Ukraine only gained full independence at the end of the 20th century, after long periods of control by Russia, Poland-Lithuania, as well as the Union (USSR) of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Ukraine had a brief period of independence from 1918 to 1920, but during the interwar period, sections of western Ukraine were ruled by Romania, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and Ukraine was The Girl in Kherson incorporated into the Soviet Union as just the S.S.R. Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
When the Soviet Union dissolved in the 1990s, the Ukrainian SSR legislature proclaimed sovereignty (on July 16, 1990) and then actual independence (on August 24, 1991), which was followed by the referendum (December 1, 1991). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine gained full independence in December 1991.
Ukraine was the official name of the country and played a key role in the emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an association of republics from the former Soviet Union.
2.2 Land
Ukraine borders Belarus to the north, Russia to the east, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea to the south, Romania and Moldova to the southwest, and Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland to the west. The Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea, separates Ukraine from Russia in the extreme southeast.
2.3 Geography
The southwestern corner of the Russian Plain is occupied by Ukraine (East European Plain). At an average elevation of 574 feet (175 meters) above sea level, the country is made up almost entirely of flat plains.
Mountainous areas, such as the Ukrainian Carpathians and the Crimean Mountains, are only found on the borders of the country and make up less than five percent of its total area. However, the Ukrainian terrain has some variety: the plains are interrupted by highlands and lowlands, stretching in a continuous belt from northwest to southeast.
2.4 Economy of Ukraine
The modern economy of Ukraine grew out of the further economic development of the Soviet Union. Despite receiving a smaller share (16 percent) of investment capital from the Soviet Union and generating a larger share of commodities with a lower fixed price, Ukraine was able to create a larger fraction of total production in the industrial (17 percent) and mainly agricultural (21 percent) areas of the Soviet economy.
Indeed, a centrally planned movement of revenue from Ukraine, accounting for a fifth of the country's national revenue, helped finance economic development in the other countries of the Soviet Union, notably Russia and Kazakhstan. Ukraine's economy, on the other hand, was severely strained during the late Soviet era and began to collapse significantly soon after independence.
In the early 1990s, when monetary inflation was severe, most of the population suffered greatly. Despite initial optimism that stopping the flow of funds and supplies to other regions of the Soviet Union would help Ukraine's ailing economy and living standards, Ukraine has reached a period of significant economic degradation.
Daily life in Ukraine became a problem as costs skyrocketed, especially for those on fixed incomes. Citizens were compensated in various ways: more than half the population grew their own food, employees held two or three jobs on average, and many relied on a prosperous barter system to purchase basic necessities. By 1996, Ukraine had achieved some economic stability. As inflation fell to tolerable levels, the economy's downward spiral slowed dramatically.
2.5 Resources and Power
Ukraine has a diverse range of complementary mineral resources, all of which are abundant in high concentrations and are located in close proximity to each other. Iron ore deposits in Kremenchuk, Kryvyi Rih, Mariupol, Bilozerka, and Kerch are the backbone of Ukraine's flourishing iron and steel industry.
One of the richest areas in the world for manganese-bearing minerals can be found near Nikopol. The Donets Basin produces anthracite and bituminous coal, which is used to make coke. Thermal power plants are fueled by massive volumes of lignite discovered within the Dnieper River Basin (northern side of Kryvyi Rih) and bituminous coal resources in the Lviv-Volyn Basin.
Ukraine's coal mines are among the deepest in Europe. Due to the high levels of methane produced by their depth, most of them are considered dangerous; Methane-related explosions have killed a group of Ukrainian miners.
Ukraine is also rich in titanium ores, alunite (a potash resource), bauxite, nepheline (a soda resource), and mercury ores (cinnabar or mercuric sulfide). A large deposit of ozokerite can be found in Boryslav (natural paraffin wax).
Both the Donets Basin and Subcarpathia have significant rock salt deposits, while Subcarpathia contains potassium salt resources. There are various phosphorites in Ukraine, as well as pure sulfur.
2.6 Trade
Ukraine's most important trading partner remains Russia. Ukraine also does a lot of business with Germany, Italy, Poland, and other European Union countries. China, Turkey, and the United States are among the other trading partners. Ukraine imports oil, petroleum products, and natural gas from Russia, as well as cloth, footwear, printed materials, and a variety of other items. Chemicals, machinery, and transportation equipment are imported and exported. Ukraine exports grain, sugar, iron ore, coal, and manganese by sea.
