Russia–Ukraine relations

	Russia	Ukraine
Flag
Coat of Arms
Population	146,171,015 (including Crimea)[11]	41,319,838 (excluding Crimea)[12]
Area	17,125,191 km2 (6,612,073 sq mi)[13]	603,550 km2 (233,030 sq mi)[14]
Population density	8/km2 (21/sq mi)	73.8/km2 (191/sq mi)
Time zones	11	1
Exclusive economic zone	8,095,881 km2 (3,125,837 sq mi)	147,318 km2 (56,880 sq mi)
Capital	Moscow	Kyiv
Largest city	Moscow (pop. 12,197,596; 20,004,462 Metro)	Kyiv (pop. 2,900,920; 3,375,000 Metro)
Government	Federal semi-presidential constitutional republic	Unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic
Official language	Russian	Ukrainian
Main religions	71% Orthodox[15] 15% non-religious 10% Islam 2% other Christian 1% other religion	34% Orthodox Church of Ukraine[16] 27.6% Orthodox unaffiliated 13.8% Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) 8.2% Ukrainian Greek Catholic 0.7% Protestant and Evangelical 0.4% Roman Catholic 0.6% other 8.8% non-denominational 5.6% non-Religious
Ethnic group	80.90% Russians 8.75% Turkic peoples 3.96% other Indo-European-speakers (2.03% Ukrainians) 3.78% Caucasians 1.76% Finnic and Mongolian peoples and others (2010)	77.8% Ukrainians 17.3% Russians 4.9% others/unspecified (2001)
GDP (nominal) by the IMF	$1,829 billion[17]	$126 billion[17]
GDP (PPP) by the IMF	$4,328 billion[18]	$576 billion[18]
GDP (nominal) per capita by the IMF	$11,273 (2021)	$4,384 (2021)
GDP (PPP) per capita by the IMF	$29,495 (2021)	$13,943 (2021)
Military strength	Russian Armed Forces (2020) 900,000[19]: 190–205,212  Army 280,000 Navy 150,000 Air Force 165,000 Strategic Rocket Forces 50,000 Airborne 45,000 Special Operations Forces 1,000 Railway Forces 29,000 Command and Support 180,000 Paramilitary 554,000 Border Guard 160,000 (estimated) Federal Guard 40,000–50,000 (estimated) FSB Special Purpose Centre 4,000 (estimated) National Guard 340,000 (estimated) Reserve 2,000,000 Of the above, 28,000 are in Crimea, internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, and 3,000 reported in eastern Ukraine.[19]: 212  Eastern Ukraine separatist forces[19]: 212  Donetsk People's Republic 20,000 (estimated) Luhansk People's Republic 14,000 (estimated)	Ukrainian Armed Forces (2020) 209,000[19]: 208–212  Army 145,000 Navy 11,000 Air Force 45,000 Airborne 8,000 Special Operations Forces (not known) Paramilitary 102,000 National Guard 60,000 (estimated) Border Guard 42,000 (estimated) Reserve 900,000
Current President	Vladimir Putin	Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Current Prime Minister	Mikhail Mishustin	Denys Shmyhal
Nuclear warheads active/total	1,600 / 6,850 (2019)	0 / 0 (2019)

Discover more about Country comparison related topics

Russia

Russia

Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering 17,098,246 square kilometres (6,601,670 sq mi), and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across eleven time zones and shares land boundaries with fourteen countries. It is the world's ninth-most populous country and Europe's most populous country, with a population of over 147 million people. The country's capital and largest city is Moscow. Saint Petersburg is Russia's cultural centre and second-largest city. Other major urban areas include Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Kazan.

Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately 600,000 square kilometres (230,000 sq mi). Prior to the ongoing Russian invasion, it was the eighth-most populous country in Europe, with a population of around 41 million people. On 1 January 2023, the United Nations estimated the Ukrainian population to be 34.1 million, with record low birth rates. It is also bordered by Belarus to the north; by Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and by Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city. Ukraine's state language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.

List of countries and dependencies by area

List of countries and dependencies by area

This is a list of the world's countries and their dependencies by land, water, and total area, ranked by total area.

List of time zones by country

List of time zones by country

This is a list representing time zones by country. Countries are ranked by total number of time zones on their territory. Time zones of a country include that of dependent territories. France, including its overseas territories, has the most time zones with 12. Many countries have daylight saving time, one added hour during the local summer, but this list does not include that information. The UTC offset in the list is not valid in practice during daylight saving time.

Exclusive economic zone

Exclusive economic zone

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. It stretches from the outer limit of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles (nmi) from the coast of the state in question. It is also referred to as a maritime continental margin and, in colloquial usage, may include the continental shelf. The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile limit. The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a "sovereign right" which refers to the coastal state's rights below the surface of the sea. The surface waters are international waters.

Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million residents within the city limits, over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 21.5 million residents in the metropolitan area. The city covers an area of 2,511 square kilometers (970 sq mi), while the urban area covers 5,891 square kilometers (2,275 sq mi), and the metropolitan area covers over 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 sq mi). Moscow is among the world's largest cities; being the most populous city entirely in Europe, the largest urban and metropolitan area in Europe, and the largest city by land area on the European continent.

Kyiv

Kyiv

Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2,952,301, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.

Federation

Federation

A federation is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the component states, as well as the division of power between them and the central government, is constitutionally entrenched and may not be altered by a unilateral decision, neither by the component states nor the federal political body. Alternatively, a federation is a form of government in which sovereign power is formally divided between a central authority and a number of constituent regions so that each region retains some degree of control over its internal affairs.

Russian language

Russian language

Russian is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages, and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. Besides Russia itself, Russian is an official language in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, and is used widely as a lingua franca throughout Ukraine, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to some extent in the Baltic states. It was the de facto language of the former Soviet Union.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Catholic Church—the pope—but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized by them as primus inter pares. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially calls itself the Orthodox Catholic Church.

Islam

Islam

Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered around the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam, called Muslims, number approximately 1.9 billion globally and are the world's second-largest religious population after Christians.

Orthodox Church of Ukraine

Orthodox Church of Ukraine

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church whose canonical territory is Ukraine.

Kievan Rus'

Kyiv functioned as the capital of Kievan Rus', which was ruled by the Varangian Rurikid dynasty which gradually became Slavicized.

Both Russia and Ukraine claim their heritage from Kievan Rus' (Kyivan Rus'), a polity that united most of the East Slavic and some Finnic tribes and adopted Byzantine Orthodoxy in the ninth to eleventh centuries. According to old Rus chronicles, Kyiv (Kiev), the capital of modern Ukraine, was proclaimed the Mother of Rus Cities, as it was the capital of the powerful late medieval state of Rus.^[20]

Muscovy and the Russian Empire

After the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus', the histories of the people inhabiting territories of Russia and Ukraine diverged.^[21] The Grand Duchy of Moscow united all remnants of Rus's northern provinces and evolved into the Russian state. The Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia came under the domination of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Within the Commonwealth, the militant Zaporozhian Cossacks refused polonization, and often clashed with a Commonwealth government controlled by the Polish nobility.^[22]

Unrest among the Cossacks caused them to rebel against the Commonwealth and seek union with Russia, with which they had similarities in culture, language, and religion. This was formalized through the Treaty of Pereiaslav in 1654.^[22] Starting in the mid-17th century, much of Ukraine's territory was gradually annexed by the Russian Empire and its autonomy taken away by the time of the late 18th-century partition of Poland. Soon after, the Cossack host was forcibly disbanded by the Russian Empire and most Cossacks were relocated to the Kuban region on the southern edge of the Russian Empire.

The Russian Empire considered Ukrainians (and Belarusians) ethnically Russian, and referred to them as "Little Russians".^[23] Until the end of World War I this view was only opposed by a small group of Ukrainian nationalists.^[24] Nevertheless, a perceived threat of "Ukrainian separatism" set in motion a set of measures aimed at the russification of the "Little Russians".^[24] In 1804, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools as a subject and language of instruction.^[25] In 1876 Alexander II's secretary Ems Ukaz prohibited the publication and importation of most Ukrainian language books, public performances and lectures in the Ukrainian language, and even the printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores.^[26]

Soviet Union

The borders of the Ukrainian SSR (red) within the Soviet Union between 1924 and 1939.

The number and share of Ukrainians in the population of the regions of the RSFSR (1926 census).

Comparison of life expectancy in Ukraine and Russia since 1960

Ukrainian People's Republic

The February Revolution saw establishment of official relations between the Russian Provisional Government and the Ukrainian Central Rada (Central Council of Ukraine) that was represented at the Russian government by its commissar Petro Stebnytsky. At the same time Dmitry Odinets was appointed the representative of Russian Affairs in the Ukrainian government. After the Soviet military aggression by the Soviet government at the beginning of 1918, Ukraine declared its full independence from the Russian Republic on 22 January 1918, as the Ukrainian People's Republic which existed from 1917 to 1922. The two treaties of Brest-Litovsk that Ukraine and Russia signed separately with the Central Powers calmed the military conflict between them, and peace negotiations were initiated the same year.

