The History Of The Ukrainian Nation Essay

One country is comparable to the United States of America in terms of world power and prominence. Russia makes their name known beginning in World War 2 (WW2), later in the Korean War, Cold War, and today’s proxy war in the Syria. Russia’s culture, environment, politics, military, and economy do not just make Russia a regional powerhouse, but slowly becoming a region of influential power to surrounding countries with the end state of a global superpower. All the factors that make Russia the powerhouse that it is slowly becoming, highlights the impressive trend that supersedes the previous Soviet Union and past leaders.

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

Russia has built a strong, but stagnating economy on several natural resources to include the refinery and export of natural gas and oil. According to the Jim Picht (2014) exportation of natural gas and oil to Eastern Europe account for 70 percent of Russia’s exports and 53 percent of the government’s revenue. Along with exporting oil to Eastern Europe, Russia also exports too many countries to include China and Belarus. Europe fueled majority by Russian supplied natural gas and oil, the dependency of Europe’s need for this natural resource is the reason Russia’s economy is so strong. In 2014, when Russia decided to invade the neighboring country of Ukraine has led Europe to begin searching for other suppliers of their natural resources. If Europe finds other countries to supply the natural resources

The two countries, Russia and Ukraine, had different reactions towards the armed violence and impeachment of the Ukrainian president. Although the majority of the Ukrainians opposed Viktor’s decision to procrastinate the signing the EU-Ukraine integration agreement, all the ex-presidents accused for its interference with the affairs of Crimean. The former presidents of Ukraine, including Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma described the present crisis as Russia’s political interventions designed to interfere with the internal affairs of Ukraine and its relationship with the European Union (Hanschke 1). The people of Crimea have not been seeking for secession from Ukraine, but their interest is to have extended autonomy and rights to govern the Crimean affairs with minimum involvement of the government of Ukraine. Russia, on the other hand, have dismissed the accusation and stated that it is pursuing the interest of the people of Crimea to join the Federation of Russia. Russia holds that the people of Crimea have the power to decide the future of their territory and Russia will be ready to respect their decision. Study shows that about 90

Ukraine is known to be one of the smallest Eastern European countries. Though small in size, respectively, the country can make up for in nationalism, and pride. The country is known to be the “bread-basket” (Ukrainian National Museum, 2015) of Europe. Ukrainians built a prosperous civilization, which in turn attracted invasions from Mongols, Poles, Lithuanians, and lastly the

This article starts by introducing the historical path of Crimea, then analyzes the impact of Ukraine revolution on Russia, and further illustrates the influence of Crimea Crisis on the relationship between Russia and the Western World. The study ends with policy suggestions for the United States and the West.

The crisis in Ukraine and Crimea’s recent accession to Russia are events that clearly highlight the underlying sources of conflict in global politics. While Russia sees its actions in Crimea as a “reunification” and the respect for the right of self-determination, the West views it as a threat to European security and a violation of territorial integrity. Crimea has been a debatable topic from the time it came under the control of the Russian Empire in 1783 during the reign of Catherine the Great. The justification then was similar to the reasoning being used by Vladimir Putin today. Catherine declared that she was protecting ethnic Russians in the region from the Ottoman Empire, much as Putin is claiming to protect Russians from Ukrainian

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).

Even though the enlargement of NATO and European Union was a strategic move to make a political and economic reform in this particular region, which would help it in a better integration with western countries, “the recent rise of nationalist and populist forces in several countries in eastern Europe, threatens to undermine the reform process.”[1] Happenings such as the “Orange Revolution” in 2004 and Crimea crisis in 2014 in Ukraine, or the authoritarian ruling style by the Belarus president Aleksandr Lukasenko (who still sustains close political and economic ties with Russia and bans political and civil freedom in the country) are solid indicators of an ongoing political instability in this area. On the other hand, countries such as Romania (which also had a rocky history of decades-long dictatorship of Nicolai Ceausescu),

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded April 25-26, 1986, near the town of Pripyat, Ukraine. At the time of the incident, Chernobyl’s reactors were owned and operated by the Soviet Ministry of Power and Electrification. The design of the reactor was unique to the Soviets and was called an RBMK, which stands for Large Power Boiling Reactor. Like the reactors in the United States, the Chernobyl reactors used ordinary water to cool the fuel but use graphite to moderate the neutrons produced in fission (Klevans, Farber). Another significant difference is Soviet reactors at the time did not have steel-lined, concrete-walled operating buildings like the ones in Western Europe, North America and Asia. The changes between the US and Soviet designs of their nuclear reactors at low power operation and under the right circumstances, the power of the Soviet reactors could increase in an uncontrolled and devestating way.

Our group decided to focus economic backgrounds of major four countries in the Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Turkey, Russia, and Poland. First, Ukraine has a population of 42.8 million with 1.4% of upper class. GDP of $370.8 billion with -6.8% growth rate and -0.2% 5-year compound annual growth rate. Ukraine has $8,668 per capita with 12.1% inflation rate and 7.7% unemployed rate. In 2014, Ukraine’s economy was heavily indebted. Coal mining and heavy industry are major resources, but due to the high energy-sufficient, Ukraine is dependent on imports of Russian gas. Turkey has a population of 76.9 million with 10% upper class. Turkey has a GDP of $1.5 trillion with 2.9 % growth rate and 5.4% 5-year compound annual growth rate. Turkey has $19,610 per capita with 7.46% inflation rate and 10.1% unemployed rate. Turkey’s economic is continuing growing due to strong private and public consumption. Russia has a population of 142.4 million with 20% of upper class. Russia has a GDP of $3,471 trillion with -3.9% growth rate and $23,700 per capita. Russia’s overall economy decreased in 2015 due to low oil prices, international sanctions, and structural weakness. Lastly, Poland has a population of 38 million with GDP of $955 billion with 3.3% growth rate and Poland has $8,668 per capita with 0.9% inflation rate and 7.9% unemployed rate. Poland’s is considered as a growth champion in Europe because of high education, entrepreneurship, and hard work.

In 1991, The Ukraine declares its independence from Russia (90% of the population voted for this). Then, in 2006, Russia cuts the supply of gas for the Ukrainian use. Alexander Zakharchenko was an economist but was never good at running the economy, he could not fix the major debt problem. Russia didn’t like how he was friendly to Europe, which is why Russia briefly cut off the gas supply.

On November 21st, 2013 public protests erupted across Kiev, Ukraine with calls that demanded closer ties. Over the course of the next year the situation in Ukraine would deteriorate rapidly; riot police gunned down hundreds of protestors, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted from his office, Russia annexed Crimea, and the War of Donbass would erupt in eastern Ukraine between Pro-Russian Separatists and the Ukrainian government. Western nations have been quick to blame Russia for stirring up trouble in Ukraine and Putin has remained staunch that he is protecting the rights of those of Russian descent residing in Ukraine. CNN and RT, a state-funded Russian media outlet, both offer different perspective on the events unfolding in what was once known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union.

The month of November in Ukraine was interesting, to say the least. Politically, the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych attempts to reform amending bills, while also socially ignoring the decline in press freedom. However, a major noteworthy article appeared on the stands: Ukraine goes offshore. This article is probably one of the most important events that occurred in November, which discusses revenue lost on offshore tax schemes.

The political relations between Ukraine and Russia as the two independent subjects of international relations were established in 1991 after the eighth December of the same year signed the Belavezha agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which marked the end of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as " subject of international law and geopolitical reality "and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. From that moment we can talk about the beginning of the existence of full political relations between Russia and Ukraine.