The United States has found itself in the middle of the struggle between Russia and Ukraine for more than three decades. In Putin’s view, things went from bad to worse when Yushchenko sought Ukrainian integration with Europe and NATO. Even if a resolution of the conflict is eventually reached, however, residual antipathy from this war will likely make it hard for Russia and Ukraine to find the compromises necessary to build a lasting peace.
Tragically, more than 13,000 people have died in the continuing fighting in the Donbas, and negotiations to find a solution have yet to achieve lasting results. These actions shredded the fabric of post-Soviet European security. The war has been fought by Russian and Russian-proxy forces with Moscow providing the direction, financing and weapons. This culminated in late February 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to seize Crimea and foment a hybrid war in Ukraine’s eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Lugansk, the Donbas. Those tensions grew over time as Russia sought to reestablish its hegemonic control over an increasingly assertive and nationally conscious Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine initially managed the breakup of the Soviet Union and the reemergence of Ukraine as an independent country reasonably well, but tensions over what Russians call their “Near Abroad” were present from the start. Its leaders both competed and worked together with Russia for centuries. Ukraine shares a common historical heritage with Russia. Ukraine, along with Georgia, has been the primary battleground, literally and metaphorically, for this struggle. In doing so, Russia confronted a resurgent national patriotism in some of those countries, along with a strong desire to integrate into Western political and security organizations. It brought a formal end to the Soviet empire, but did not change the desire of Russian leaders to maintain a strong sphere of influence in the new independent nations on its periphery. The breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 was one of the great strategic inflection points of our time. A close-up of Crimea, showing Ukraine and Russia.
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