Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have been brewing in the past couple of months. Hundreds of thousands of Russian troops have been stationed at the border between Russia and Ukraine and in the Black Sea. Recently, Russia has positioned its weaponry in Ukraine.* All this and the drama with the Winter Olympics of 2022 raises a couple of eyebrows at Russia and questions about Vladimir Putin’s intentions. Western countries have applied sanctions on Russia in hopes of making the country bankrupt before any real damage happens. 

Why does Russia want Ukraine?

Putin, the President of Russia, has criticized Ukraine’s diplomatic behavior since 2014, such as in the case of Ukraine’s aspiration of joining NATO and communicating to the United States with domestic issues. Putin has a disdain for Ukraine’s “Western” behavior. Even though Putin’s opinions on Ukraine were well known, no one suspected this to lead up to a potential war. Some believe that Putin wishes to revive the Soviet Union in all its glory but this situation is a lot simpler than that. The Kremlin, the executive branch of Russia, claims that this conspiracy theory is incorrect. The Kremlin have announced that Putin views Ukraine as “a part of Russia and it always will be”. This war is for the fantasy of a hungry-power dictator, who made Russia from an autocracy to a dictatorship in November of 2021. 

Ukraine and Russia’s history

On August 24, 1991, Ukraine announced its independence from the USSR. Ukraine aspired to join NATO until 2010, when the president, Viktor Yanukovych, dissolved these plans.

The government of Ukraine is a semi-presidential republic with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and because of its republic ideals, Ukraine is close with Democratic countries like the United States about domestic issues. While Ukraine was making Western arrangements, the Russian government feared that Ukraine’s membership to the EU and NATO would complete a western wall of allied countries and restrict Russia’s access to the Black Sea.

Putin, who assumed office in 2012, always had strong Soviet Union ideals and wished to unionize Russia and Russian states. Once he assumed dictatorial powers, it quickly became known that Putin was a scary figure to be dealt with and a list of also-scary figures as allies can attest for that. 

So who’s on who’s side? 

Ukraine: 

-NATO

-Canada

-Germany

-United States

-Great Britain

-Slovakia

-Poland

-Belgium

-Japan

Russia:

-China 

-Vietnam

-North Korea

-Saudi Arabia

*Editor’s Note: As of February 24th, 2022, Russia has launched an attack on Ukraine in the largest airstrike of one state to the other since World War II. On February 25th, Russia attacked the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and advanced over Ukraine’s borders. Vladimir Putin has announced that he will attempt to diplomatically regain Ukraine, but otherwise has no intention of letting Ukraine stay independent. Ukrainian officials have declared no terms of surrender.