Miles Mitchell
Professor Matic
POSC 3610
30 March 2014
The Ukraine Crisis
I. Introduction
The current international crisis involving Russia and Ukraine developed in the aftermath of the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. As a result, Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovich was impeached and quickly fled the capital. An interim government formed around Oleksandr Turchynov as the acting president. Germany and the US quickly recognized this new government, while Russia did not. In late February, pro-Russian militias began taking control of Crimea, a part of eastern Ukraine. Gradually they dominated the peninsula and effectively took control of it. Soon after, the Crimeans held a referendum, and overwhelmingly decided to join Moscow. The West and interim Ukrainian government condemned this decision, as did the UN General Assembly. Nonetheless, Russia has effectively absorbed Crimea.
The initial spark of the crisis was Ukraine’s moves toward Europeanization. This was a major turning point in the crisis. The March 16th referendum is contested, in light of the absence of international monitors. While the West paints Russia’s soft annexation of Crimea as a violation of international law, the Russians posit that Crimea wanted to break from a country they considered hostile. The Ukrainian central government considers this a violation of international law. In the end, with the help of a Russian military intervention, Crimea successfully severed ties.
These sort of intrusive actions aren’t necessarily new for Moscow. Russia invaded Georgia in 2008. Ultimately the West mounted enough diplomatic pressure to end that short lived conflict. However, Russia did seize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russian troops still occupy. The US, along with European...
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... deploying international monitors and a general de-escalation of the situation. Another matter of contention is the amount of federalization the new Ukrainian government will have. President Obama has reconfirmed commitments to NATO and has announced further military deployments to Eastern Europe. However, a conciliatory “off-ramp” approach may be possible as Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to explore possible diplomatic solutions. Though, some skepticism surrounds this possibility as the two sides may still have irreconcilable differences on the matter (such as President Obama calling on Russia to pull its troops back from the border, something the Russians may not commit to). One of the most influential factors of the crisis may be the results of the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election to be held May 25th.
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.
Vladimir Putin is the elected president of the Russian Federation. The former member of the KGB is known to some as a torturer, a tyrant, and a murderer and is known to have plans to recreate the Soviet Union. While saying that letting Crimea become a part of Russia is giving in to Putin’s communist ideals, Crimea is largely Russian, and is not strategically important to the European Union’s goals. Yanukovich’s (The former Prime Minister of Ukraine) security forces fired upon and killed dozens of protestors. He was ousted ...
Russian agression in Crimea and East Ukraine so far has been unpunished by America and her European allies, even though Russian “President” Vladimir Putin’s regime is so similar to the dictators of the past. So, does the aggressive behavior visible today warrant any action? It seems that the answer of America is no. While there is a good argument for diplomacy in this situation, it is still necessary to have some kind of intervention in Ukraine due to the danger of history repeating itself, to prevent Putin and by extension Russia from getting too much power, and to save Ukraine and democracy. Although the United States is taking steps towards a global (USA and Europe) involvement in Ukraine through more sanctions on Russia. Even though many people disagree with foreign intervention, the Ukraine crisis is just too urgent and important to ignore.
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.
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.
...r responsibility in addressing its alliances and protecting the flow of energy resources in the European region. Use of force through NATO in Crimea is also not likely as the increased escalation of force or war is not worth risking lives in order to uphold the image of sovereignty of a non-NATO country.
This paper focuses on the protests in Ukraine and seeks to examine the different aspects related to its effect on Ukraine’s relations with the international community. This paper also discusses the role of other political leaders inside Ukraine on the protests and some of the key actors involved. The approach used to write this paper is realistic. Ukraine’s self-interest combined with the economic and military power of Russia is the possible reason of the decision made by Ukraine. As this case basically deals with power and self-interests of countries, realism will best help to understand and comprehend this case.
Yanukovych has created the issues plaguing Ukraine by rejecting an economic deal with the European Union. The deal would have been beneficial to the Union which was looking for more economies to enter into the agreement, and a profitable decision for Ukrainians looking for a larger market to sell their goods, but “even a textbook case of "win-win" economic reform was still not strong enough to withstand the highly fractured nature of Ukraine's political alliances in this case” (Curran).
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 current crisis in Ukraine can simply be coined as a war between the citizens wanting their country to be a liberal or an illiberal democracy. The Eastern Ukrainians, who have substantial amounts of influence from Russia, wish to support Russia and it’s illiberal democracy, it’s competitive authoritarian regime. The Western Ukrainians wish to join the European Union and their liberal democracies based on the foundation that the rights of the people will be preserved and that the citizens has influence in the government. The Western Ukrainians understand what it means to be part of Russia, history stemming back all the way to 1600s, and understand that it comes at the cost of Ukraine losing its identity. To understand the mindset of Western Ukrainians, one must first understand the history.
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.
In a Post soviet environment World has evovled around a unipolar system with united states having a preponderance in international matters. The remanants of the cold war still haunting europe. Most of the Eastern European nations formally allied with soviet union are now turing away from russia towards European union. The Reasons for this paradigm shift owes a lot to the democratic ways of the liberal western world and the economic ties and stability being offered to its allies. Hitherto Ukraine was in a dilemma whether to join the western block or to to under the patronage and shadow of Russia. The Multi ethnic population of Ukraine has different opinions. Some favour Russia and others favour European union. Their choices seems to be motivated by geographic and cultural proximity. The Immediate cause of the current crisis traces its origin to the Ukrainian presidents descision to forfeit an agreement with the european union. And Endorsing the russian aid in terms of a bail out plan and an added gas price reduction. So the current crisis has far reaching political and economic ramifications. If russia pulls out of the economic bail out package there needs to be an alternative. European union has a responsibility to ensure the regional peace. A military action in Ukraine would further deteriorate the situation and may escalate it to a multiparty conflict.
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...
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).