War between Russia and Ukraine: The Beginning of the End

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a devastating war on Ukraine. The Russian president is rushing to revise the post–Cold War international order and reconfigure Russia’s place in it, wanting Russia to be among the mightiest states geopolitically. Russian forces are bombing Ukraine’s cities prompting a mass exodus of refugees.

A shared history of Russia and Ukraine Ukrainians believe that the origins of Ukraine as a nation go back to 11th century Kyiv, surviving centuries of domination by Russia and Poland, and, finally, emerging out of the Soviet Union as a sovereign Ukrainian state in 1991. However, for the Russians, the different western and southern provinces now called “Ukraine” were inhabited by Slavic people (Ukrainians) who were in essence Russian.

Russians thought of this land as a part of the Russian Empire for centuries. Ukraine’s modern history as an autonomous nation added up to a few stormy years of a shaky Ukrainian People’s Republic between the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 and the consolidation of the USSR in 1920. Paradoxically, its integration into the Soviet Union as one of its original constituent republics was a significant milestone on the path to national sovereignty. This integration established territorial boundaries, recognized Ukrainian as the republic’s ethnic nationality, and, for 70 years, offered the republic’s communist leaders a significant level of autonomy in the internal government of their territory.

Post-Soviet Ukraine has built a national identity of its own. In a move extensively condemned by the international community, Russia annexed the Crimea region of Ukraine under the questionable claim that it was protecting ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Russia also backed a separatist movement in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine that led to armed conflict. 

What prompted the Russian-Ukrainian conflict? At the heart of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine is NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), which is a group of 30 countries including the US, UK, France, and Germany, formed in the aftermath of World War II. Ukraine’s President Zelensky’s request to be a part of NATO and eventually the European Union infuriated Russia and it started placing troops near Ukraine’s border. The Russians started building their military presence around Ukraine in late 2021 under various pretexts while remaining unclear about their intentions. It includes Belarus, a close ally of Russia. Thousands of troops were hovering on the border in December, nearly surrounding the country, stirring up tensions to the point that Russian President Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke.

In December, President Biden cautioned of severe sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine. Putin has continuously demanded guarantees and agreements from the West and Ukraine that it will not join NATO. Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to become a member of NATO as it will expand the organization’s footprint to Russia’s border. Another major reason is that a member country of NATO will be entitled to collective support by all members of NATO in case of any external attack.  Putin considers Ukraine as a false creation carved from Russia by rivals.

He has also labeled Ukraine as a puppet of the West. Russia refuses to use the words “war” or even “invasion”. He asserted his aim was to protect people subjected to bullying and genocide and aim for the “demilitarization and de-Nazification” of Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is testing the geopolitical worth of the West as much as it is the resilience of the people of Ukraine. Whether the United States and the European Union are ready for that or not, the destiny of Ukraine and that of the West-led order are inseparable.

Vishakha

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