After the end of World War I, Ukraine became a battleground in the Ukrainian War of Independence, linked to the Russian Civil War. Both Russians and Ukrainians fought in nearly all armies based on personal political beliefs.^{[nb 1]}

In 1922, Ukraine and Russia were two of the founding members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and were the signatories of the treaty that terminated the union in December 1991.^{[nb 2]}

The end of the Russian Empire also ended the ban on the Ukrainian language.^[25] This was followed by a period of korenizatsiya that promoted the cultures of the different Soviet Republics.^[27]

Holodomor

In 1932–1933 Ukraine experienced the Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор, lit. 'Extermination by hunger' or 'Hunger-extermination'; derived from Морити голодом, 'Killing by Starvation') which was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that killed up to 7.5 million Ukrainians. During the famine, which is also known as the "Terror-Famine in Ukraine" and "Famine-Genocide in Ukraine", millions of citizens of the Ukrainian SSR, mostly ethnic Ukrainians, died of starvation in an unprecedented peacetime catastrophe. Scholars disagree on the relative importance of natural factors and bad economic policies as causes of the famine, and the degree to which the destruction of the Ukrainian peasantry was premeditated by Soviet leaders.^[28]

The Holodomor famine extended to many Soviet republics, including Russia and Kazakhstan. In the absence of documentary proof of intent, scholars have also argued that the Holodomor was caused by the economic problems associated with the radical changes implemented during the period of liquidation of private property and Soviet industrialization, combined with the widespread drought of the early 1930s. However, on 13 January 2010, the Kyiv Appellate Court found Stalin, Kaganovich, Molotov, and the Ukrainian Soviet leaders Kosior and Chubar, amongst other functionaries, posthumously guilty of genocide against Ukrainians during the Holodomor famine.^[28]

Ukrainian independence

Nationalism spread following Mikhail Gorbachev's political liberalisation of the Soviet Union in the 1980's.^[29]: 29 The pro-independence People's Movement of Ukraine was founded in 1989.^[30] After the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia made the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic made a similar declaration on 16 July 1991.^[29]: 29Following the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was passed on 24 August 1991 with one vote against.^[29]: 31 The subsequent 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum approved this by a nationwide majority of 92.3% and majorities in every region of Ukraine.^[29]: 33

The basis for post-Soviet relations were set by the Belovezh Accords between the new Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk and Russia's president Boris Yeltsin, alongside the Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich.^[29]: 33 While the leaders agreed to formally dissolve the Soviet Union, the Russians wanted to create new suparanational structures to replace it, to the opposition of the Ukrainians.^[29]: 35 While this led to the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States, it did not result in any legally binding commitments.^[29]: 35 An Armed Forces of independent Ukraine were soon established: Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak said that this was "a time bomb under the future of all mankind",^{[29]: 34–35} while political scientist John Mearsheimer advocated a nuclear-armed Ukraine to maintain peace and prevent Russia from moving to reconquer it.^[31]

Discover more about History of relations related topics

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus'

Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus', was a state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangian prince Rurik. The modern nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it. At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, Kievan Rus' stretched from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east, uniting the East Slavic tribes.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Catholic Church—the pope—but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized by them as primus inter pares. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially calls itself the Orthodox Catholic Church.

Kyiv

Kyiv

Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2,952,301, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe.

Little Russia Office

Little Russia Office

The Little Russia Office was a Muscovite state agency (Prikaz) and administrative body of the Tsardom of Muscovy in charge of affairs connected with the Cossack Hetmanate and the Left-bank Ukraine. Created on 10 January 1663 [O.S. 31 December 1662], the office existed until 1722 when it was transformed into the Collegium of Little Russia and moved to Hlukhiv. The Little Russia Office was part of the bigger Ambassadorial Office and since 1671 was chaired by the head of the office.

Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'

Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'

The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century, destroying numerous cities including the largest such as Kiev and Chernigov, with the only major cities escaping destruction being Novgorod and Pskov, located in the north.

Grand Duchy of Moscow

Grand Duchy of Moscow

The Grand Duchy of Moscow, or simply Muscovy, was a Rus' principality of the Late Middle Ages centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the Tsardom of Russia in the early modern period. It was ruled by a branch of the Rurik dynasty, which had reigned in Kievan Rus' since its foundation.

Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia

Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia

The Principality or, from 1253, Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, historically known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia, was a medieval state in Eastern Europe which existed from 1199 to 1349. Its territory was predominantly located in modern-day Ukraine, with parts in Belarus, Poland, Moldova, and Lithuania. Along with Novgorod and Vladimir-Suzdal, it was one of the three most important powers to emerge from the collapse of Kievan Rus'. The main language was Old East Slavic, the predecessor of the modern East Slavic languages, and the official religion was Eastern Orthodoxy.

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lithuanians, who were at the time a polytheistic nation born from several united Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija.

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch in real union, who was both King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. It was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th- to 17th-century Europe. At its largest territorial extent, in the early 17th century, the Commonwealth covered almost 1,000,000 km2 (400,000 sq mi) and as of 1618 sustained a multi-ethnic population of almost 12 million. Polish and Latin were the two co-official languages.

Polonization

Polonization

Polonization is the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular the Polish language. This happened in some historic periods among non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially under the influence of Poland.

Cossacks

Cossacks

The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Orthodox Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic-speaking Orthodox Christians. The Cossacks were particularly noted for holding democratic traditions. The rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire endowed Cossacks with certain special privileges in return for the military duty to serve in the irregular troops. The various Cossack groups were organized along military lines, with large autonomous groups called hosts. Each host had a territory consisting of affiliated villages called stanitsa.

Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The rise of the Russian Empire coincided with the decline of neighbouring rival powers: the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Qajar Iran, the Ottoman Empire, and Qing China. It also held colonies in North America between 1799 and 1867. Covering an area of approximately 22,800,000 square kilometres (8,800,000 sq mi), it remains the third-largest empire in history, surpassed only by the British Empire and the Mongol Empire; it ruled over a population of 125.6 million people per the 1897 Russian census, the only census carried out during the entire imperial period. Owing to its geographic extent across three continents at its peak, it featured great ethnic, linguistic, religious, and economic diversity.

1990s

The Russian Embassy in Kyiv, 2008

Nuclear disarmament

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine gained its independence and inherited the third largest nuclear stockpile in the world, along with significant means of its design and production.^[32][33][34] The country had 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 warheads remaining on Ukrainian territory.^[35] While Ukraine had physical control of the weapons, it did not have operational control, as they were dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. In 1992, Ukraine agreed to voluntarily remove over 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons.^[32]

The Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow, 2010

Following the signing of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances among the U.S., the U.K., and Russia, as well as similar agreements with France and China, Ukraine agreed to destroy the rest of its nuclear weapons, and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).^[36][37][38] The memoranda, signed in Patria Hall at the Budapest Convention Center with US Ambassador Donald M. Blinken amongst others in attendance,^[39] prohibited the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States from threatening or using military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, "except in self-defence or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations."By 1996, Ukraine transferred all Soviet-era strategic warheads to Russia.

Crimea, Sevastopol, and division of the Black Sea Fleet

The second major dispute of early years was over the fate of the Black Sea Fleet as well as its operating bases, mainly Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.^[34] As a military city with an "all-Union status" in the Soviet Union, Russia viewed Sevastopol as belonging to it as the successor state to the Soviet central government.^[29]: 39 This was also the view with regards to the Black Sea Fleet, supported by Yeltsin.^[29]: 39 The 1954 transfer of Crimea by Communist Party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev was declared illegitimate by the Russian legislature in May 1992, which was in turn disputed by Ukraine's parliament.^[40]: 40 In the summer, the Sevastopol City Council voted to join Russia, though with little impact or support from Russia.^{[40]: 78-79}

Agreements were reached to split the fleet 50/50 in August 1992 and June 1993.^{[40]: 40-41} However, in September 1993 Russia began to use the threat of cutting gas supplies in order to achieve a better outcome on the issue.^[40]: 41 After several years of intense negotiations the whole issue was resolved in 1997. The Partition Treaty divided the fleet and allowed Russia to lease some of the naval bases in Sevastopol for the Russian Navy until 2017 (extended to 2042 with the Kharkiv Pact), and the Treaty of Friendship fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, the respect for territorial integrity and a mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other.^[41][42]

Economics

Another major dispute related to energy supplies, as several Soviet–Western Europe oil and gas pipelines ran through Ukraine. After new treaties came into effect, Ukraine's gas debt arrears to Russia were paid off by transfer of some nuclear-capable weapons that Ukraine inherited from the USSR to Russia, such as Tu-160 strategic bombers.^[43]

While the Russian share in Ukraine's exports declined from 26.2% in 1997 to around 23% in 1998–2000, the share of imports held steady at 45–50% of the total. Overall, between one third and one half of Ukraine's trade was with the Russian Federation. Dependence was particularly strong in energy. Up to 75% of annually consumed gas and close to 80% of oil came from Russia. On the export side, dependence on Russia was also significant. Russia remained Ukraine's primary market for ferrous metals, steel plate and pipes, electric machinery, machine tools and equipment, food, and products of the chemical industry. It has been a market of hope for Ukraine's high value-added goods, more than nine tenths of which were historically tied to Russian consumers.^[44]

With old buyers gone by 1997, Ukraine experienced a 97–99% drop in production of industrial machines with digital control systems, television sets, tape recorders, excavators, cars and trucks. At the same time and in spite of the post-communist slowdown, Russia came out as the fourth-largest investor in the Ukrainian economy after the US, the Netherlands, and Germany, having contributed $150.6 million out of $2.047 billion in foreign direct investment that Ukraine had received from all sources by 1998.^[44]

2000s

Vladimir Putin and Leonid Kuchma in December 2003.

