At the heart of the crisis in the Ukraine is the question of whether that country would be better off forging a future with the European Union or with Russia. The answer is very complex as the Ukraine and Russia have a long history together with many citizens of the Ukraine having very close ties to Russia. But there is also a strong desire by many Ukrainians to build a future that has a more open political system, more promising economic opportunities, and a less oppressive and corrupt government with a better track record on human rights. Many believe Russia’s intention is to reassemble those Eastern European countries into a 2014 version of the Iron Curtain. The Ukraine is very important to Russia economically, militarily and historically. In recent months, Russia has gone to extreme measures to protect its interests, whether it is persuasion or brute force. Despite Russia’s aggression, the Ukraine should resist moving backward into a murky alliance with Russia and strike out in a new, freer direction by building a stronger alliance with the Europe Union. Before the Ukraine crisis even started, Russia and Ukraine have had an on-going history for over 1000 years. The relationship between these two countries has had its ups and downs including the recent bloodshed where several pro-Russian militants were killed by Ukrainian military forces. Clearly, the crisis is reaching a level of tension and violence it hasn't experienced in decades. As the world debates the fate of the Ukraine, one of the central questions seems to be, “While the Ukraine has had close ties to Russia for centuries, why does Russia now feel justified in taking over entire sections of the Ukraine, like Crimea?” Again, it starts with the fact that these two co... ... middle of paper ... ...icularly important to Russia’s navy and merchant fleets. Russia today is using military force, putting tanks and troops ready for invasion at any moment on the outsides of Ukrainian territory, to try and “persuade” Ukraine into joining them. Russia is also using its Air Force to patrol overhead and support the ground troops when needed. This is how tense the situation Ukraine is in at the moment (“Russia Battles”). It was even proven that the Crimea vote to join Russia, which was currently the first to take a ballot in joining Russia, was a forced ballot that contained fake ballots and many duplicated votes. A reporter even said they saw Russian troops patrolling around the ballot area as well as some voters dropping three or more ballots into the box (Smith, 1). That is clearly a fraudulent voting system and should be investigated by non-partisan or UN officials.
With the fall of the pro-Russian government Russia had lost basically a very important ally to the European Union and NATO. President Vladimir Putin took a great risk and invaded Crimea that resulted in strong reactions from the West. Even Russia’s closest allies supported the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
has been aiming to demolish the Ukrainian nation and devour the country to rebuild the USSR
The big crisis in Ukraine is starting to get out of hand. The government cannot even figure out what to do, and is getting kicked out of office. There are street protests happening all over Ukraine especially at Kyiv’s Independence Square. There is civil unrest against Yanukovych because he did not do what the people wanted to have. After everything is starting to cool down, Russian troops start to enter the country. The crisis was getting so far out of hand that the US and the EU had to figure out how to help, so they got involved in the crisis. The Ukraine conflict was triggered by Yanukovych declining the EU deal, and when everything was getting settled down in Ukraine, Russia invades Ukraine.
In March of 2014 Russia invaded Ukraine, unleashing a maddening flurry of concern across the world. Originally the concern was how to defend Crimea Ukraine from Putin’s forces, however, the concern has since changed. Seemingly overnight, Putin managed to worm his troops into Crimea, and dominate part of Ukraine. But where does this expansion of power end? Trying to delegate and monitor a power-hungry politician is now the focus of nearly every government in the Western world. In an article written by The Guardian’s Ian Traynor, it states that Putin has declared that if he wanted to, “Russian forces could conquer Ukrainian capital in two weeks.” This amount of confidence is highly unnerving considering Russia’s track record on simply showing up and invading a country seemingly out of nowhere. That specific action and behavior has been associated with Russian leader Joseph Stalin during the Cold war, and now is a continuous and growing concern with Vladimir Putin.
Military involvement in Ukraine could lead the U.S to engage in long term war with Russia. The Kiev’s acting government would love to have America’s military suppo...
International politics as one may imagine includes foreign affairs. This is why the topic and focus of this paper revolves around the current event within Eastern Europe. It will focus on both Russia, Ukraine, and the world, and from it, it will be analyzed by using the resources provided within class. After all it is a International Politics course, and one of the best ways to effectively put the skills and knowledge to use is to focus on an event or current event. The paper will attempt to go over in a chronological order of the events that has happened, and what is happening currently over in Ukraine. Afterwards, an analyzed input will be implemented providing reasoning behind Russia's actions, and actions of the world, and potentially some solutions.
[2] Weaver, Matthew. "Ukraine Crisis." The Guardian. N.p., 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. .
On March 18, 2014, Russian President Valdimir Putin announced the annexation of Crimea, two days after voters in this semi-autonomous territory approved a referendum on separating from Ukraine. Crimea is an eastern Ukrainian peninsula located on the Black Sea. It’s connected to the rest of the Ukraine by a small strip of land. “Ukraine screams ‘robbery’ while Russians and Russian Crimeans feel Crimea is ‘coming back home’,” (Hodgman, 3/28/2014). Cremia was absorbed into the Russian empire along with most of ethnic Ukrainian territory by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. In 1921, the peninsula became part of the Soviet Union. Crimea only became part of the Ukraine when Soviet leader Njkita Khruschchev gave the peninsula to his native country in 1954. However, in 1991, the Soviet Union broke up and Crimea ended up in an independent Ukraine. Sixty percent of Crimea’s population of two million identify themselves as Russians. Today, Crimea’s population is divided on the issue of being annexed to Russia. Geographically, Crimea is an extension of Ukraine; however, demographically and politically, it had become Russian. Ethnic Russians in Crimea support the annexation while the Crimean Tatars, originally a Mongol-led ethnic group who also claims Crimea as home, and Ukrainians express pro-Ukrainian sentiments.
