WHY RUSSIA WANTS UKRAINE/HISTORY OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE

 Since the juramaidan revolution of 2014 fighting with russian-backed separatists in the east of the country has killed over 13000 people the crimean peninsula has been occupied and unilaterally annexed and with russian troops building up at the ukrainian border we can ask how did we get here and what does ukraine mean to russia.ukraine is very important to russia they trace their common history back near your thousand years to the kingdom of kevin russ its capital kiev still goes by the nickname of mother of russian cities and for many russians including the russian president vladimir putin ukraine is part of what he calls historic russia and ukrainians and russians are one in the same people roughly 30 percent of ukrainians mostly in the east of the country speak russian as a first language and 15 of the population considers themselves to be ethnically russian and if we consider the borders of both the russian empire and the soviet union in the past 300 years ukraine and russia were part of the same country and throughout that time it was of strategic importance alongside belarus it served as a buffer for invasion like during the napoleonic wars and the two world wars the port of sevastopol in crimea has been russia's main warm sea water port and after being part of the same country for so long ukraine was an important industrial base for weaponry but that was until the soviet union broke apart in 1991 bankrupted by its military operation in afghanistan the chernobyl nuclear disaster and an inefficient economy it fell apart after attempts at reform in the 1990s with nationalist movements across the union declaring independence this was the fall of historic russia the red flag came down over the kremlin tonight as president gorbachev resigned and brought to an end seven decades of communist rule in the soviet union fifteen independent states which share only a disastrous economy and an uncertain future the soviet union lost its puppet states of the warsaw pact and with the 15 soviet republics gaining their independence russia lost ukraine in the space of two years the map of eastern europe went from looking like this to this in the aftermath russia and the other former soviet republics signed divorce bills to normalize relations and facilitate trade and in the case of ukraine this meant handing over 4000 nuclear weapons in exchange for guarantees to its borders and sovereignty the fall of the soviet union would also lead to new relations between russia and the west but these relations deteriorated from what russia saw as western advancement and its fear of influence when we look at changes to the map since the end of the cold war nato went from looking like this to this reducing the strategic buffer that russia had from more than 2000 kilometers to less than a thousand for russia this was the breaking of what they say was a promise by the west to leave russia its a promise the US and NATO deny ever existed but despite it having never been formalized and russia now exaggerating how it was formulated it is clear that on some level there was the expectation that this would be the case and that is where ukraine enters the discussion after the fall of the soviet union it attempted to keep a balance between russia and the west avoiding integration with either while many of the former states joined regional organizations led by russia ukraine mostly stayed away but the country was deeply corrupt and controlled by oligarchs and following an election widely reported as rigged by western observers in 2004 a large protest movement called the orange revolution took to the streets in part due to western support for the protesters the election was rerun and the reformist opposition led by viktor yushenko one this marked the beginning of her approachment between ukraine and the west the country was invited to become part of NATO in 2008 and it joined the eastern partnership in 2009 but in 2010 the reformists were damaged by political infighting between the president and the prime minister lost the election to viktor yanukovych it's at that point that ukraine had to decide either between closer ties with the europe or russia this led the two blocks to compete for influence in the country ukraine which had signed an association agreement with the EU broke it off to pursue an agreement with russia this triggered the euromaidan protests pro-eu protesters asked for the deal with the european union to be put back on track after the government's violent crackdown the protests turned into a revolution and the protesters who initially had the backing from eu leaders went on to overthrow yanukovych's government few would have predicted the speed of events parliament voting president viktor yanukovych out of office it split the country and triggered backlash mostly in the russian east these two revolutions angered russia who view them in the context of an expanding US fear of influence in eastern europe in response to euromaidan russian troops invaded crimea securing the strategic port of sevastopol russia says it needs to defend the crimean peninsula from a potential attack by NATO but that's not the only reason it has brought the big guns here.A year and a half after the annexation the kremlin started operations in syria it hastily organized a referendum to justify annexing the peninsula or 96 of people voted to join russia but with a large portion of crimeans considering themselves to be russian the result would have likely been the same if it had been a legal one russia also backed separatists in the east of the country to destabilize ukraine and prevent it from getting closer to the west ukraine's disorganized army relied on a series of militia groups some with far-right leanings to defend its border and it led to a seven-year conflict with civilians paying a heavy price by indiscriminate bombing and while in 2015 both russia and ukraine settled on a peace agreement called minsk 2 which sought to find a political settlement and reunite ukraine with the separatist provinces it has mostly stalled and eastern ukraine has turned into a frozen conflict in response the european union and the united states have imposed sanctions that have isolated and weakened the russian economy those sanctions and the status of ukraine continue to poison relations between russia and the west but in march 2021 russia started deploying unprecedented amount of troops near the ukrainian border and while it wasn't the first time that russia organized military exercises in the region this time something had changed so why after seven years was the situation so different the answer is ukraine since 2014 its democracy has been consolidated moving up in international rankings the country has also grown more assertive towards russia in a series of controversial language laws since 2016 it has removed the russian language from media business and education  crimea which is cut off from the mainland faces severe water shortages ukraine's army has modernized with american anti-tank missiles and turkish drones and as russia seeks to integrate those living in separatist regions giving passports to those living there ukraine increasingly sees the minsk to agreement as a potential russian trojan horse and its politics and its improved military has sparked russian fears that ukraine could retake the separatist regions by force in november 2021 russia started moving even more troops to the border prompting concerns of an invasion and while both european and american leaders talked to raising the cost of intervening in ukraine they refused to intervene militarily but russia has made a series of demands going beyond ukraine asking for security guarantees that would effectively push nato's border back and re-establish its buffer turning back the clock to 1999. western leaders view this as russia attempting to re-establish its sphere of influence in eastern europe and in the former soviet union like with the russian interventions in kazakhstan and belarus but with russian troops at the border and the failure of negotiations what comes next for ukraine that increasingly looks to the west remains uncertain.