2.7 Government and Society
In the early 1990s, the Ukrainian government witnessed a tremendous transformation. Ukraine was formally known as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and was a component of the Soviet Union before declaring independence in 1991.
Ukraine had the right to “enter into direct relations with foreign countries, negotiate agreements, and to exchange diplomatic and consular officials with them”, as well as maintain their own military forces, in accordance with the Soviet constitution of 1937, revised in 1944.
Ukraine's membership in the United Nations (UN) and, as a result, in more than 70 other international organizations was the only true embodiment of these constitutional prerogatives in international affairs. The only members of the UN that were not fully independent countries were the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR (now Belarus). The prerogatives of the Ukrainian SSR were further curtailed under the revised Soviet constitution of 1977.
Ukraine declared its independence on August 24, 1991, just days after a failed coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and received support overwhelming popular vote in a referendum on December 1, 1991. Other states eventually recognized Ukraine, and various international agreements were signed, particularly with neighboring countries.
In addition, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia established the Commonwealth of Independent States, which was later joined by eight other former Soviet republics.
2.8 Ukraine on the Path to Independence
Gorbachev's strategy to deal with the growing economic problems of the Soviet Union resulted in an unexpected and unplanned rise in nationalism. Gorbachev launched an ill-defined economic perestroika (“restructuring”) campaign in 1986, which called for an honest confrontation with genuine problems, or glasnost (“openness”), as well as popular participation in the process. These policies gave the non-Russian republics the ability to express not only economic but primarily national issues.
In contrast to the rapid growth of mass movements in the Baltic and Transcaucasian republics, the national revival sparked by glasnost in Ukraine was slow to mature. Beginning in mid-1986, the Ukrainian press and media began to discuss previously taboo topics, cautiously at first. Although this process grew and became stronger, the spontaneous establishment of unofficial groups began in 1987, mainly in Kyiv and Lviv. With the first public demonstrations—in Lviv from June to August and in Kyiv in November—and the formation of embryonic national groups, the year 1988 saw the beginning of popular mobilization.
In 1989, Ukraine's national revival reached the point of open politics. In Ukraine, typically passive industrial workers, particularly in the Donbas, became organized. Years of Moscow's negligence resulted in the coal-mining industry steadily deteriorating and increasingly dangerous working conditions in the mines. Miners' complaints began to surface in the form of letters as early as 1985. But it was not until July 1989 that a spontaneous effort at self-organization by Donbas miners resulted in a strike. Moscow's concessions were insufficient to stop the growing alienation.
Over the course of the year, most Russian-speaking miners, who had very different concerns than the Ukrainian cultural intelligentsia, came to see the Ukrainian national movement as a defender of their interests against the belligerent policies of Moscow. In March 1988, the first large group with an openly political objective was founded. The Ukrainian Helsinki Union was founded by newly released political prisoners, many of whom had been members of the Helsinki Watch Group of the mid-1970s. The Helsinki Union's stated goal was to restore Ukraine's sovereignty as the main guarantor of the human and national rights of its population, as well as to transform the Soviet Union into a true confederation of states.
The Ukrainian Helsinki Union, led by Levko Lukyanenko and including Vyacheslav Chornovil as a key figure, had branches in all areas of Ukraine by 1989. The CPU, which remained among the least rebuilt republican groups of the Communist Party of the USSR under Shcherbytsky, fought the process of national resurrection and independent self-organization at every stage. Propaganda attacks in the press and media, intimidation, harassment, and rare arrests were used to oppose the emerging democratic forces.
Reflecting Moscow's fear of destabilization in Ukraine, Shcherbytsky kept control of the CPU. However, official policies of perestroika and glasnost stifled more drastic action, while the precedent of rapid change in other republics, particularly the Baltic States, encouraged Ukrainian democracy activists.
2.9 Parliamentary Democracy
In Ukraine, the year 1989 witnessed the shift from social mobilization to mass politicization. A substantial number of non-communist candidates won seats in Moscow's new ultimate legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies. Several Communist Party candidates, including high-ranking officials, were defeated, which was made even more humiliating when they ran unopposed. The party's confidence was shattered, and resignations began to mount.
Under the umbrella of the Writers' Union of Ukraine, attempts to establish a popular front gained traction in January 1989. The introduction of parliamentary democracy was the most significant development of 1990.