Crimea’s history with Russia begins in 1783, when it became an annexed state (Taylor). However, to most of those within the western sphere of schooling most commonly learn about Crimea from the Crimean war. It occurred from 1853 to 1856 and involved Russia, Sardinia, France, Britain, and the Ottoman Empire. After three years of arduous fighting Russia eventually lost the war, but it did manage the keep the treasured peninsula. After the fall of the Russian Empire, in 1921 Crimea became “ The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” and unquestionably part of the Soviet Union. In the following decades, Crimea much like the rest of Europe endured the strain of the Second World War, but surprisingly in 1945 it was gifted from Russia to the Ukraine. According to Taylor, there are a couple of possi...
...o similar to Russia is Ukraine’s intellectuals are similar to Russian intelligentsia. If one recalls, in Chekhov’s play Trofimov talks that certain intellectuals speak only about science instead of figuring to use it to benefit the average Russian. Similarly reflected in The Cherry Orchard, “we can see that one of Ukraine's key problems is that the thinkers who dream of a brave new life--in their case, a destiny for their country as part of Europe--don't actually know how to make it happen” (De Waal). Like the thinkers who only spoke of science instead of applying it in 20th century Russia, similar thinkers in Ukraine today struggle to act on their dreams of creating a new Ukraine.
Jack Donnelly states that “Theories are beacons, lenses of filters that direct us to what, according to the theory, is essential for understanding some part of the world.” These various theories, or lenses for viewing the world help us understand the way in which countries interact and why things occur in the field of international relations. The two main schools of thought in the field are Realism and Liberalism. One must understand these theories in order to be able to understand what is happening in the world. Understanding the filters that are Liberalism and Realism, one can look to make some sort of understanding as to what is happening right now between the Ukraine and Russia. The subsequent annexation of the province of Crimea by Russia is of paramount importance to multi governmental organisations like the United Nations and the European Union who are looking to understand this event from the Realist perspective as well as the Liberal paradigm.
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe, that borders Russia north and northeast. Lately Ukraine has been making international headlines; the country is in complete and total turmoil or for lack of better words a crisis. What started as a request from the Ukrainian citizens for a change in government, limit the powers of the president, restore the country constitution back to its original form from 2004-2010, and get closer ties to the EU. Peaceful protesting turned in to a nightmare, when the then president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych failed to make good on his word. Instead, he made a deal with Russian president and late sought refuge in Russia. A few weeks later, he was ousted from this prompted the Ukraine revolution and the annexation of Crimea also known as the Crimean crisis. A revolution in Ukraine took place in February 2014 for a period of 5 days in Kiev the capital of Ukraine, after a series of violent events in the capital culminated with the ousting of the then-President of Ukraine. Immediately following the ousting of Yanukovych, immediate changes took place in Ukraine’s sociopolitical system. Starting with the a new interim government being installed and the constitution was restored to its original state, and plans to hold impromptu presidential elections in the months to follow. Before the revolution, Ukraine had been sunken by years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of growth economically , their currency value had dropped , and they had the inability to secure funding from public markets. Because of this, president Yanukovych wanted to establish closer relationship with the European Union (EU) and Russia in order to attract the money necessary to maintain Ukraine's standard of living without a...
It is clear that Russia’s actions in Crimea strongly demonstrate the sharp limits of soft power, especially one which again shows the use of soft power when it clashes with hard power. Russia’s forceful military intervention into Ukraine was preceded by a tug of war of sorts between Moscow and the West over Ukraine’s integration with two competing soft-power vehicles—the EU and the Moscow-led Eurasian Union. In the end, Crimea was forcibly seized by men with guns, that is, through the use of hard power. Hence, the events in Ukraine have exposed the stark limits of soft power. In such cases, it has become evident overtime that soft power may be less an instrument to wield, and more of a favourable wind on a country’s side. Moreover, the Ukraine crisis has shown that Europe’s self-perception as a growing economic power that does not need hard power is badly flawed. The past months have seen a change in the Euro-Atlantic community’s relations with Russia- the introduction of economic and financial sanctions, visa bans on Russian companies, along with the arms embargo with the country, all show that soft power was not sufficient in dealing with
The Ukrainian crisis was a result of social upheaval against the former president, Mr. Yanukovich, who decided to pull out of the association with the European Union (BBC News, 2014). The upheaval that lasted for about two months resulted in more than 100 people killed (NY Times, 2014). In February 22 Mr. Yanukovich disappears and the opposition takes control over the government in Ukraine (BBC News, 2014). Upon learning that Mr. Yanukovich is currently residing in Kazakhstan, the new government of Ukraine requests from Kazakhstan the extradition of the overthrown president, who is accused of crime against the Ukrainian citizenry.
The conflict between the Russia and Ukraine has created a lot of damage. It has been developing day by day. The main reason of conflict is Ukraine’s political landscape and the rejection of single economic deal with European Union regarding an association agreement by Ukraine president. In the 18th century, Crimea was engaged into the Russian empire along with most of ethnic Ukrainian territory. Russians are fighting over Crimea which is the part of Ukraine. According to 2001, among 2 million populations there were 54 percent Russian, 24 percent Ukrainian, and 12 percent Tatars. This conflict started at the end of November 2013 and escalated in 2014 which resulted in the death of many people. Today, the conflict is still going on between those countries. I didn’t see the mistake of Ukraine government. The decision made by Russia is undesirable. Russia is just trying to capture the Ukraine’s land and increase their economic growth. Most of the countries (including USA) are giving full support to the Ukraine and have threatened the economic sanctions against Russia. This is the interesting part for me. I chose this conflict because I want to share this info...