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How important is Ukraine to Russia? Why does Putin not hesitate to offend the entire Western country and launch this attack?
Today I will analyze the truth of these problems for you!
01. Russia's security
American geopolitical scientists believe that:
If Russia loses Ukraine, it will not be able to become a global power and will become a regional medium power.
Although this statement is too one-sided, there is no doubt that Ukraine is crucial to Russia.
Ukraine is located in the flat Eastern European plain . In the east is Russia, in the south is Black Sea , in the north is Belarus , in the west is Poland and Slovakia and other countries. It can be said that this is the intersection of Western countries and Russia on geopolitical !
You can see by looking at the map of Russia that they mainly have three directions to the outside world, namely East Line, South Line, and West Line . Among them, the eastern line is close to the Far East, the southern line corresponds to Central Asia, West Asia and other regions, and the western line corresponds to Europe.
But since Russia's capital and core area are close to Eastern Europe, the location of the Western Front is the most important, followed by the Southern Line and the Eastern Line.
Russia also knows where their danger comes from, so whether it is during the Tsarist Russian period or the Soviet Union, their defense on the Western Front is always the best, especially after World War II .
At that time, Ukraine and Russia were not only in alliance, but Poland also became the younger brother of the Soviet Union. Even East Germany had Soviet troops stationed. At this time, the influence of the Soviet Union was unprecedented, but all of this ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union!
Soviet disintegration Newspaper
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the NATO countries led by the United States began to expand eastward, while Poland and Baltic saw that Russia was no longer able to allow them to develop better, so they turned around and joined EU .
If Ukraine also falls into the camp of Western countries at this time, it can be said that Russia will be under great threat!
02. The importance of geographical location is naturally a place that military strategists must fight for!
From eastern Ukraine to Moscow, the capital of Russia, it is only a few hundred kilometers away. From western Ukraine to Berlin , Prague , Vienna , and Vienna are less than a thousand kilometers away. Ukraine is the only way for Russia to lead to Western Europe.
If Russia's radar is deployed in Ukraine's Lviv , then every move of various Western European countries will not escape Russia's eyes.
Similarly, if NATO deploys radar on Kharkov , Moscow will have no secret!
Let’s take a look at Crimea . Crimea is above the center of the Black Sea. If you control Crimea, it is equivalent to controlling most of the Black Sea. The Black Sea has great significance to Russia.
Although the Black Sea is only about 436,000 square kilometers, for Russia, this is the only point they prevented NATO from blocking them at sea. Why do they say so?
is at the southwestern end of the Black Sea, and is the largest city in Turkey, , Istanbul, . In this city, there is a Istanbul Strait , which is about 30 kilometers long. If a ship in the Black Sea wants to enter Mediterranean or the Atlantic Ocean, it must pass through the Istanbul Strait.
But Türkiye joined NATO as early as 1952. According to the terms of their convention, once a member state is determined to be attacked, other member states will respond immediately!
NATO army
That is to say, no matter which country in NATO is attacked, once Turkey blocks the coast of Istanbul, Russian ships must pass through Turkey's unification. Otherwise, conflicts broke out with Turkey and even the NATO behind them.
So although the Black Sea is small, it is a very important place for Russia and must be "controlled".
So Ukraine is Russia's bottom line. It is precisely because of this that Putin will use such tough means this time to keep Ukraine by his side, or at least maintain a neutral attitude, and never let them join NATO!
But the attitudes of Western countries towards Ukraine are extremely ambiguous!
You should know that the former Soviet Union and NATO countries were not in the process of dealing with each other. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO did not relax its vigilance against Russia with the end of the " Cold War ". Instead, they continued to expand eastward!
NATO army
1999 in Poland, Hungary , and Czech joined NATO. In 2002, NATO invited 7 satellite countries of the Soviet Union to join. Two years later, they asked Central and Eastern European countries to join, which forced Russia to start to be careful.
And when the pro-Western Ukrainian government expressed its willingness to join NATO, Russia began to put pressure on Ukraine!
You should know that once Ukraine joins NATO, Russia will be very dangerous. They will lose the strategic base of the Black Sea and will also face military threats from Western countries in the country!
However, when I stayed up late to check the information, I found that the reason why Russia launched an attack on Ukraine this time was also closely related to the long-term historical problems between the two countries!
03. The root cause of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict
Ukraine actually became an independent nation-state very short time. They were only truly established after the October Revolution in Russia, and only had a seat in United Nations during World War II. The reason why Ukraine is turbulent in today's country still starts with themselves!
From the perspective of historical origin, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is divided into four stages:
Stage 1: Kiev Rus
From an ethnic perspective, Ukraine and Russia were originally people of the same clan, and they are all collectively called Eastern Slavs .
However, unlike now, Kievan Rus was very powerful at that time, and Russia's predecessor, the Principality of Moscow, was just a small prince.
Therefore, when Kiev Rus covered the sky, Ukraine looked down on Russia, the small prince. It can be said that no one dared to provoke Ukraine in Eastern Europe at that time, but not long after, the rise of Mongolia brought Ukraine from the peak of political rights!