On March 4, the Communist Party's grip on political power in Ukraine was challenged by the first competitive elections to the Ukrainian parliament (which replaced the old-style Supreme Soviet). With the defection of numerous communist lawmakers from stringent party discipline on specific topics, the CPU's core majority was reduced to 239 of the 450 members in the parliament that assembled in mid-May. Changes in the political leadership followed quickly, culminating in the nomination of Leonid Kravchuk, the recently appointed CPU secretary for ideology, as the parliament's chairman.
On July 16, the “people of Ukraine”—the entire resident population of Ukraine, regardless of nationality or ethnicity—claimed sovereignty (though not independence); the declaration marked the beginning of a gradual convergence of views on critical issues between the communist majority as well as the democratic opposition, whose agenda was increasingly adopted by the pragmatic Kravchuk.
Faced with surging nationalism, Gorbachev had already suggested a renegotiated new union contract that would grant the Soviet republics significant autonomy while maintaining central control over foreign policy, the military, as well as the financial system.
In October 1990, student-led mass demonstrations, as well as a hunger strike, was actually launched in Kyiv to prevent the cession of newly asserted sovereign rights to Moscow; the protests elicited concessions, including the resignation of the premier. In the same month, Rukh, whose membership was fast expanding, declared total independence for Ukraine as its ultimate goal. The CPU was the only party to proclaim support for Gorbachev's plans for a new unity treaty.
In August 1991, hard-line elements of Gorbachev's government staged a coup in Moscow, which failed in two days. In response, Ukraine's parliament declared full independence on August 24 in an emergency session. On December 1, the proclamation was made subject to popular ratification in a referendum.
2.10 Independent Ukraine
In a referendum on December 1, 1991, the Ukrainian people decisively voted for independence. A total of 84 percent of eligible voters participated in the referendum, with 90 percent of those voting in favor of independence. Kravchuk was elected president in a vote that took place at the same time as the referendum.
Several significant events had occurred in Ukraine at this time, including the breakdown of the Communist Party and the development of infrastructure for independent Ukrainian military forces (under the newly appointed Minister of Defense Kostiantyn Morozov). Ukraine has also defied political pressure from Moscow to change its position about independence and join a reconstructed Soviet Union.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus decided to form the Commonwealth of Independent States a week after the independence referendum. The Soviet Union was legally disbanded soon after.
2.11 Post-Independence Issues
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine was widely viewed as the former Soviet republic with the best prospect of reaching economic development and integration with the rest of Europe (apart from those in the Baltic region). However, by the end of the twentieth century, Ukraine's economy had collapsed, and social and political reforms had fallen short of transforming the country into a fully European state.
Despite this, Ukraine made significant progress during this time. It consolidated its independence and built its state structure, normalized relations with neighboring countries (despite certain difficult issues), took significant moves toward democratization, and established itself as an international community member with good standing.
2.12 Nuclear Disarmament
The subject of nuclear disarmament had proven to be difficult to resolve. In the aftermath of the Chornobyl disaster, the anti-nuclear sentiment was strong in Ukraine, and even before independence, Ukrainian officials pledged to rid the country of nuclear weapons. However, Ukrainians were unaware of the magnitude of the nuclear arsenal on their soil during this time—Ukraine was essentially the world's third-largest nuclear power at the time—nor were they aware of the tremendous costs and logistical difficulties of nuclear divestment.
Early in 1992, when almost half of the arsenal was transferred to Russia, the leaders of independent Ukraine began to doubt the wisdom of mindlessly giving over the weapons to a possible enemy that was now claiming portions of Ukraine's territory (i.e., Crimea). Ukraine subsequently expressed misgivings about the weapons being completely removed from the country before receiving security guarantees and financial recompense for the dismantling and transfer of the warheads. The West (especially the United States), as well as Russia, were both concerned about this apparent backtracking.
As a result of the intense diplomatic pressure, Ukraine began to be portrayed in the Western media as a renegade state. Finally, Ukraine ratified the Lisbon Protocol in May 1992, indicating its acceptance of the START I treaty. Following that, the US organized negotiations that resulted in a trilateral declaration (between the US, Russia, and Ukraine) in January 1994, which specified a disarmament timeline and addressed the financial and security concerns raised by Ukraine.
2.13 Disputes With Regard to Crimea
The interconnected concerns of Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Black Sea Fleet were not only Ukraine's most difficult post-independence issues but also posed a serious threat to regional peace. The Russian S.F.S.R. handed over control of Crimea to the Ukrainian S.S.R. in 1954. It was, however, the only part of Ukraine where ethnic Russians made up the majority of the population.
