Russie-Ukraine : aux origines de la guerre | Géopoliticus | Lumni

Ukraine-Russia War 🗺: How did we get here? Explanations with #Geopoliticus. #Russia #USSR #Geopolitics #Education More Geopoliticus episodes 👉 https://cutt.ly/gAoLAF9 Subscribe! 👉 http://bit.ly/2QLeh5V Ukraine and Russia share common roots in a single Slavic and Orthodox state: Kievan Rus'. This state developed in the 9th century thanks to Vikings from Scandinavia who settled in Kyiv, the current capital of Ukraine. In the 14th century, western Ukraine came under the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, composed of Lithuania and Poland. They spread Catholicism and forged strong ties with Western Europe. The southern and eastern parts were incorporated into the Russian Empire, formed in 1721. Two centuries later, in 1917, while Russia was engulfed in the February Revolution, the first independent Ukrainian republic was created for five years before being reintegrated into the Soviet Union. For Moscow, Ukraine was a strategic territory that had supplied vast quantities of grain since imperial times, as well as valuable minerals for the industrialization of the Soviet Union. To prevent the emergence of Ukrainian nationalist sentiment, Stalin intensified political persecution. In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev gifted Crimea, a region located in the heart of the Black Sea, to Ukraine. This was a symbolic gesture to celebrate the 300th anniversary of reunification between Russia and Kyiv. Thus, with the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine became an independent state within its currently recognized borders. The Ukrainian population remains divided. The inhabitants of the north and west, who predominantly speak Ukrainian, favor integration into the European Union and wish to join the NATO military alliance. The inhabitants of the south and east, mainly Russian-speaking, are more open to integration into the cooperation area that Moscow is trying to build with the former Soviet republics. At the end of 2013, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a supporter of Russia, refused to sign the association agreement with the European Union. Hundreds of thousands of pro-European protesters launched a revolution and seized power by force. In response, Russia took control of Crimea. A little further northeast, the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, in the Donbas, declared their independence. Supported by Russia, they entered into a protracted war with the rest of Ukraine. For Ukraine, accepting the loss of entire regions means parting with valuable economic and human resources. For Russia, relinquishing control of Ukraine means risking its Western adversary expanding its alliances to its borders. Vladimir Putin's motivation is also symbolic: the Russian president has repeatedly invoked Ukraine's historical roots and Prince Vladimir I, the historical leader of both countries, whose legacy he sees himself as.