The tension between Russia and Ukraine has triggered one of the greatest security crises in Europe since the Cold War. The recent Russian build-up of 100,000 troops along the Ukraine border has escalated tensions to unprecedented levels. In 2014, Russia had seized Crimea, an important port region in Ukraine and since then the conflict has never seized to exist.
Fearing a potential ground invasion by Russia, NATO allies have stepped up support for Ukraine by sending additional troops and military equipment there. In a move to defuse the crisis diplomatically, the United Nations Security Council met on Monday to discuss the matter.
Why is Ukraine important to Russia?
Ukraine, which borders Russia to its east, was part of the Soviet Union before it collapsed at the end of the Cold War in 1991.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991 left Russia with a vastly depleted population, territory and economy.
This also diminished Russia’s superpower status due to massive landmass with a lot of natural resources and industrial capacity.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to reclaim some of that lost glory and undo some of what Russia lost in the Cold War.
He has described Russians and Ukrainians as ‘one people, a single whole’ as Ukraine was part of the Russian empire for centuries.
Ukraine after winning independence moved to shed its Russian imperial legacy and forged increasingly close ties with the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO are a red line and expressed concerns.
Now President Putin has expressed concern about plans by some NATO members to set up military training centres in Ukraine.
How the conflict started?
There was a mass protest in Ukraine against its Kremlin-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych leading to his removal in 2014.
President Yanukovych had rejected an association agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Moscow.
Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supported a separatist rebellion that broke out in Ukraine’s east.
Ukraine and the West accused Russia of sending its troops and weapons to back the armed pro-Russian separatist insurgents.
Russia denied the accusation, saying the Russians who joined the pro-Russian insurgents were volunteers and not state players.
According to Kyiv, more than 14,000 people died in the fighting that devastated Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
Russia strongly criticised the United States and its NATO allies for providing Ukraine with weapons and holding joint drills.
What does Russia want?
Russia is strongly against Ukraine being a part of NATO and has said so in its security demands sent to the US last December.
Its list of demands included a halt to any NATO drills near Russia’s border. It also wants NATO to withdraw from Eastern Europe.
In December, President Putin said that Russia wants legal guarantee that there would be no further NATO moves eastward.
He also demanded legal guarantee that there would be no deployment of weapons systems in close vicinity to Russian territory.
Main demands included Ukraine essentially be banned from being a NATO member and that the alliance won’t expand further east.
Many of these ultimatums have been slammed as non-starters by the West and have been turned down.