Crimea was awarded autonomous republic status in 1991, and Crimeans voted in favor of Ukrainian independence (although by a small majority). However, dissatisfaction with an independent Ukraine grew quickly, and a push for greater autonomy, if not secession, emerged in the peninsula.
Regular declarations by prominent Russian officials and the Russian Duma that Crimea was Russian territory that should never have been part of Ukraine bolstered separatist movements.
Beginning in the late 1980s, some 250,000 Crimean Tatars arrived in the peninsula, returning to the ancient homeland from which they had been deported at the close of World War II.
Tensions in the region heightened in 1994, when separatist leader Yury Meshkov was elected president of Crimea in January, and a referendum called for independence two months later. Meshkov, on the other hand, proved to be an ineffective leader who swiftly alienated his own supporters. He, as well as the Crimean parliament, was engaged in a constitutional battle by September. Meshkov's powers were eventually snatched from him, and a pro-Kyiv prime minister was elected.
Ukraine abolished the office of President of Crimea in March 1995 and implemented direct political administration, but with major economic concessions to Crimea. The separatist movement in Crimea has come to an end.
The conflict over control of the Black Sea Fleet and Sevastopol, the Crimean port city where the fleet was based, was particularly intense. Ukraine claimed the entire fleet, which had been a key naval asset of the Soviet Union, in early 1992. Russia firmly asserted that the fleet had always been and would remain Russian. The issue was the subject of a “war of decrees” until June 1992, when Kravchuk and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agreed to run the fleet jointly for three years.
After that, an agreement was reached to divide the assets of the fleet equally, but Ukraine later agreed to allow Russia to acquire a majority share of the fleet in exchange for debt relief. Basis rights were not addressed until 1997, when a formal agreement on the Black Sea Fleet was signed. It allowed Russia to lease key Sevastopol port facilities for 20 years. Ukraine and Russia signed the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Association (1997) soon after, which recognized Ukraine's territorial sovereignty and existing borders (including Crimea) and normalized relations to a certain extent.
2.14 A Walk through the History to Understand Russia's Efforts to Subjugate Ukraine
Ukraine has made several hard-earned gains since gaining independence in 1991. It was originally known as “The Ukraine,” but the name was altered for unknown reasons over time. The use of the term “Ukraine” reflected the reality that many people had no idea what Ukraine was. And Ukrainians, particularly in the last 30 years, have made a concerted effort to persuade English speakers to avoid doing so, which they consider patronizing.
Ukraine has its own identity inside its eyes. Ukraine is a country. Ukraine, on the other hand, is not a country, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He believes that Ukraine has yet to establish a stable statehood. Ukraine, he feels, is an inextricable component of Russia's history, culture, and spiritual space. Russia and the country it is commonly referred to as its “little brother” share a long string of shared ancestors.
Kievan Rus, based in Kyiv, was a civilization that flourished in the late Middle Ages. Russia and Ukraine are both related to that state. Vikings are claimed to have built that culture around the ninth century. But, of course, it was many centuries ago, and a lot has changed since then. In this way, the Vikings played a part in the formation of England and the French coasts. And it's been a long time. So, if the Vikings claimed control of France today, it would be a bit far-fetched. It is just as doubtful for the Russians to claim sovereignty of Ukraine as it would be for the Vikings to claim control of France or England.
Fast forward to 1793, when Catherine the Great annexed the majority of what is now Ukraine to the Russian empire. Ukraine was similar to Ireland when it was a part of the United Kingdom. It was a little component of a larger whole, a larger empire.
Ukraine fought for independence during the revolution that gave birth to the Soviet Union. It lost and was absorbed by the communist state in 1922. It was, however, an independent entity from the start. It has its own language from the beginning.
Within the USSR, it has always had its own standing. But, frightened of an independent-minded Ukraine, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin brought down the hammer within a decade: “He had made the decision to remove the land from the peasants and hand it over to the government. And there was a lot of opposition to that in Ukraine very soon. Stalin would not tolerate any opposition. The Holodomor—Ukrainian for ‘extermination from hunger’—was a genocide that began in 1932 and lasted until 1933.” The Holodomor was a famine that was created artificially. That is to say, the famine was not caused by crop failure, insects, or drought; it was a famine produced by the Soviet state. Food was confiscated from homes in rural Ukraine by local activists. The plan was to gather every last scrap of food, understanding perfectly well that this would result in deaths, which they expected to take place.