Although disputes existed prior to the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, including speculation about the accidental shooting down of a Russian airliner by the Ukrainian military and the controversy over Tuzla Island, relations with Russia under the latter years of Leonid Kuchma's term improved. In 2002, the Russian Government participated in financing the construction of the Khmelnytskyi and the Rivne Nuclear Power Plants.^[45] In January 2003 both countries signed a treaty over the definition of the land border between them. In December 2003, Russia secured cooperation agreement over the Kerch Strait. In 2003, Russia attempted to integrate Ukraine into a new Russian-led Single Economic Space with Russia. However, with president Viktor Yushchenko in power, several problems resurfaced, including the Russia–Ukraine gas disputes due to Ukraine's growing cooperation with the EU and bid to join NATO.

The overall perception of relations with Russia in Ukraine differs largely on regional factors. Many Russophone eastern and southern regions, which are also home to the majority of the Russian diaspora in Ukraine welcome closer relations with Russia.^[46] However further central and particularly western regions (who were never a part of Imperial Russia) of Ukraine show a less friendly attitude to the idea of a historic link to Russia^{[47][48][49][50]} and the Soviet Union in particular.^[51]

In Russia, there is no regional breakdown in the opinion of Ukraine,^[53] but on the whole, Ukraine's recent attempts to join the EU and NATO were seen as change of course to only a pro-Western, anti-Russian orientation of Ukraine and thus a sign of hostility and this resulted in a drop of Ukraine's perception in Russia^[54] (although President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko reassured Russia that joining NATO was not meant as an anti-Russian act,^[55] and Putin said that Russia would welcome Ukraine's membership in the EU^[56]). This was further fuelled by the public discussion in Ukraine of whether the Russian language should be given official status^[57] and be made the second state language.^[58][59] During the 2009 gas conflict the Russian media almost uniformly portrayed Ukraine as an aggressive and greedy state that wanted to ally with Russia's enemies and exploit cheap Russian gas.^[60]

Further worsening of relations was provoked by belligerent statements made in 2007–2008 by both Russian (e.g. the Russian Foreign Ministry,^[61] the Mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov^[62] and then President Vladimir Putin^[55][63]) and Ukrainian politicians, for example, the former Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk,^[64] deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine Evhen Kornichuk [uk]^[65] and then leader of parliamentary opposition Yulia Tymoshenko.^[66]

The status of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol remained a matter of disagreement and tensions.^[53][67]

Second Tymoshenko government

Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yushchenko in February 2008

In February 2008, Russia unilaterally withdrew from the Ukrainian–Russian intergovernmental agreement on the Main Centre for Missile Attack Warning signed in 1997.^[68]

During the Russo-Georgian War, relations between Ukraine and Russia soured due to Ukraine's support for Georgia and Russian claims of Ukraine supplying arms to Georgia as well as due to new Ukrainian regulations for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which sent vessels and marines to the war, such as the demand that Russia obtain prior permission when crossing the Ukrainian border, which Russia refused to comply with.^[69][70] Further disagreements over the Ukrainian position on Georgia and relations with Russia were among the issues that brought down the coalition government between the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc and the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko in September 2008^[71] (on 16 December 2008, the coalition was recreated with a new coalition partner, the Lytvyn Bloc).^[72] This rekindled controversy over the Russian military presence in Crimea.

On 2 October 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of supplying arms to Georgia during the Russo-Georgian War. Putin also claimed that Moscow had evidence proving that Ukrainian military experts were present in the conflict zone during the war. Ukraine denied the allegations. The head of its state arms export company, Ukrspetsexport, said no arms were sold during the war, and Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov denied that Ukraine's military personnel fought on the side of Georgia.^[73]

Prosecutor General of Ukraine Oleksandr Medvedko confirmed on 25 September 2009 that no personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces participated in the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, no weapons or military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were present at the conflict, and no help was given to the Georgian side. He also confirmed that the international transfers of military equipment between Ukraine and Georgia from 2006 to 2008 were conducted in accordance with earlier contracts, the laws of Ukraine, and international treaties.^[74]

The US supported Ukraine's bid to join NATO launched in January 2008 as an effort to obtain a NATO Membership Action Plan.^[75][76][77] Russia strongly opposed any prospect of Ukraine and Georgia becoming NATO members.^{[nb 3][78][79][80]} According to the alleged transcript of Putin's speech at the 2008 NATO–Russia Council Summit in Bucharest, Putin spoke of Russia's responsibility for ethnic Russians resident in Ukraine and urged his NATO partners to act advisedly; according to some media reports he then also privately hinted to his US counterpart at the possibility of Ukraine losing its integrity in the event of its NATO accession.^[81] According to a document in the United States diplomatic cables leak Putin "implicitly challenged the territorial integrity of Ukraine, suggesting that Ukraine was an artificial creation sewn together from territory of Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, and especially Russia in the aftermath of the Second World War."^[82]

Vladimir Putin and Yulia Tymoshenko in November 2009

During a January 2009 dispute over natural gas prices, exports of Russian natural gas through Ukraine were shut down.^[83] Relations further deteriorated when Russian Prime Minister Putin during this dispute said that "Ukrainian political leadership is demonstrating its inability to solve economic problems, and [...] situation highlights the high criminalization of [Ukrainian] authorities"^[84][85] and when in February 2009 (after the conflict) Ukrainian President Yushchenko^[86][87] and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry considered Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's statement that Ukraine must compensate for gas crisis losses to the European countries an "emotional statement which is unfriendly and hostile towards Ukraine and the EU member-states".^[88][89] During the conflict the Russian media almost uniformly portrayed Ukraine as an aggressive and greedy state that wanted to ally with Russia's enemies and exploit cheap Russian gas.^[60]

After a "master plan" to modernize the natural gas infrastructure of Ukraine between the EU and Ukraine was announced (on 23 March 2009) Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told an investment conference at which the plan was unveiled that it appeared to draw Ukraine legally closer to the European Union and might harm Moscow's interests.^[90] According to Putin "to discuss such issues without the basic supplier is simply not serious".^[90]

In a leaked US diplomatic cable regarding the January 2009 Russian–Ukrainian gas crisis, the US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor was quoting Ambassador of Ukraine to Russia Kostyantyn Hryshchenko as expressing his opinion that Kremlin leaders wanted to see a totally subservient person in charge in Kyiv (a regency in Ukraine) and that Putin "hated" the then-President Yushchenko and had a low personal regard for Yanukovych, but saw then-Prime Minister Tymoshenko as someone perhaps not that he could trust, yet with whom he could deal.^[91]

On 11 August 2009, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev posted a videoblog on the Kremlin.ru website, and the official Kremlin LiveJournal blog, in which he criticised Yushchenko for what Medvedev claimed was the Ukrainian president's responsibility in the souring of Russia–Ukraine relations and "the anti-Russian position of the current Ukrainian authorities".^{[nb 4]} Medvedev further announced that he would not send a new ambassador to Ukraine until there was an improvement in the relationship.^{[92][93][nb 5]} In response, Yushchenko wrote a letter which noted he could not agree that the Ukrainian–Russian relations had run into problems and wondered why the Russian president completely ruled out the Russian responsibility for this.^{[94][95][nb 6]}

Analysts said Medvedev's message was timed to influence the campaign for the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election.^[92][97] The U.S. Department of State spokesman, commenting on the message by Medvedev to his Ukrainian counterpart Yuschenko, said, among other things: "It is important for Ukraine and Russia to have a constructive relationship. I'm not sure that these comments are necessarily in that vein. But going forward, Ukraine has a right to make its own choices, and we feel that it has a right to join NATO if it chooses."^[98]

On 7 October 2009, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian government wanted to see economy prevail in Russian–Ukrainian relations and that relations between the two countries would improve if the two countries set up joint ventures, especially in small and medium-sized businesses.^[99] At the same meeting in Kharkiv, Lavrov said the Russian government would not respond to a Ukrainian proposal to organize a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents,^[100] but that "Contacts between the two countries' foreign ministries are being maintained permanently."^[101]

On 2 December 2009, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Petro Poroshenko and Lavrov agreed on gradually abandoning the compilation of lists of individuals banned from entering their countries.^[102]

2010s

Viktor Yanukovych presidency

Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 17 May 2010 near the Memorial to Holodomor Victims in Kyiv.