6 At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongol Empire invaded Eastern Europe and established Khanate here. In the following twenty years, Mongolia continued to attack Kiev Rus, and the city of Kiev was eventually destroyed, and the era of Ukraine ended.
At that time, the Mongolian Western Expeditionary Army occupied this place and established Golden Horde here. This can be said to be the peak of China. Whether it is Ukraine or Moscow (the predecessor of Russia), they are all under the management of the Mongolian Western Expeditionary Army.
Golden Horde Oil Painting (Pictures from the Internet)
Time goes back. When the Mongolian Western Expedition regime declined, the Principality of Moscow and Ukraine embarked on a completely different path. The Principality of Moscow later became Russia, and won the War of Independence and began its own expansion path, but Ukraine was completely different.
They went from being the former overlord of Eastern Europe to eventually become vassals of Lithuanian and the United Kingdom of Poland.
So Ukraine is not convinced by Russia today.
Stage 2: Russia and Ukraine merger
Just now we said that the territory where Ukraine is located has been ruled by Lithuania and Poland, but in fact, Ukraine's troops have not yet completely surrendered to each other. They want to use other people's power to restore their former glory bit by bit.
So when the Cossack army within Ukraine was raising their strength, they organized others to revolt directly, but when these people met Tsarist Russia, they were defeated in their hands again. In 1654, the Ukrainian army surrendered to Tsarist Russia.
In the same year, Ukraine and Russia signed the Pereyaslav Contract. In this way, East Ukraine and Russia announced a merger. Ukraine thought they could be able to stand on big trees to enjoy the shade, but what they didn't expect was.
1667, Russia signed a contract with Poland and divided Ukraine. Later, Eastern Ukraine belonged to Russia, and Western Ukraine belonged to Poland.
Only then did Ukraine realize that they were seeking a "jagged wolf" and they were completely controlled by others. It was not as good as in the rule of Lithuania and Poland at that time. At that time, this idea was particularly prominent at the Ukrainian people in the west.
Because Eastern Ukraine itself is close to Tsarist Russia, and the two sides have fought side by side, they have not had too much disgust with Tsarist Russia, but Western Ukraine is different. They don’t want to be summoned by Tsarist Russia and linger.
As of this, the contradictions within Ukraine began to emerge!
At the beginning, Western Ukraine did not dare to attack Tsarist Russia, so they first launched a civil war, but Tsarist Russia would not watch Eastern Ukraine be annexed, so they sent a large number of troops to support Eastern Ukraine.
, especially , during the reign of Peter the Great, , when there were any signs of rebellion in Ukraine, Tsarist Russia would erase it!
This makes the hatred of Western Ukrainians towards Tsarist Russia increasing.
Stage 3: Soviet period
Soviet military parade
In 1922, Eastern Ukraine officially joined the Soviet Union. In exchange, the Soviet Union and Ukraine signed the " Riga Treaty ", and the Soviet Union publicly recognized Western Ukraine as Poland's territory, which was just as they wished.
But embarrassing things came soon, because every country had a different role during the Soviet period, and the focus of Western Ukraine was the "granary" of the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine officially became an independent country, but for them, this was something that was both exciting and afraid.
, on the one hand, is because there is no big tree behind it, what if it is bullied by others, but fortunately, its regime is independent, and at that time, Ukraine was known as the "third military power in the world". They have rich local resources and have a large number of industrial bases in the Soviet Union. 30% of the nuclear weapon , and the grain output is enough for five Ukraines to use.
At this time, Ukraine also had the largest shipyard in Europe. Ukraine, which owns so many materials, was soon "spoofed" by Western countries. At that time, Western countries took a two-pronged approach, first of all, from the perspective of public opinion, the Ukrainian people thought of the various grievances they had with Russia.
At the same time, Western countries are still blowing their ears in the high-level internal Ukraine. In this way, Ukraine's relations with Russia gradually deteriorated.
You should know that during the Soviet Union, each of their countries was closely connected, just like Ukraine made fires, Russia cooked, and other countries chopped wood.
But the collapse of the Soviet Union directly broke this economic chain. Russia is fine. They have a wealth of wealth and can withstand it, but Ukraine is different. Their own economy is extremely dependent on Russia.
When Ukraine became independent and went against Russia, their country's GDP collapsed directly, and some Ukrainians counted their results to Russia!
plus the accumulated contradictions and the provocations of Western countries, so this is the fundamental reason for the conflict between Russia and Ukraine!
In addition, for Russia, Ukraine is not only a strategic buffer, but also has the glory and dreams of Russia for hundreds of years!
Soviet military parade
Ukraine and Russia are brothers connected by blood! At the same time, it was once the right-hand man on Russia's expansion path. Many of Ukrainian big urban buildings were also built by Russians, so Russia does not want to continue the current situation!
If the West continues to do this, Ukraine itself will be the one who suffers from the disaster!
When I saw the war in Ukraine, I also saw those helpless civilians, and the people who ended up suffering were still the people.
Hope the war ends as soon as possible and hope that the world will develop peacefully!
