Causes of the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine

 

A Brief History According to Al Jazeera, some 1,200 years ago, Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians were born on the banks of the Dnieper River in Kievan Rus, Kievan Rus, a medieval superpower that covered much of Eastern Europe. Even so, Russia and Ukraine are very different in language, history, and politics.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed that Russia and Ukraine are one part of Russian civilization, which also includes Belarus. But the claim was denied by Ukraine. Then Ukraine carried out two revolutions, in 2005 and 2014, which rejected Russian supremacy. Ukraine also continues to look for ways to join the European Union and NATO. 

Russia also strongly rejected the move and asked Ukraine to "never join NATO or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which at the outset was aimed at countering the threat of Russia's post-war expansion in Europe." 

Putin was furious at the prospect of a NATO base next to his border and said Ukraine's joining the US-led transatlantic alliance would mark a red line between the two. 

During the Ukrainian revolution in 2014, there were massive protests to overthrow the pro-Russian president of Ukraine named Viktor Yanukovych. At that time, Viktor rejected an association agreement with the European Union in favor of closer relations with Moscow. During Viktor's ouster, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and prompted the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. At the time, Ukraine and the West accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to support the rebels. Russia denies this and accuses Russians of ,joining the separatists of being volunteers. 

In 2015, with French and German mediators, Russia and Ukraine struck a peace treaty to end large-scale fighting. However, these efforts failed to reach a political solution. 

The European Union and the US have imposed a range of measures in response to Russia's actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, including economic sanctions targeting certain individuals, entities and sectors of the Russian economy. 

The Kremlin accuses Ukraine of stoking tensions in the country's east and violating the Minsk ceasefire agreement.