Vladimir Putin arrived at the 14th International Biker Rally in Sevastopol, Crimea, July 24, 2010

According to Taras Kuzio, Viktor Yanukovych was the most pro-Russian and neo-Soviet president to have been elected in Ukraine.^[103] Since his election, he fulfilled all of the demands laid out by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in his letter written to former President Viktor Yushchenko in August 2009.^[103]

On 22 April 2010 Presidents Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement leasing the Russian Naval Forces base in Sevastopol to Russia for 25 years in return for discounted natural gas deliveries which accounted for $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.^{[104][105][106]} The lease extension agreement was highly controversial inside and outside of Ukraine.^[103]

On 17 May 2010, the President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Kyiv on a two-day visit.^[107] During the visit Medvedev hoped to sign cooperation agreements in "inter-regional and international problems", according to RIA Novosti. This was also mentioned on the official inquiry at the Verkhovna Rada by the First Vice Prime Minister Andriy Klyuyev. According to some news agencies the main purpose of the visit was to resolve disagreements in the Russian–Ukrainian energy relations after Viktor Yanukovych agreed on the partial merger of Gazprom and Naftogaz.^[108] Apart from the merger of the state gas companies there are also talks of the merger of the nuclear energy sector as well.^[109]

Both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (April 2010) and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (June 2010^[110]) have stated they noticed a big improvement in relations since Viktor Yanukovych presidency.

On 14 May 2013 an unknown veteran of unknown intelligence service Sergei Razumovsky, leader of the All-Ukrainian Association of Homeless Officers, who resides in Ukraine under the Ukrainian flag called for the creation of Ukrainian–Russian international volunteer brigades in support of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria to fight rebels.^{[111][112][113]} One of the reasons why Rozumovsky wanted to create such brigades was that he felt the government of Ukraine did not support its officer corps.^[114] Because of that, Rozumovsky intended to apply for Syrian citizenship.^[115] Some sources claim that he was a Kremlin provocateur.^[116]

On 17 July 2013 near the Russian coast of the Sea of Azov, considered internal waters of both Russia and Ukraine (no boundary delimitation), a Russian coast guard patrol boat collided with a Ukrainian fishing vessel.^[117] Four fishermen died^[118] while one was detained by Russian authorities on charges of poaching.^[119] According to the surviving fisherman, their boat was rammed by the Russians^[120] and the fishermen were fired at as well, while Russian law enforcement agencies claimed that it was the poachers who tried to ram into the patrol vessel.^[121] The Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olena Lukash acknowledged that Russia has no jurisdiction to prosecute the detained citizen of Ukraine.^[122]

According to the wife of the surviving fisherman, the Ukrainian Consul in Russia was very passive in providing any support on the matter.^[123] The surviving fisherman was expected to be released to Ukraine before 12 August 2013, however, the Prosecutor Office of Russia chose to keep the Ukrainian detained in Russia.^[124] Another incident took place on the border between Belgorod and Luhansk oblasts when an apparently inebriated Russian tractor driver decided to cross the border to Ukraine along with his two friends on 28 August 2013.^[125][126] Unlike the Azov incident a month earlier on 17 July 2013, the State Border Service of Ukraine handed over the citizens of Russia right back to the Russian authorities. Tractor Belarus was taken away and handed over to the Ministry of Revenues and Duties.

Economic integration and Euromaidan

In 2013, Ukraine both pursued an observer status in the Russian-led Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia,^[127] and persisted with moving along with association agreement with the EU, scheduled to be signed that November.^[128]

On 14 August 2013 the Russian Custom Service stopped all imports coming from Ukraine.^[129] Some politicians saw that as start of a trade war against Ukraine to prevent Ukraine from signing a trade agreement with the European Union.^[130] According to Pavlo Klimkin, one of the Ukrainian negotiators of the Association Agreement, initially "the Russians simply did not believe (the association agreement with the EU) could come true. They didn't believe in our ability to negotiate a good agreement and didn't believe in our commitment to implement a good agreement."^[131]

In September 2013, Russia warned Ukraine that if it went ahead with a planned agreement on free trade with the EU, it would face financial catastrophe and possibly the collapse of the state.^[132] Sergey Glazyev, adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said that, "Ukrainian authorities make a huge mistake if they think that the Russian reaction will become neutral in a few years from now. This will not happen." Russia had already imposed import restrictions on certain Ukrainian products and Glazyev did not rule out further sanctions if the agreement was signed. Glazyev allowed for the possibility of separatist movements springing up in the Russian-speaking east and south of Ukraine.^[132]

March 15 protests, named the March of Peace, took place in Moscow a day before the Crimean referendum

Pro-Russian protesters in Odesa, March 30, 2014

On 21 November 2013, Yanukovych suspended preparations for signing EU Association Agreement, to seek closer economic relations with Russia.^[133] On 17 December 2013 Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to lend Ukraine 15 billion dollars in financial aid and a 33% discount on natural gas prices.^[134][135] The treaty was signed amid massive, ongoing protests in Ukraine for closer ties between Ukraine and the European Union.^[136] Critics pointed out that in the months before the 17 December 2013 deal a change in Russian customs regulations on imports from Ukraine was a Russian attempt to prevent Ukraine from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union.^{[137][138][134]}

Annexation of Crimea and war in eastern Ukraine

The 2014 Crimean crisis unfolded in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the aftermath of the February 2014 Ukrainian revolution, in which the government of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted. Protests were staged by groups of mainly ethnic Russians who opposed the events in Kyiv and wanted close ties or integration with Russia, in addition to expanded autonomy or possible independence for Crimea. Other groups, including Crimean Tatars, protested in support of the revolution. On 27 February, military men with no insignia wearing masks seized a number of important buildings in Crimea, including the parliament building and two airports.^[139] Under siege, the Supreme Council of Crimea dismissed the autonomous republic's government and replaced chairman of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, Anatolii Mohyliov, with Sergey Aksyonov.^[139]

Ukraine accused Russia of intervening in Ukraine's internal affairs, while the Russian side officially denied such claims. In response to the crisis, the Ukrainian parliament requested that the Budapest Memorandum's signatories reaffirm their commitment to the principles enshrined in the political agreement, and further asked that they hold consultations with Ukraine to ease tensions.^[140] On 1 March without declaration of war, the Russian parliament granted President Vladimir Putin the authority to use military force in Ukraine.^[141] On the same day, the acting president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov decreed the appointment of the Prime Minister of Crimea as unconstitutional. He said, "We consider the behavior of the Russian Federation to be direct aggression against the sovereignty of Ukraine!"

In mid March, after a disputed local referendum, Russia recognized Crimea as a sovereign state^[142][143] and proceeded to formally annex the peninsula. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Provisional Principal of Russia in Ukraine to present note verbale of protest against Russia's recognition of the Republic of Crimea and its subsequent annexation.^[144] Two days later, the Verkhovna Rada condemned the treaty^[145] and called Russia's actions "a gross violation of international law".^[146]

Ukraine responded with sanctions against Russia as well as blacklisting and freezing assets of numerous individuals and entities involved with the annexation. Ukraine started a campaign not to buy Russian products and other countries supporting Ukraine's position (e.g. the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Albania, Montenegro, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, etc.) followed similar measures.^[146] Russia responded with similar measures against Ukraine and its supporters but did not publicly reveal the list of people or entities sanctioned.^{[147][148][149]}

On 19 March 2014 all Ukrainian Armed Forces (at the time besieged in their bases by unmarked soldiers) were withdrawn from Crimea.^[150] On 8 April 2014 an agreement was reached between Russia and Ukraine to return interned vessels to Ukraine and "for the withdrawal of an undisclosed number of Ukrainian aircraft seized in Crimea".^[151] Russia returned 35 ships that had been impounded during its annexation of Crimea but unilaterally suspended the return of Ukrainian Navy materials from Crimea to Ukraine proper because/after Ukraine did not renew its unilaterally declared ceasefire on 1 July 2014 in the War in Donbas.^[152][153] Sixteen minor ships hence did return to Ukraine.^[153]

On March 27, 2016, Dmitry Kozak was appointed to greatly strengthen Crimea's social, political, and economic ties to Russia.^[154][155]

On 14 April, Russian President Putin announced that he would open a ruble-only account with Bank Rossiya and would make it the primary bank in the newly annexed Crimea and give it the right to service payments on Russia's $36 billion wholesale electricity market—which gave the bank $112 million annually from commission charges alone.^[156]

On 15 April, the Verkhovna Rada declared the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol to be under "provisional occupation" by the Russian military^[157][158] The territories were also deemed "inalienable parts of Ukraine" subject to Ukrainian law.^[159] On 19 March 2014 all Ukrainian Armed Forces (at the time besieged in their bases by ununiformed soldiers) were withdrawn from Crimea.^[150] On 17 April 2014, President Putin stated that the Russian military had backed Crimean separatist militias, stating that Russia's intervention was necessary "to ensure proper conditions for the people of Crimea to be able to freely express their will".^[160]

Throughout March and April 2014, pro-Russian unrest spread in Ukraine, with pro-Russian groups proclaiming "People's Republics" in the oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk, as of 2017^[update] both partially outside the control of the Ukrainian government.^[161]

On 17 July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight 17 was shot down by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory in Ukraine. All 283 passengers and 15 crew were killed.

