By IAN DE MELLO
Staff Writer
With the “special military operation” approaching its one-year anniversary, the reasons for Russia’s invasion have taken a backseat in the conflict. However, the reasons are an important factor to discuss to better understand how we can deal with situations like these in the future. The history is fairly lengthy and stretches hundreds of years ago back to the roots of Russification in Ukraine in the early 1700s. What is Russification you may ask? Russification is the policy of having non-Russian people give up their own cultures and language, whether it be forceful or not, and adopt the Russian equivalents. These attempts were to assimilate the Ukrainians who had previously found their cultural identity in the great Kievan Rus and the successor Ruthenian Kingdom. The Ruthenian Kingdom met its demise at the hands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and as a result, only a handful of distinct Ukrainian cossacks would appear throughout history before succumbing to the Russian Empire. Ukraine gained a brief period of independence after the collapse of the Tsardom in 1917 but consequently was invaded by the Bolsheviks.
Nevertheless, these policies, albeit with fluctuations, carried right up to 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of modern Ukraine. As a result, the effects of this left a large portion of Ukrainians, mostly in the East, being Russian speakers who seemed more in touch with Russia than Ukraine. Despite this, Ukraine was mostly under the control of Pro-Russian parties or independents who seemed content with the status quo. This changed drastically with the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution, known as the “Maidan Revolution”, and the deposition of Russophile president Viktor Yanukovych. Such a drastic measure was taken as Yanukovych refused to sign the free trade agreement with the European Union, essentially bypassing the Ukrainian parliament, and deciding to get closer to the Russian-dominated Eurasian Economic Union. With the division of Ukraine into the pro-European West and pro-Russian East, large-scale protests and riots occurred. This eventually culminated in a bloody clash at the capital with pro-European supporters taking control of Kyiv. Yanukovych fled the city and was voted out of office by the Rada, with Ukrainian patriot Petro Poroshenko replacing him. After Russia condemned the coup as illegal, they launched an invasion that seized and annexed the territory of Crimea under the pretense of “protecting” the Russians living there.
The conflict would further escalate as rebels revolted in the Donbas, leading to a series of sporadic cease-fires that ultimately failed. Under the NATO constitution, members who have a border dispute with a neighbor cannot join until those disputes have reached their conclusion. Since 2014, Ukraine has never recognized either of the Donbas republics or the Russian annexation of Crimea. As a result, Ukraine cannot join NATO. This basically backed Ukraine into a corner that Russia was sure to exploit by sending troops into the Donbas to secure the puppet states. Putin’s dictatorship, rather than relying on popular policies to maintain power, utilized Russian irredentism to bolster its power. After the annexation of Crimea, Putin’s approval ratings skyrocketed as Russia reasserted itself on the world stage. A successful invasion of Ukraine would allow for Russia to bask in the glory and nostalgia of old Russian imperialism and revitalize nationalism. This would win the support of most Russians in any future endeavors and guarantee the survival of Putin’s dictatorship.
Another issue was the pro-Western government in Ukraine which was distancing itself from Russia and towards the European Union. Bringing Ukraine back into the fold would be a major blow to the Western powers as Russian influence expands. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been the new Warsaw Pact since 1992, and its expansion would allow for the further projection of Russian influence. For example, Lukashenko, Putin’s right-hand man in Belarus, has already exposed plans to invade Moldova in the future after Ukraine. Furthermore, controlling the Black Sea is not just a major political goal for Russia but a key economic one. Having decisive control over the sea will secure Russian shipping and prevent it from being threatened. Positive relations with Turkey have also guaranteed that the straits, in times of peace, will remain open to Russian shipping. Victory in this war means that the Russians could slowly try to nudge Turkey away from the Western powers and into their sphere of influence, although some may say this is an unlikely possibility. Turkey has a lot weighing on the Western powers, and it may be unwise to abandon such powerful allies. Despite this, Russian dominance in the Black Sea may make Turkey hesitant to act against them.
The last reason why Russia wants to control Ukraine is the key resources in the East. Using the map as a source, we can see the region is chock full of valuable resources that would greatly benefit Russia in the event of a takeover. Iron, titanium, mercury, lead, uranium, and more are all vital resources that would greatly benefit Russia if it seized control. In addition, a key detail that is not shown on the map is the gas pipelines that run through Ukraine. These are some of the most well-developed pipelines in Europe and for good reason. Russia has a key incentive in keeping them running which is why, even in wartime, Russian gas corporation Gazprom has struck deals with the Ukrainian government to keep them open. Why does Russia need these gas pipelines? It’s quite simple, they need to export gas to Europe. It’s one of their main exports and the Russian economy depends heavily on it. Ensuring complete control over the pipelines in a victory scenario would allow Russia to cut out the middleman and export directly to Europe, allowing for greater economic growth. However, Russia’s aggressive actions are making European powers shift away from a dependency on Russian gas, meaning that this export may be in peril in the near future.
No matter the cause, Russia’s invasion is an aggressive breach of international law and goes against common human morality. Putin right now is sending tens of thousands of young Russian men to die for his lofty ambitions and has risked the stability of the country. Consequently, victory can be the only option for Russia at this point and anything else is sure to lead to a revolution. In contrast, the Ukrainians are battling fiercely for independence and are sure to fight to the last man to avoid being Russified once again. Some Russians mistakenly believe that Ukrainians are merely just the Western distortion of the Russian identity but that is not the case. The Ukrainians have kept a unique culture independent of those who reign in Moscow and their struggles exemplify this. The Muscovite Tsar Putin must realize that Europe has changed a lot since the 1800s and that his imperialism will be countered at all costs.
