History

HISTORY

A thousand years ago, Russia and Ukraine shared a legacy that both countries have complicated or shared. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe in the last century, one of the most populous and powerful republics in the former USSR and a significant agricultural import. While Russia has watched over its neighbour to the West closely in the past, Ukrainians have experienced periods of protest and government corruption during their independence.

Despite Ukraine’s ambitions to align itself better with Western countries – including its public interest in joining NATO, which was formed at least in part to deter Soviet expansion – the council notes that Russia has responded with aggression. After Ukrainians ousted an anti-Russian president in 2014, tensions ballooned.

Post collapse of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the early 1990s and 

thereafter, after many years of economic struggle and internal strife, the leadership of President Vladimir Putin finally ensured that Russia is now seen as an energy giant becoming the world’s third-largest producer of oil and the second-largest producer of natural gas. Russia is learnt to have used energy revenue to accumulate some $630 billion in foreign exchange reserves. For example, in the year 2021, Russia balanced its budget with a relatively low oil price at $45 per barrel against an average of nearly $70 a barrel.

Between 1991 and 2014, Russia ramped up its global standing and emerged as considerable military power. As Ukraine veered towards the West, Moscow grew increasingly concerned that its strategic interests in Crimea were being threatened. 

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE COUNTRIES

Russia and Ukraine have shared a troubled past that stretches all the way back to the 10th century.

• Both Russia and Ukraine share the same cultural roots. However, over time, both countries developed different cultural and political identities.
• Kyiv has resisted Moscow’s attempts to impose its supremacy over Ukraine, the latter has always insisted that Ukraine has always been a part of Russia.
• However, despite the animosity between the two nations, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union for over seven decades.
• In the last twenty years, there have been repeated instances of Kyiv accusing Moscow of meddling in its affairs.