Military clashes between pro-Russian rebels (backed by Russian military) and the Armed Forces of Ukraine began in the Donbas region in April 2014. On 5 September 2014 the Ukrainian government and representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic signed a tentative ceasefire – the agreement.^[162] The ceasefire imploded amidst intense new fighting in January 2015. A new ceasefire agreement took effect in mid-February 2015, but also failed to stop the fighting.^{[163][164][165][166][167][168][169]}

Russia has been accused by NATO and Ukraine of engaging in direct military operations to support the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.^[170] Russia denied this,^[170] but in December 2015, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russian military intelligence officers were operating in Ukraine, insisting though that they were not the same as regular troops.^[171] Russia said that Russian "volunteers" were helping the separatists People's Republics.^[172]

At the 26 June 2014 session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated that bilateral relations with Russia could not be normalized unless Russia undid its unilateral annexation of Crimea and returned control of Crimea to Ukraine.^[173] In February 2015, Ukraine ended a 1997 agreement that Russians could enter Ukraine with internal ID instead of a travel passport.^[174]

December 2014 performance in Kyiv in support of the Boycott Russian Films civic campaign

In February 2015 the law "On protection information television and radio space of Ukraine," banned the showing (on Ukrainian television) of "audiovisual works" that contain "the popularization, agitation for, propaganda of any action of law enforcement agencies, the armed forces, other armed, military or security forces of the occupier state" was enacted.^[175] One year later Russian productions (on Ukrainian television) had decreased by three to four times.^[175] Early in March 2014, and prior to its independence referendum, all broadcast of Ukraine-based TV channels was suspended in Crimea.^[176] Later that month, the Ukrainian National Council for TV and Radio Broadcasting ordered measures against some Russian TV channels, which were accused of broadcasting misleading information about Ukraine.^[177][178] Fifteen more Russian TV channels were banned in March 2016.^[179]

Continued deterioration of relations

In May 2015, Ukraine suspended a military cooperation agreement with Russia,^[180][181] that had been in place since 1993.^[182] Following a breakdown in mutual business ties, Ukraine also stopped supplying components used to produce military equipment in Russia.^[183] In August, Russia announced that it would ban imports of Ukrainian agricultural goods starting January 2016.^[184] In October 2015, Ukraine banned all direct flights between Ukraine and Russia.^[185]

In November 2015, Ukraine closed its air space to all Russian military and civil airplanes.^[186] In December 2015, Ukrainian lawmakers voted to place a trade embargo on Russia in retaliation for the latter's cancellation of the two countries free-trade zone and ban on food imports as the free-trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine came into force in January 2016.^[187] Russia imposes tariffs on Ukrainian goods from January 2016, as Ukraine joins the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area with the EU.^[188]

Since 2015 Ukraine has banned Russian artists from entering Ukraine and also banned other Russian works of culture from Russia as "a threat to national security".^[189] Russia did not reciprocate. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded by saying that "Moscow should not be like Kyiv" and should not impose "blacklists" and restrictions on the cultural figures of Ukraine.^[190] Lavrov did add that Russian producers and the film industry should take into account "unfriendly attacks of foreign performers in Russia" when implementing cultural projects with them.^[190]

Russian-annexed Crimea in 2016

According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine the number of Russian citizens who crossed the Russia–Ukraine border (more than 2.5 million Russians in 2014) dropped by almost 50% in 2015.^[191]

On 5 October 2016, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine officially recommended that its citizens should avoid travel to Russia, due to Russian law enforcement's growing number of groundless arrests of Ukrainian citizens, saying that they often "rudely treat Ukrainians, use illegal methods of physical and psychological pressure, torture and other acts that violate human dignity".^[192] In a 14 June 2018 resolution on Russia, the European Parliament said there were 71 "illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in Russia and on the Crimean peninsula."^[193]

In February 2017, the Ukrainian government banned the commercial importation of books from Russia, which had accounted for up to 60% of all titles sold in Ukraine,^[194] following an August 2015 ban on particular titles.^[195]

Ukraine's 2017 education law makes Ukrainian the only language of primary education in state schools.^[196] The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary.^[197][198] Russia's Foreign Ministry stated that the law is designed to "forcefully establish a mono-ethnic language regime in a multinational state."^[197]

Victory Day celebrations in Donetsk, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, 9 May 2016

On 18 January 2018 the Ukrainian parliament passed a law defining areas seized by the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as "temporarily occupied by Russia."^[172] The law also called Russia an "aggressor" state.^[172]

In March 2018, the Ukrainian border guards detained in the Sea of Azov the Russian-flagged, Crimean-registered fishing vessel Nord, accusing the crew of entering "territory, which has been under a temporary occupation".^[199] The captain of the Nord, Vladimir Gorbenko, is facing up to five years in prison.^[200]

In November 2018 Russia fired upon and seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels (and imprisoned its 24 sailors in Moscow^[201]) off the coast of Crimea injuring crew members.^[202] The event prompted angry protests outside the Russian embassy in Ukraine and an embassy car was set on fire.^[203] Consequently, martial law was imposed for a 30-day period from 26 November in 10 Ukrainian border oblasts (regions).^[204] Martial law was introduced because Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claimed there was a threat of "full-scale war" with Russia.^[204]

During the martial law (and starting on 30 November 2018) Ukraine banned all Russian men between 16 and 60 from entering the country for the period of the martial law with exceptions for humanitarian purposes.^[205] Ukraine claimed this was a security measure to prevent Russia from forming units of "private" armies on Ukrainian soil.^[206] On 27 December 2018 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine announced that it had extended "the restrictive measures of the State Border Guard Service regarding the entry of Russian men into Ukraine."^[207] (According to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine) between 26 November and 26 December 2018 1,650 Russian citizens were refused entry into Ukraine.^[208] From 26 December 2018 until 11 January 2019 the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine denied 800 Russian citizens access to Ukraine.^[209]

Volodymyr Zelenskyy presidency

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris, France, December 2019

In 2019, amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, enshrined the irreversibility of the country's strategic course towards EU and NATO membership.

On 11 July 2019, recently elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin following the former's appeals to the Russian leader to take part in talks with Ukraine, the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom in Minsk.^[210][211] The leaders also discussed the exchange of prisoners held by both sides.^[211] On 7 September, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners.^[212]

Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom and Ukraine agreed a five-year deal on Russian gas transit to Europe at the end of 2019.^[213]

2020s

On 2 February 2021, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided to shut down pro-Russian TV channels owned by the parliamentary deputy Taras Kozak, a close associate of Viktor Medvedchuk, the godfather of the daughter of Russia president Vladimir Putin. Medvedchuk is also said to be the real owner of the pro-Russian TV channels.^[214]

As part of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, fighting escalated in the first quarter of 2021, with 25 Ukrainian soldiers dying in the conflict, compared to the 50 that died in 2020 according to Ukrainian authorities.^[215] In late March 2021, large movements of military equipment were reported in various areas within Russia, with the equipment headed to Crimea, and the Rostov and Voronezh oblasts.^[216] Various intelligence in the following months, including a statement from Russian news agency TASS, put the number of troops situated in the Southern Military District which borders the Donbas conflict zone at 85,000^[217] to 90,000.^[218]

Despite reassurances from a Russian government official that the troops "pose no threat",^[219] Russian official Dmitry Kozak stated that Russian forces will act to "defend" Russian citizens in Ukraine, and any escalation would lead to "the beginning of the end of Ukraine".^[215] Other politicians such as German chancellor Angela Merkel and United States White House press secretary Jen Psaki have made comments, Merkel phoning Putin demanding a reversal of the build-up, and Psaki describing the build-up as "the largest since 2014".^[215][220] In late October, Russian news agency TASS reported massive drills occurring in the Astrakhan Oblast involving over 1,000 personnel and 300 pieces of military hardware, which included the Buk, S-300, and Tor-M2 missile systems.^[221]