Between 1932 and 1933, almost four million Ukrainians died of starvation. In the documentary from 1984, “Harvest of Despair,” journalist Vasyl Sokil described the trauma: “They observed a toddler picking a stalk of wheat, trying to eat those unripe grains.” Frogs, toads, and mice were eaten to survive. Tree bark was what they ate. Cannibalism was even used by some people. Authorities actually took note of it at the time. Of course, this suggests that people in Moscow were aware of cannibalism in Ukraine.
The arrest and death of Ukrainian intellectuals, artists, and even lexicon writers were surely part of the second wave of Stalinist repression. In the Ukrainian alphabet, a letter was dropped. They modified the way the language was written even again, this time to make it more Russian-like.
Since the 19th century, Russian strategy has been to eliminate Ukrainian-ness and the sense of it, of a distinct identity and sense of nationhood. It was a policy of the Czarist regime. It was Stalin's policy afterward, and it is now Putin's policy. Putin sees an independent, sovereign, and democratic Ukraine as a threat to his personal power and political clout. Putin has a genuine fear of grassroots democratic movements, and the most effective method for him to counteract them is to eliminate the Ukrainian state.
2.15 Dispute between Ukraine and Russia
Given that Ukraine's independence was such a rapid and significant, fundamental upheaval, tumultuous ties with Russia in the post-Soviet period were almost unavoidable. Russia had a difficult time understanding, let alone acknowledging, Ukraine as an independent country—it saw Ukraine as an important part of the Russian realm, and Ukrainians were treated as nearly identical to Russians. As a result, Russia reacted more strongly to Ukraine's departure than it did to the breakup of the other Soviet republics.
Ukraine, on the other hand, was acutely aware of the fragility of its recent independence and acutely sensitive to any perceived Russian infringement on its sovereignty. The two countries' relations remained tumultuous well into the twenty-first century.
The dependency of Ukraine on Russia for fossil fuels was a major source of anxiety. For example, in 2006, Russia cut off Ukraine's natural gas supply temporarily, stating that Ukraine had not paid its bills. Ukraine, on the other hand, claimed the move was in retaliation to its pro-Western policies.
2.16 Ukraine and the USA
Ukraine's relationship with the United States got off to a rocky start. Many Ukrainians were offended when US President George Bush warned them against “suicidal” nationalism and urged them to stay within the Soviet Union during a visit to Ukraine in the summer of 1991.
Later that year, when Ukraine declared independence, Washington was deeply concerned about the new country's huge nuclear weapons. Significant ties began to form only after the disarmament problem was resolved. Ukraine quickly rose to prominence as a significant donor of US foreign aid, and the two countries built a strong political bond.
2.17 The Crisis in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea
The airports in Simferopol and Sevastopol were besieged by squads of armed men whose clothing was actually devoid of any visible identifying signs as pro-Russian protestors became more forceful in Crimea. As pro-Russian legislators rejected the current administration and elected Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian Unity Party's leader, as Crimea's prime minister, masked gunmen invaded the Crimean parliament building and raised a Russian flag.
Data and voice communications between Ukraine and Crimea had been cut down, and authorities of Russia had admitted to sending soldiers into the territory. Turchynov called the move a violation and a provocation of the sovereignty of Ukraine, while Russian President Vladimir Putin described it as an attempt to safeguard military assets and Russian nationals in Crimea. Aksyonov stated in Crimea that he, not the Kyiv administration, was in charge of military forces and Ukrainian police.
The Crimean parliament voted on March 6 via a public referendum to split from Ukraine and enter the Russian Federation set for March 16, 2014. Russia applauded the decision, but the West was outraged. The outcome was rejected by the Kyiv interim government, and the US and EU slapped asset freezes and travel restrictions on a number of members of the Crimean parliament and Russian officials.
Putin met with Aksyonov as well as other regional delegates on March 18 and signed a pact bringing Crimea into Russia. Western nations reacted angrily to the action. As Ukraine started the removal of around 25,000 military men and their Crimean relatives, Russian forces moved to capture bases around the peninsula, including the Ukrainian naval headquarters in Sevastopol. Putin legally incorporated Crimea into Russia by signing a bill on March 21 after the Russian parliament had ratified the annexation treaty.