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In order to understand the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, we need to examine the changes in history for thousands of years.
First, we can explore the sources of conflict in terms of the changes in the map of Eurasia.
The first stage, Kievan Rus.
From the formation of Kievan Rus as a state in the late 9th century to the nearly four hundred years (960-1240) before the Mongol-Tatar occupation in the mid-13th century, the principality of Kievan Rus was the "common mother" of Russia and Ukraine, whether it was the choice of religious belief, the creation of the Kirill script, or the initial establishment of state construction.
Even though Kievan Rus was later divided and ceased to be the center of the country, it remained a political and religious center for a long time.
The second stage, the period of Mongol-Tatar occupation.
By around 1240, Kievan Rus was occupied by the Mongol Tatars, who had swept across Eurasia and advanced westward, and the land was divided.
On one side is the southwestern region of the former Kievan Rus's, the Galich-Volyn principality that has maintained relative independence for nearly a hundred years. On the other side were the principalities that became vassal states of the Golden Horde and lived in Northeast Rus.
Ukrainian scholars believe that in the sense of political and cultural continuity, the Principality of Galich-Volyn is a direct extension of Kievan Rus's and the second state entity on Ukrainian soil after Kievan Rus's.
Especially after Ukraine's independence in 1991, the Duchy of Galich-Volyn was more widely recognized as the "first Ukrainian kingdom".
Russian scholars emphasize that although the principalities of Northeast Rus were under the rule of the Mongol Golden Horde, they weakened their neighbors and strengthened themselves by virtue of the privilege of collecting taxes in place of the Golden Horde.
Especially after Ivan III came to power, he took advantage of the decline and infighting of the Golden Horde, and finally got rid of Mongol rule in 1480, unified the principalities, and established a centralized state centered on Moscow. Therefore, the Russian side believes that the Muscovite principality is the successor of Kievan Rus.
The Mongol-Tatar occupation separated the two regions of Kievan Rus from the northeast and southwest. In the field of historical narratives, two different historical narratives began to emerge, with the rise of the Moscow principality and Ukraine under Western influence.
The third stage was the period of great expansion in Russian history, which lasted for more than 400 years.
This phase can be roughly divided into two phases: in the early period, after the end of the Mongol-Tatar occupation, the Polish-Lithuanian principality in the west and the Moscow principality in the east competed for expansion. Much of Ukraine remains under Western rule. At the beginning of the 17th century, Moscow was even occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian principalities.
However, later in this period, the territory of Tsarist Russia expanded rapidly.
In 1613, the Romanov dynasty came into being, after the wars and expansion of Peter the Great and Empress Catherine, by the late 18th century Tsarist Russia, Austria, and Prussia "divided Poland", when most of the territory of Ukraine from south to north had entered Russian territory.
At the beginning of the 19th century, during the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon used the territories occupied from Austria and Prussia to cobble together the "Grand Duchy of Warsaw" and play with European powers such as Tsarist Russia. However, this led to the rise of Tsarist Russia in the anti-Napoleonic Wars, dominating the entire European landscape of the 19th century.
At the same time, Ukraine, subordinate to Poland, was divided for a long time between the Russian Empire and Austria-Hungary.
In other words, from the end of the Mongol occupation in the late 15th century until the October Revolution in the 20th century, on the one hand, Tsarist Russia became hegemonic, and on the other, the Ukrainian lands were chronically torn apart, under the harsh rule of the West and the Russian Empire.
The fourth stage, the late period of the First World War.
Taking advantage of the chaotic situation of the simultaneous collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Tsarist Russian Empire, the Ukrainian forces promoted by the national independence movement for many years briefly established an independent state in 1918 after repeated games.
During this period, various political systems such as parliamentary democracy, individual military dictatorship, restoration of the old tsarist system, and independent Bolsheviks in Ukraine were tried.
Finally, under the influence of the October Revolution and the political and military intervention of Soviet Russia, Ukraine joined the Soviet Union after 1922 for 70 years until the collapse of the Soviet Union. In December 1991, Ukraine declared its independence again, only 31 years ago.
There is a historical background that is worth adding.
When Ukraine joined the Soviet Union in 1922, there was a famous dispute between Lenin and Stalin. Stalin, as commissar for national affairs, proposed that Ukraine, Belarus, Transcaucasia "join" the RSFSR as autonomous units.
Lenin, on the other hand, believed that these countries should "formally unite together with Russia into the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia" and recognize "the right of every union republic to freely withdraw from the Union."
Stalin agreed with Lenin. The 1924, 1936, and 1977 versions of the Soviet Constitution also included clauses "recognizing the right to national separatism."
In short, the mutual relationship between these two ancient peoples of Russia and Ukraine is very bumpy.
First, although Russia and Ukraine both originated in Kievan Rus's, the two fraternal peoples were only in a unified political territory for a relatively short time in the early years, and most of the time they were in opposing camps, with mixed grievances. Especially in western Ukraine, which has long been influenced by the West and has a hatred of Russia.
Second, for Ukraine, although it has a thousand-year-old civilization tradition, its true independence is very short; And every time a relatively independent status is obtained, there is a deep involvement of the West.
In the early years, Ukraine confronted the Muscovite principality as part of the Lithuanian-Polish principality. During the Napoleonic Wars, France supported the independence of Poland, which contained Ukrainian territory, against European powers such as Tsarist Russia. After the 20th century, Western powers supported Ukraine's independence to counter Soviet Russia, all of which made Ukraine an outpost of the geopolitical space game between Soviet Russia and the West.
In short, the West supports Ukraine against Russia, and this inertia has always acted on the historical process of ancient and modern East and West.