In July 2021, Putin published an essay titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he states that Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians should be in one All-Russian nation as a part of the Russian world and are "one people" whom "forces that have always sought to undermine our unity" wanted to "divide and rule".^[222] The essay denies the existence of Ukraine as an independent nation.^[223][224] Putin wrote: "I consider the wall that emerged in recent years between Russia and Ukraine, between parts of essentially one historic and cultural space, as one big, common problem, as a tragedy."^[225]

On 7 December 2021, American president Joe Biden spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin via a secure video link regarding the build-up of Russian military presence and increase in tensions on the Ukrainian border in response to Ukraine's intent to join NATO, which Putin described as a "security threat".^[226][227] These tensions also came in line with the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who pushed back against Russian encroachment on Ukrainian sovereignty.^[228] During the video conference, Putin said Western military activity in Ukraine was approaching "a red line", repeating that he saw it as a threat toward Russian national security.^[227]

Biden responded by stating that the United States was ready to impose various economic sanctions more harmful than the post-Crimea annexation sanctions if Russia were to take military actions, most notably floating the possibility of cutting Russia out from the global financial telecommunication giant Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT.^[227] However, European leaders feared that this step might provoke an even harsher response from Russia.^[227]

A map showing two alleged Russian plans published separately by Bild^[229] and Center for Strategic and International Studies.^[230]

On 9 December 2021 an incident occurred involving the Ukrainian command ship Donbas, which had set sail from the port of Mariupol at 09:12 Moscow time, heading towards the Kerch Strait (shared internal waters of Russia and Ukraine, by treaty). According to the FSB, the vessel did not react to a request to change course, but later headed back.^[231] The Russian foreign ministry labeled this incident as a "provocation", whilst Ukraine dismissed the Russian grievances as part of an "information attack" on Kyiv.^[231]

On the same day (9 December 2021), Joe Biden called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding the tensions in the Donbas region and internal reform in Ukraine,^[232] with Zelenskyy issuing a statement thanking Biden for the "strong support".^[233] White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that "The president’s intention going into this call was to provide an update for President Zelensky on his call with President Putin and underscore our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity".^[232] Despite these reassurances, Biden stressed the idea that "the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia from invading Ukraine is not ... in the cards right now." but that if Russia were to invade Ukraine, there would be "severe consequences".^[232]

US Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee again proposed the idea of severe sanctions, "at the maximum end of the spectrum",^[232] and reiterated the possibility of cutting out Russia from SWIFT, saying that "Putin himself, as well as his inner circle, would lose access to bank accounts in the West. Russia would effectively be cut off and isolated from the international economic system".^[232] German chancellor Olaf Scholz also warned of "consequences" for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a Russian gas pipeline project operated by Gazprom under the wholly-owned subsidiary Nord Stream AG 2, which delivers natural gas to Germany.^[233] Whilst Biden ruled out direct American military intervention in Ukraine, he mentioned that the United States may "be required to reinforce our presence in NATO countries to reassure particularly those in the eastern front".^[233]

Ukrainian general Kyrylo O. Budanov said, while speaking to the New York Times that "There are not sufficient military resources for repelling a full-scale attack by Russia if it begins without the support of" additional forces, and that "without delivery of reserves, there’s not an army in the world that can hold out".^[234]

On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognized the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, two breakaway states in eastern Ukraine.^[235] On the same day, Putin ordered the deployment of troops to territory held by the LPR and the DPR.^[235] British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Russia was planning the "biggest war in Europe since 1945" as Putin intended to invade and encircle the capital of Kyiv.^[236]

On 22 February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would consider the possibility of severing Ukraine's diplomatic relations with Russia.^[237]

Putin during the address "On the conduct of a special military operation" on 24 February 2022.^[238]

Although Russia had repeatedly denied any plans to invade Ukraine,^{[239][240][241][242]} the Russian army started an invasion on Ukraine on 24 February, with ground and air assaults across many parts of the country including on the capital, Kyiv.^[243] President Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine cut all diplomatic relations with its eastern neighbour.^[2]

On 26 February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian soldiers were blocking Russian troops moving on Kyiv, while several Western nations acted on earlier proposed sanctions, cutting off a number of Russian institutions from the world's major financial payments system, SWIFT.^[244] Zelenskyy said he was "99.9 percent sure" that Putin thought the Ukrainians would welcome the invading forces with "flowers and smiles".^[245]

On 5 March 2022, according to the Russian RIA news agency, Russia's foreign ministry urged on European Union and NATO members to "stop supplying arms" to Ukraine.^[246] Moscow is particularly concerned that portable anti-aerial Stinger missiles could fall into terrorist hands, posing a threat to planes, according to the report.^[246] Russia had previously supplied anti-aircraft missiles to pro-Russian separatists who downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.^[247][248]

On 5 April 2022, Liz Truss, the United Kingdom's foreign secretary, announced that Britain would deploy investigators to Ukraine to assist in the collection of evidence of war crimes, including sexual abuse.^[249] In April 2022, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Russian political scientist Sergey Karaganov, who is considered close to Putin, stated that "war will be victorious, in one way or another. I assume demilitarization will be achieved and there will be denazification, too. Like we did in Germany and in Chechnya. Ukrainians will become much more peaceful and friendly to us."^[250]

Map showing the annexed Ukrainian oblasts per Russian claims in yellow, with a red line marking the area of actual control by Russia on 30 September 2022.

On 10 May 2022, it was reported that Russia was responsible for a large-scale cyberattack against Viasat's KA-SAT network immediately before the Russian incursion into Ukrainian territory, primarily targeting the Ukrainian military's digital assets.^[251] Intelligence from the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre stated that the attacks also caused disruption to wind farms and other internet users in Central Europe.^[251] In a statement by the EU Council, the cyberattack also had a "significant impact causing indiscriminate communication outages and disruptions across several public authorities, businesses and users in Ukraine".^[251]

President Zelenskyy's military adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said that up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in the first 100 days of the war.^[252] In early June 2022, Ukrainian politician Mykhailo Podolyak said that up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in combat every day.^[253]

On 17 June 2022, Putin told the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum relations between Russia and Ukraine would normalise upon completion of the "special military operation".^[254] On 30 September, Putin signed decrees which annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts of Ukraine into the Russian Federation. The annexations are not recognized by the international community, and are illegal under international law.^[255]

On 18 October 2022, Sergey Surovikin, the commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, said in an interview with Russian media that "Our opponent is a criminal regime, while we and the Ukrainians are one people and want the same thing: for Ukraine to be a country that's friendly to Russia and independent from the West".^[256][257]

In December 2022, Putin said that a war against Ukraine could be a "long process".^[258] Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War since February 2022.^[259][260] In January 2023, Putin cited recognition of Russia's sovereignty over the occupied and annexed territories as a condition for peace talks with Ukraine.^[261]

On 21 March 2023 the Ukrainian parliament did forbid to have toponymy with names associated with Russia.^[10] In the law's explanatory note was stated this was "a ban on assigning geographic objects names that glorify, perpetuate, promote, or symbolize the occupying state."^[10]

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Heavy bomber

Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry and longest range of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the largest and most powerful military aircraft at any point in time. In the second half of the 20th century, heavy bombers were largely superseded by strategic bombers, which were often smaller in size, but had much longer ranges and were capable of delivering nuclear bombs.

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is an international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. Between 1965 and 1968, the treaty was negotiated by the Eighteen Nation Committee on Disarmament, a United Nations-sponsored organization based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Donald M. Blinken

Donald M. Blinken

Donald Mayer Blinken was an American businessman and diplomat. A co-founder of the investment bank Warburg Pincus, he was the chairman of the board of the State University of New York from 1978 to 1990 and served as the United States Ambassador to Hungary from 1994 to 1997. His son, Antony Blinken, is the current Secretary of State to U.S. President Joe Biden.

Charter of the United Nations

Charter of the United Nations

The Charter of the United Nations (UN) is the foundational treaty of the United Nations, an intergovernmental organization. It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the UN system, including its six principal organs: the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Trusteeship Council.

Black Sea Fleet

Black Sea Fleet

The Black Sea Fleet is the fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimean Peninsula, are subordinate to the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.

Sevastopol

Sevastopol

Sevastopol, sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base throughout its history. Since the city's founding in 1783 it has been a major base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and it was previously a closed city during the Cold War. The total administrative area is 864 square kilometres (334 sq mi) and includes a significant amount of rural land. The urban population, largely concentrated around Sevastopol Bay, is 479,394, and the total population is 547,820.

Stanislav Shushkevich

Stanislav Shushkevich

Stanislav Stanislavovich Shushkevich was a Belarusian politician and scientist. From 25 August 1991 to 26 January 1994, he was the first head of state of independent Belarus after it seceded from the Soviet Union, serving as Chairman of the Supreme Soviet. He supported social democratic reforms and played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). From 1929 until the union's dissolution in 1991, the officeholder was the recognized leader of the Soviet Union. Officially, the General Secretary solely controlled the Communist Party directly. However, since the party had a monopoly on political power, the General Secretary had executive control of the Soviet government. Because of the office's ability to direct both the foreign and domestic policies of the state and preeminence over the Soviet Communist Party, it was the de facto highest office of the Soviet Union.

