A Little Background on the nation of Ukraine:
The 42 million Ukrainians speak a different language and have a somewhat different culture than Russia. They stem from the same tribe of Kievan Rus. They experienced the same conversion to Byzantine Christianity (known today as Orthodox), and they developed a flourishing civilization and trade up and down its great rivers to the Black Sea. Ukraine as a civilized society was formed earlier than Russia. Kiev was considered one of the two capitals of the Byzantine Empire along with Constantinople. It was invaded and burned by Batu Khan in 1240 AD. That’s when the majority of Orthodox priests retreated to Moscow. Ukraine is a rich and fertile agricultural state, but it was invaded, taken over and settled in turn by the Tatars, the Mongols, the Poles, the Lithuanians, and eventually the Russians under Peter the Great. It was then incorporated into Russia under Peter the Great and endured partitions with Poland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
For a time, the Cossacks of the Ukraine were a formidable military force, and a democratic republic emerged in Ukraine surrounded by the Russian, Polish, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires. They were a combination of runaway serfs from the surrounding Empires and local leaders; they had one of the first written constitutions and elected leadership. Their independence and autonomy were destroyed by Catherine the Great in 1775, and they were fully incorporated into the Russian Empire at just about the same time that the American Revolution was brewing. The memories of the Cossack Republic have remained at the center of Ukrainian nationalism from the mid 19th Century to the present day.
During the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War and the aftermath of the First World War, some Ukrainians fought for the White Army, some for the Red Army and others for a local Black (anarchist) Army. An independent Ukrainian Socialist Republic emerged as the second most important component of the USSR and thrived under Lenin.
In the 1930s, its population (7-11 million) suffered a terrible famine and large population loss under Stalinist collectivization of the farms and during Stalin and Beria’s Great Terror. Ukrainians consider this Stalinist period to be national genocide, which they call the “holodomor”. The extent of this genocide was coming to light late in the 20th century.
Before, during and after the Second World War, large numbers (20 million) of Ukrainian and Russian citizens were forced from their homes and communities and killed or resettled to Siberia, creating further distrust and hatred of the Kremlin and the Soviet system in many communities.
Ukraine (and the rest of Russia) was invaded by Germany in 1941, and it lost a huge portion of its population fighting the Nazis. Massive populations of Ukrainian Jews were rounded up and slaughtered. Kiev was destroyed by the Germans. Up to 40,000 Ukrainians were slaughtered in one day at Babyn Yar (outside Kiev); most were Jews.
A nationalist group known as the UPA from the Western Ukraine fought with the Nazis against the Red Army. This betrayal is at the heart of many hostile attitudes between Russia and the citizens residing in Western Ukraine.
After the Second World War, Ukraine recovered and became a breadbasket of the Soviet Union and a center of advanced heavy industry. Khrushchev and Brezhnev both had far better relations with and respect for Ukraine and its citizens than had Stalin.
The USSR consisted of 15 separate autonomous republics. Under the constitution of the USSR, they each had the right to become independent states. These ranged from Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia (known as the Baltics), to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kirghistan (neighbors of Afghanistan), to Armenia and Azerbaijan (neighbors of Turkey), to Georgia (in the Caucasus), Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. After the dissolution of the USSR, all chose to become independent states with varying degrees of ancient antagonisms with each other, and they had mixed relations with Russia, the largest of the 15 which stretched from St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. The Baltic states for example all joined NATO while Belarus remained a staunch ally of Russia.
After the collapse of the USSR in the late 80’s, Ukraine declared independence in 1991 and has since sought to develop better relations with NATO and the European community. This has not sat well with Russia. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with Russian support helped engineer the election of pro-Russian President Victor Yanukovich. He proved to be hopelessly corrupt and in the pockets of the pro-Russian kleptocracy. He was ousted in the Maidan Revolution and replaced by Petro Poroschenko after an election in 2014.
Russia then invaded Crimea and the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Since then, there has been a civil war -- with some populations in the Eastern and Russian-speaking region of the country more closely allied with Russia and the populations in the Central and Western regions favoring stronger ties with the rest of Europe. Eastern Ukraine is more industrialized, more prosperous, but more dependent on heavy industries in their sunset stages, while Western Ukraine is more agricultural and less wealthy, lacking the kleptocratic elements that dominate industry in Russia and eastern Ukraine. It is the cultural heart of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian economy has been in terrible shape since the early 90s due to poor economic decisions and widespread corruption, the birth rate has been very low and the death rate has been very high due to alcoholism, smoking, addiction, obesity and social despair – similar to Russia and to parts of the US. Its population is declining and aging. Ukraine depends on immigration to offset its low birth rate and high death rates.
The President of the Ukraine, Victor Yanukovich, who was ousted by the Maidan revolution in 2014, fled into exile in Moscow. He was corrupt, tightly allied with Putin and the Russian Mafia, and his base of political support was the Donbass region. His campaign manager was Paul Manafort, who also managed Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign. He is supported by Putin and wants to return to lead the Ukraine. Some of the issues leading to his ouster were his opposition to building better economic ties with the EU and the Common Market and his fealty to Putin. Yanukovich’s widespread corruption was another contributing factor to his ouster.
Putin invaded and annexed the Crimea and sent Russian troops into the Donbass region to support the Russian speaking regions of Luhansk and Donyets in their effort to break away from the Ukraine and rejoin Russia or create independent states. The US and the EU imposed economic sanctions on Russia for these invasions and lent support to the Ukraine’s effort to rebuild its economy and fight long-standing corruption in government and the economy.
In 2014, Poroshenko replaced Yanukovich in a democratic election; yet corruption continued, and the civil war in the Donbass intensified. Eventually there was a stalemate in the war with the Donbass separatists. Poroshenko sought greater integration with the EU and NATO.
The Ukrainians then elected President Zelensky, previously a popular comedian with no experience in government, in a landslide victory in 2019. He tried without success to negotiate peace and a withdrawal of Russian forces. He worked to expand relations with the US and the EU and to end the powers of the Ukrainian economic oligarchies. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/ukraines-political-agenda-2022-european-integration-deoligarchization-and-economic-growth
Putin now wants to oust Zelensky, replace him with a puppet of his choosing, and he wants to reintegrate Ukraine into Russia and the Russian orbit. Putin may invade to achieve his goals and has over 100,000 troops poised to invade from the eastern Donbass, the northern border with Belarus and from Crimea in the south.
The US and NATO are prepared to impose more economic sanctions on Russia if Putin invades and are beefing up their military support for the Baltics, Poland and most of the rest of Eastern Europe --- countries that are now threatened by Putin’s revanchism. Putin has recently sent Russian troops into Belarus and Kazakhstan to quell unrest and protests against his allies in those countries which were also parts of the old USSR.
This is a huge moment of challenge for Europe, Russia, Ukraine, and the US. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/russian-escalation-against-ukraine-has-broader-goals-may-appear It could end very badly.
With appreciation of my cousin Lee for her on the ground insights.