Introduction
The seizure of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine has been marked by many as one of the greatest conflict since the Cold War. This conflict began in 2010 and escalated quickly to what it is today (the seizure of Crimea by Russia). Within my paper I will explore the history of the 2014 Crimea Crises, delve into the affects that it had upon other nations as it alarmed many, and conclude with historical analysis to past issues.
History of the Crimean and Ukraine
The Ukraine and Crimean crisis began in 2010 with the Presidential elections in which we saw “pro-Russia candidate and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the narrow margin over Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko” ("Why is Ukraine in turmoil?" February 22, 2014). He won thanks to the support of the eastern half of the country, which is a native Russian-speaking portion of the country. Outrage’s from the pro-EU citizens arose when Yanukoyvch chose to accept stronger ties to Russia unraveling all the hard work that had been put into the relationship with the European Union. This eventually led to actions such as “occupy Kiev city hall” in which 800,000 people showed up in protest the atrocities they believed to be inexcusable ("Ukraine crisis timeline" March 17, 2014).
Earlier this year the Ukrainian parliament passed a law against protesting which enraged the protesters and lead to many outbreaks in Kiev which resulted in bloodshed. War however was avoided as President Yanukovych signed a compromise on the 21st of February. Shortly after this announcement the President fled the country and the “elite Berkut police unit, blamed for the deaths of the protesters, was disbanded”. Many hoped that this would eventually lead to a more peaceful Ukrain...
... middle of paper ...
...’s fall was. To Putin, Crimea belonged to Russia and was apart of Russia from 1873 to 1954. Even after it was handed over by Communist party leader Nikita Khrushchev it still housed Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It was only when Crimea became one with the Ukraine that “Russia realized that it was not simply robbed, it was plundered” (Putin).
Conclusion
The crisis in Crimea is one that persists today and is closely watched by many in the political world. The quasi “civil struggle” within Ukraine was thought to have end in a numerous ways including: civil war, re-drawing of boundaries, or simply fizzling out. However not many foresaw pro-Russian (now admittedly actual Russian forces) seizing key structures in Crimea and eventually Crimea itself. Many of the undertaking were shady and complicated as Vladimir Putin slyly spoke about the democratic split that was obviously
Russia hoped by the end of the war they would gain back the territory lost in the Crimean wars. The war was unsuccessful for the Russian empire. Instead of new territories, a peace treaty was created between the two empires, named the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca; which essentially made Crimea an independent state. However, Crimea was invaded by Russia in 1783, despite the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, which was substantially designed to bring peace to the Russian and the Ottoman Empire. Catherine's annex of Crimea gave the Russian control over the new land, which was important because it was a fertile location to grow crops on.
In a recent White House brief, President Obama called the Russian invasion of Crimea a clear violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law. When assessing the Russo-Ukrainian crises in Crimea, the commander of European Command (EUCOM) and the Supreme Allied Commander of European Forces (SACUER) must account for U.S. interests in the region before deciding a proper course of action. This essay aims to assess four of the United States’ national interests through the perspective of EUCOM and SACUER. The first section will outline the role of EUCOM and SACUER in the European region and assess the overall problem of Russia invading Crimea. The second section will outline four of the United States’ national interests at stake: international order, trade and economic prosperity, energy supply, and freedom of the seas. In doing so, this assessment of U.S. interests in Crimea supports the options of non-intervention and a non-provocative stance in order to maintain long-term stability because the Russian invasion has only violated peripheral interests of EUCOM and SACUER.
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.
tried to destroy the Ukrainian nation, tradition and culture. They have been trying to do this
In 2012, the total population of Luhansk comprised approximately 426,000 people. The majority of city´s industrial companies have established connections with the Donbas coal and steel complex (Gentile, 2015). Generally, almost everyone in Ukraine is able to fluently speak and understand Russian, however, a vast number of people are not able to speak Ukrainian. They have an even problem to understand the language (Himka, 2015). In addition, the eastern part of Ukraine is largely urbanized and for this reason, the region more easily assimilated to use of Russian language (Himka, 2015). From the past, it is known that in the 1990s, approximately one-third of the population of Donetsk proclaimed not to support the addition of the Donbas to Ukraine (Shulman, 1998 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). Especially the Russian minority, people from the east, the retired and the poorest tend to be more pro-Russian oriented. They are even willing to follow stronger bonds with Russia (Kubicek, 2000 as quoted in Gentile, 2015). In one of his speeches, Putin mentioned the gone areas of “Novorossiya” including areas of Donbas and Luhansk, that were ceded to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet administration in the 1920s (Allison, 2014). This political situation resulted
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.
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. .
The protests and dissent raged on, eventually leading to a notable amount of radical protesters (Skarda...
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...
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.
Anonymous. "Ukraine Riots: What's Going on in Kiev?" BelfastTelegraph.co.uk. BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, 26 Jan. 2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
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...
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 Ukraine and Russia is the Ukraine's most long-standing and deadly crisis; since its post-Soviet independence began as a protest against the government dropping plans to forge closer trade ties with the European Union. The conflict between Russia and the Ukraine stems from more than twenty years of weak governance, the government’s inability to promote a coherent executive branch policy, an economy dominated by oligarchs and rife with corruption, heavy reliance on Russia, and distinct differences between Ukraine's population from both Eastern and Western regions in terms of linguistics, religion and ethnicity (Lucas 2009).