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev stunned the communist world with his denunciation of his predecessor Joseph Stalin's crimes, and embarked on a policy of de-Stalinization with his key ally Anastas Mikoyan. He sponsored the early Soviet space program, and enactment of moderate reforms in domestic policy. After some false starts, and a narrowly avoided nuclear war over Cuba, he conducted successful negotiations with the United States to reduce Cold War tensions. In 1964, the Kremlin leadership stripped him of power, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk visits the beginning of the construction of the Russia–Ukraine barrier, 15 October 2014

Sen'kovka border crossing on the Ukraine–Russia–Belarus border at Chernihiv Oblast, 18 August 2018

Russia and Ukraine share 2,295 kilometres (1,426 mi) of border. In 2014, the Ukrainian government unveiled a plan to build a defensive walled system along the border with Russia, named "Project Wall". It was expected to cost almost $520 million, take four years to complete and has been under construction as of 2015.^[262] In June 2020 the State Border Guard of Ukraine expected that the project would be finished by 2025.^[263]

On 1 January 2018 Ukraine introduced biometric controls for Russians entering the country.^[264] On 22 March 2018 Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree that required Russian citizens and "individuals without citizenship, who come from migration risk countries" (more details were not given) to notify the Ukrainian authorities in advance about their reason for travelling to Ukraine.^[264]

Since 30 November 2018 Ukraine has banned all Russian men between 16 and 60 from entering the country with exceptions for humanitarian purposes.^{[205][207][209]}

Since 1 July 2022 Russian citizens need to apply for a visa to enter Ukraine.^[265] During the first 4.5 months of the visa regime 10 visas were issued and seven Russian citizens entered Ukraine (mostly for humanitarian reasons).^[265]

Discover more about Border related topics

Russia–Ukraine border

Russia–Ukraine border

The Russia–Ukraine border is the international state border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Over land, the border outlines five oblasts (regions) of Ukraine and five oblasts of the Russian Federation. The modern border issue has been ongoing ever since the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.

Russia–Ukraine barrier

Russia–Ukraine barrier

Russia–Ukraine barrier, also known as Ukrainian Wall or European Wall, or as Project Wall in Ukraine is a fortified border barrier by Ukraine on the Russia–Ukraine border. The aim of the project, according to Ukraine, is preventing Russian military intervention in Ukraine and to assist with obtaining visa-free travel with the European Union. The former Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk presented this project on 3 September 2014, building started officially in 2015, and in June 2020, the State Border Guard of Ukraine expected that the project would be finished by 2025.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk is a Ukrainian politician, economist and lawyer who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine twice – from 27 February 2014 to 27 November 2014 and from 27 November 2014 to 14 April 2016.

Chernihiv Oblast

Chernihiv Oblast

Chernihiv Oblast, also referred to as Chernihivshchyna (Черні́гівщина), is an oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Chernihiv. Within the oblast are 1,511 settlements. Population: 959,315.

Petro Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko

Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, he headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. He was elected president on 25 May 2014, receiving 54.7% of the votes cast in the first round, thus winning outright and avoiding a run-off. During his presidency, Poroshenko led the country through the first phase of the war in Donbas, pushing the Russian separatist forces into the Donbas Region. He began the process of integration with the European Union by signing the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement.

Travel visa

Travel visa

A visa is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on the duration of the foreigner's stay, areas within the country they may enter, the dates they may enter, the number of permitted visits, or if the individual has the ability to work in the country in question. Visas are associated with the request for permission to enter a territory and thus are, in most countries, distinct from actual formal permission for an alien to enter and remain in the country. In each instance, a visa is subject to entry permission by an immigration official at the time of actual entry and can be revoked at any time. Visa evidence most commonly takes the form of a sticker endorsed in the applicant's passport or other travel document but may also exist electronically. Some countries no longer issue physical visa evidence, instead recording details only in immigration databases.

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2016)

The Ukrainian and Russian arms and aviation manufacturing sectors remained deeply integrated following the break-up of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is the world's eighth largest exporter of armaments according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and according to analysts cited by The Washington Post, around 70% of Ukraine's defence-related exports flowed to Russia before 2014, or nearly US$1 billion. Potentially strategically sensitive exports from Ukraine to Russia included 300–350 helicopter engines per year as well as various other aircraft engines from Motor Sich in Zaporizhia, intercontinental ballistic missiles from Yuzhmash in Dnipro, missile guidance systems from factories in Kharkiv, 20% of Russia's uranium consumption from mines in Zhovti Vody, 60% of the gears used in Russian warships from manufacturers Mykolaiv, and oil and gas from the Sea of Azov.^[266]

In March 2014, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, Ukraine barred all exports of weaponry and military equipment to Russia.^[267] Jane's Information Group believed (on 31 March 2014) that while supply may be slowed by the Ukrainian embargo, it was unlikely to do any real damage to Russia's military.^[267]

Discover more about Armaments and aerospace industries related topics

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is an international institute based in Stockholm. It was founded in 1966 and provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as disarmament and arms control. The research is based on open sources and is directed to decision-makers, researchers, media and the interested public.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area.

Motor Sich

Motor Sich

The Motor Sich Joint Stock Company is a Ukrainian aircraft engine manufacturer headquartered in Zaporizhzhia. The company manufactures engines for airplanes and helicopters, and also industrial marine gas turbines and installations.

Dnipro

Dnipro

Dnipro, formerly Dnipropetrovsk (1926–2016), is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, 391 km (243 mi) southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, after which its Ukrainian language name is derived. Dnipro is the administrative centre of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. It hosts the administration of Dnipro urban hromada. The population of Dnipro is 968,502

Kharkiv

Kharkiv

Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine. Located in the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the historic Slobozhanshchyna region. Kharkiv is the administrative centre of Kharkiv Oblast and of the surrounding Kharkiv Raion. It has a population of 1,421,125.

Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody

Zhovti Vody is a town in Kamianske Raion and central Ukraine. Zhovti Vody is located on the Zhovta River approximately 70 km (43 mi) north of the metropolitan area's center, Kryvyi Rih. It hosts the administration of Zhovti Vody urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: 42,052 .

Mykolaiv

Mykolaiv

Mykolaiv is a city and municipality in southern Ukraine, and the administrative center of Mykolaiv Oblast. The city of Mykolaiv, which provides Ukraine with access to the Black Sea, is the location of the most downriver bridge crossing of the Southern Bug river. This city is one of the main shipbuilding centers of the Black Sea. Aside from three shipyards within the city, there are a number of research centers specializing in shipbuilding such as the State Research and Design Shipbuilding Center, Zoria-Mashproekt and others. As of 2022, the city has a population of 470,011. Mykolaiv holds the honorary title Hero City of Ukraine.

Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov is an inland shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch, and is sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Russia on the east, and by Ukraine on the northwest and southwest, currently under Russian occupation. It is an important access route for Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea via the Volga-Don Canal.

In Russia

In opinion polls taken before 2014, Russians generally say they have a more negative attitude towards Ukraine than vice versa. Polls in Russia have shown that after top Russian officials made radical statements or took drastic actions against Ukraine the attitude of those polled towards Ukraine worsened (every time). The issues that have hurt Russians' view of Ukraine are:

• Possible Ukrainian NATO membership
• Ukrainian attempts to have the Holodomor recognized as genocide against the Ukrainian nation
• Attempts to honor the Ukrainian Insurgent Army

Although a large majority of Ukrainians voted for independence in December 1991, in the following years the Russian press portrayed Ukraine's independence as the work of "nationalists" who "twisted" the "correct" instincts of the masses according to a 1996 study.^[268] The study argues that this influenced the Russian public to believe that the Ukrainian political elite is the only thing blocking the "Ukrainians' heartfelt wish" to reunite with Russia.^[268] Some members of the Russian political elite continued to claim that Ukrainian is a Russian dialect and that Ukraine (and Belarus) should become part of the Russian Federation.^[269] In a June 2010 interview Mikhail Zurabov, then Russian ambassador to Ukraine, stated "Russians and Ukrainians are a single nation with some nuances and peculiarities".^[270] Ukrainian history is not treated as a separate subject in leading Russian universities but rather incorporated into the history of Russia.^[271]

According to experts, the Russian government cultivates an image of Ukraine as the enemy to cover up its own internal mistakes. Analysts like Philip P. Pan (writing for The Washington Post) argued late 2009 that Russian media portrayed the then-Government of Ukraine as anti-Russian.^[272]

80% had a "good or very good" attitude towards Belarus in 2009.^[275]

