Analysts in the case of Ukraine place the origin of the Russian interventions, which led to the ongoing invasion, in the so-called ‘Euromaidan revolution’, which led to the overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (favorable to Moscow’s interests) and the coming to power of a government whose main aspiration was for Ukraine to get closer to the West. In other words, Ukraine wanted to get out of the Russian orbit and go its own way as a free and sovereign state with Western neighbors.
The first step to achieve this goal was to become a member of the EU and, therefore, NATO. For Russia that has never been an option, but rather a threat to its national security.
(You can read: Attention: two explosions were recorded south of Kiev)
The Ukrainian government has said it will apply to join the European Union in 2024, and it also has ambitions to join NATO. In this way, NATO troops – allies of the United States – would be a few kilometers from Moscow, and would also lose their access to the Mediterranean Sea, also telling that, beyond geopolitics, Russia considers Ukraine a ‘little brother ‘, part of Russia’s “sphere of influence”, a territory, rather than an independent state. This feeling of ownership has led the Krem-lin to try to block Ukraine’s entry into the EU and NATO.
Blocking that entry at any cost has been one of Putin’s main requests to the United States in the letter that the Russian head of state sent to Joe Biden in the days before the potential invasion of Ukraine, when diplomatic efforts were being made, mainly by France, to prevent Russia from carrying out its intervention in Ukraine.
(Also: Zelensky, the actor president who had to face Putin)
It should be remembered that, taking advantage of the political instability during the 2014 protests in Ukraine, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and has encouraged and armed a separatist insurgency in the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces, with a majority pro-Russian population, which has fought against the army Ukrainian, for not agreeing with the rapprochement with the West.
Ukraine’s ‘mistake’, in the eyes of Moscow, has been wanting to belong to the West. For this reason, for the international community, Russia’s sole purpose has been to destabilize the Ukrainian state and prevent it from finally joining NATO and not to “protect the civilian population”, as Putin argued in his speech when he ordered the attack. against Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin has not accepted the path of independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, because for many Russians, Ukraine is still a territory closely linked to them, something that many Ukrainians also think. They do not accept that the Ukrainians can direct their own destinies and decide what they want. Putin and some Russian politicians are used to the idea of being an empire. It is a humiliation for them that Ukraine goes its own way.
Also, it is important to say that Ukraine is a country where almost half of the population have Russian as their mother tongue and they feel linked to Russia. Therefore, it was not easy to make the decision to approach the EU and become westernized.
In other news
– These are the countries that support Russia and Ukraine’s allies
– Why is Russia invading Ukraine? This is what you should know
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