronghold, but Ukraine still did not appreciate it
In 1954, in order to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian people jointly resisting the invasion of polish colonists, the Soviet Union held a grand celebration, and in order to express his heart, Khrushchev directly gave the military stronghold of Crimea to Ukraine as a gift from Russia, and this Crimea is not only vast and livable, but also one of Russia's famous ice-free ports.
Although territorial sovereignty is very important for every country, but this gift did not set off a huge storm in the society at that time, because at that time, Ukraine and Russia were one country, but it can be seen that Russia used Crimea as a gift to Ukraine can be said to attach great importance to this friendship, the relationship between the two countries was very good at that time, but what Khrushchev did not expect was that his decision made the Crimean region turbulent for many years, until today. There is a great contradiction between Russia and Ukraine over the sovereignty of Crimea.
During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the United States and the Soviet Union began to focus on the development of their own military strength, and Russia and Russia, which were also members of the Soviet Union, were not idle, and the two countries developed together and made common progress, becoming close and good brothers, and the Soviet Union even introduced many important enterprises doing the defense industry into Ukraine, bringing advanced technology and a large number of talents, making great contributions to the development of the Ukrainian military.
Even the first Soviet aircraft carrier was born at the Black River Shipyard in Ukraine, the largest shipyard in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Navy was able to compete with the U.S. Navy. In addition, other Russian companies in Ukraine have also achieved great results, such as the four-generation strategic nuclear bomb jointly designed and manufactured by the Southern Design Bureau and the Southern Manufacturing Plant, which is very deterrent, and NATO has always been afraid.
In addition to the military, Russia and Ukraine have also developed agriculture together and have achieved great results. Russia and Ukraine have very fertile land, especially suitable for the growth of wheat, and wheat is an indispensable raw material for making bread, so the Europeans who used bread as the staple food brought the Soviet Union a lot of foreign exchange, not only that, the common development of Agriculture in Russia and Ukraine also solved the food supply problem of many prosperous cities in the Soviet Union.
You know, grain is the lifeblood of the country is a necessity for the people's lives, has a very important position, the people take food as the sky, there are rich grain reserves the people can live a stable life, the same way, grain also has a very important role in national defense, only their own country has a rich grain reserves, can not worry about being cut off by other countries food supply, in order to their own country has its own sovereignty, it is also because of this, the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War will be so hard.
3. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the gradual distancing of Russia and Ukraine, and the escalation of contradictions to the launch of war
In 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated, Russia and Ukraine have also declared independence, but the huge amount of property left by the Soviet Union has caused contradictions between Russia and Ukraine, and the relations between the two countries have gradually drifted apart, coupled with the cultural differences between the East and the West of Ukraine, the economic level difference is huge, the east of Ukraine is close to Russia, the energy of industry is also derived from Russia, the economy is very developed, so the people in the east are more pro-Russia, and the west of Ukraine is very close to Europe, mainly tourism and agricultural development. Therefore, the people in the west are relatively pro-European, and under the long-term cultural differences between the East and the West, the contradictions between the people have continued to escalate.
In 1999, NATO began another round of expansion, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland joined and in 2004 Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and the baltic coast of seven countries have joined NATO, which makes Russia feel the crisis, but there is Ukraine in Europe and Russia as a buffer belt, as long as Ukraine does not join NATO, then NATO expansion then Russia is relatively safe, so Russia is only dissatisfied but did not make any relatively large resistance measures.
On March 16, 2014, the Ukrainian Crimean region held a referendum on its own status, and more than 96% of the citizens who participated in the referendum approved of Crimea's accession to Russia, so on March 17, 2014, Crimea declared itself an independent sovereign state, and on the same day, the Republic of Crimea also joined the Russian Federation in a new federal capacity.
Since Crimea seceded from Ukraine, the contradiction between Ukraine and Russia has risen to the extreme, Ukraine believes that Crimea has been taken back is undoubtedly the country's territorial sovereignty has been infringed, many people are not pro-Russian, but instead surrendered to the embrace of the West, and Russia believes that Ukraine originally belonged to Russia, was its ancestors worked hard to fight, they just took back their own territory, so no one obeyed anyone, and even the contradiction continued to escalate to the extreme, and even war may occur. However, it is only the people who can suffer from waging war, which is contrary to humanitarianism, and in this world with the theme of peace and development, the countries that launch wars are undoubtedly condemned and sanctioned by various countries, so Russia and Ukraine have not chosen to fight.
On January 20, 2021, the new US President Biden took office and signed a series of military cooperation documents with Ukraine, the United States provided Ukraine with a large number of military weapons and added $60 million in military assistance, Russia is dissatisfied, "Isn't this just putting weapons on Russia's doorstep!" "Russia's security is under the greatest threat ever.
Not only that, the US Secretary of Defense also supports Ukraine's accession to NATO, and joining NATO means that Europe and Russia will no longer have a buffer zone directly, coupled with the instigation of the United States, Ukraine refuses to abide by the provisions of the "Minks Agreement", which is very dangerous for Russia, and finally on February 21, 2022, Russia could not bear it, russian President Putin issued a national speech accusing Ukraine and NATO of various bad deeds, and announced that it would launch a war against Ukraine to defend its national sovereignty.
The love-hate relationship between Russia and Ukraine tells us that there are no eternal friends between countries, only eternal interests, and if you want to defend the sovereignty of your country, you can only make yourself strong, and you cannot be attached to any country.