During the 1990s, polls showed that a majority of people in Russia could not accept the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine.^[279] According to a 2006 poll by VTsIOM 66% of all Russians regretted the collapse of the Soviet Union.^[280] 50% of respondents in Ukraine in a similar poll held in February 2005 stated they regret the disintegration of the Soviet Union.^[281] In 2005 (71%) and 2007 (48%) polls, Russians expressed a wish to unify with Ukraine; although a unification solely with Belarus was more popular.^[282][283]

A poll released on 5 November 2009 showed that 55% of Russians believed that the relationship with Ukraine should be a friendship between "two independent states".^[276] A late 2011 poll by the Levada Center showed 53% of polled Russians preferred friendship with an independent Ukraine, 33% preferred Ukraine to be under Russia's economic and political control, and 15% were undecided.^[284] According to Levada's 2012 poll, 60% of Russians preferred Russia and Ukraine as independent but friendly states with open borders without visas or customs; the number of unification supporters increased by 4% to 20% in Russia.^[285] Twenty surveys conducted from January 2009 to January 2015 by the Levada Center found that less than 10% of Russians supported Russia and Ukraine becoming one state.^[286] In the January 2015 survey, 19% wanted eastern Ukraine to become part of Russia and 43% wanted it to become an independent state.^[286]

A November 2014 survey by the University of Oslo found that most Russians viewed Ukraine as not legitimate as a state in its internationally recognised borders and with its then government.^[287] According to an April 2015 survey by the Levada Center, when asked "What should be Russia's primary goals in its relations with vis-a-vis Ukraine?" (multiple answers allowed), the most common answers were: Restoring good neighborly relations (40%), retaining Crimea (26%), developing economic cooperation (21%), preventing Ukraine from joining NATO (20%), making gas prices for Ukraine the same as for other European countries (19%), and ousting the current Ukrainian leadership (16%).^[288]

In February 2019, 82% of Russians had a positive attitude towards Ukrainians, but only 34% of Russians had a positive attitude towards Ukraine, and only 7% of Russians had positive attitude towards the leadership of Ukraine.^[289]

Some observers noted what they described as a "generational struggle" among Russians, with younger Russians more likely to be against Putin and his policies and older Russians more likely to accept the narrative presented by state-controlled media in Russia. According to a March 2021 survey by the Levada Center, 68% of Russians aged 18–24 had favorable views on Ukraine.^[290] A Levada poll released in February 2021 found that 80% of Russians supported Ukraine's independence from Russia and only 17% of Russians wanted Ukraine to become part of Russia.^[289]

The thinking of many Russians, including Russian political elites, about Ukraine has also been influenced by the Russian world concept and also by nationalist philosophers such as Alexandr Dugin often referred to as Putin's brain. The Russian world concept is a totalitarian ideology based on a specific theology that sees the West's decadence as an enemy of Russian culture, and regards war as a legitimate method of purifying the world from the demonic. Dugin is believed by some to have laid the ideological groundwork for the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022^[291][292] as part of his advocacy for Ukraine becoming "a purely administrative sector of the Russian centralized state", which he refers to as Novorossiya, or New Russia.^[293] At the end of March 2022, a poll conducted in Russia by the Levada Center concluded the following: When asked why they think the military operation is taking place, respondents said it was to protect and defend civilians, ethnic Russians or Russian speakers in Ukraine (43%), to prevent an attack on Russia (25%), to get rid of nationalists and "denazify" Ukraine (21%), and to incorporate Ukraine or the Donbas region into Russia (3%)."^[294]

In Ukraine

A poll released on 5 November 2009 showed that about 67% of Ukrainians believed the relationship with Russia should be a friendship between "two independent states".^[276] According to a 2012 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 72% of Ukrainians preferred Ukraine and Russia as independent but friendly states with open borders without visas or customs; the number of unification supporters shrunk by 2% to 14% in Ukraine.^[285]

In December 2014, 85% of Ukrainians (81% in eastern regions) rated relations with Russia as hostile (56%) or tense (29%), according to a Deutsche Welle survey which did not include Crimea and the separatist-controlled part of Donbas.^[299] Gallup reported that 5% of Ukrainians (12% in the south and east) approved of the Russian leadership in a September–October 2014 survey, down from 43% (57% in the south and east) a year earlier.^[300]

In September 2014, a survey by Alexei Navalny of the mainly Russophone cities of Odesa and Kharkiv found that 87% of residents wanted their region to stay in Ukraine, 3% wanted to join Russia, 2% wanted to join "Novorossiya," and 8% were undecided.^[301] A KIIS poll conducted in December 2014 found 88.3% of Ukrainians were opposed to joining Russia.^[302]

According to Al Jazeera, "A poll conducted in 2011 showed that 49% of Ukrainians had relatives living in Russia. ... a recent [February 2019] poll conducted by the independent Russian research centre "Levada" shows that 77% of Ukrainians and 82% of Russians think positively of each other as people."^[303]

In February 2019, 77% of Ukrainians were positive about Russians, 57% of Ukrainians were positive about Russia, but only 13% of Ukrainians had positive attitude towards the Russian government.^[289]

In March 2022, a week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 98% of Ukrainians – including 82% of ethnic Russians living in Ukraine – said they did not believe that any part of Ukraine was rightfully part of Russia, according to Lord Ashcroft's polls which did not include Crimea and the separatist-controlled part of Donbas. 97% of Ukrainians said they had an unfavourable view of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with a further 94% saying they had an unfavourable view of the Russian Armed Forces. 81% of Ukrainians said they had a very unfavourable or somewhat unfavourable view of the Russian people. 65% of Ukrainians – including 88% of those of Russian ethnicity – agreed that "despite our differences there is more that unites ethnic Russians living in Ukraine and Ukrainians than divides us."^[304]

At the end of 2021, 75% of Ukrainians had a positive attitude toward ordinary Russians, while in May 2022, 82% of Ukrainians had a negative attitude toward ordinary Russians.^[305]

Discover more about Popular opinion and philosophy related topics

Holodomor

Holodomor

The Holodomor, also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1932–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.

1991 Ukrainian independence referendum

1991 Ukrainian independence referendum

A referendum on the Act of Declaration of Independence was held in Ukraine on 1 December 1991. An overwhelming majority of 92.3% of voters approved the declaration of independence made by the Verkhovna Rada on 24 August 1991. Voters were asked "Do you support the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine?" The text of the Declaration was included as a preamble to the question. The referendum was called by the Parliament of Ukraine to confirm the Act of Independence, which was adopted by the Parliament on 24 August 1991. Citizens of Ukraine expressed overwhelming support for independence. In the referendum, 31,891,742 registered voters took part, and among them 28,804,071 voted "Yes".

Elite

Elite

In political and sociological theory, the elite are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. Defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, the "elite" are "those people or organizations that are considered the best or most powerful compared to others of a similar type."

Russian dialects

Russian dialects

Russian dialects are spoken variants of the Russian language.

Belarus

Belarus

Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Covering an area of 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) and with a population of 9.2 million, Belarus is the 13th-largest and the 20th-most populous country in Europe. The country has a hemiboreal climate and is administratively divided into seven regions. Minsk is the capital and largest city.

Mikhail Zurabov

Mikhail Zurabov

Mikhail Yuryevich Zurabov is a Russian politician. He was the ambassador of Russia to Ukraine (2009–2016) and former Minister of Health and Social Development (in Mikhail Fradkov's first and second cabinets. He held the post of Minister of Health and Social Development from 9 March 2004 to 24 September 2007.

History of Ukraine

History of Ukraine

Prehistoric Ukraine, as a part of the Pontic steppe in Eastern Europe, played an important role in Eurasian cultural events, including the spread of the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages, Indo-European migrations, and the domestication of the horse.

List of institutions of higher education in Russia

List of institutions of higher education in Russia

The following is a list of universities and other higher educational institutions in Russia, based primarily on the National Information Centre on Academic Recognition and Mobility webpage of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

History of Russia

History of Russia

The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs. The traditional start-date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in 862, ruled by Varangians. Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod became the first major cities of the new union of immigrants from Scandinavia with the Slavs and Finns. In 882, Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized Kiev, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one authority, moving the governance center to Kiev by the end of the 10th century, and maintaining northern and southern parts with significant autonomy from each other. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 1237–1240 along with the resulting deaths of significant numbers of the population, and with the numerous principalities being forced to accept the overlordship of the Mongols.

Government of Russia

Government of Russia

The Government of Russia exercises executive power in the Russian Federation. The members of the government are the prime minister, the deputy prime ministers, and the federal ministers. It has its legal basis in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the federal constitutional law "On the Government of the Russian Federation". The Apparatus of the Government of Russia is a governmental body which administrates the activities of the government.

The Washington Post

The Washington Post

The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area.

Government of Ukraine

Government of Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine, is the highest body of state executive power in Ukraine. As Cabinet of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, it was formed on 18 April 1991, by the Law of Ukrainian SSR No.980-XII. Vitold Fokin was approved as the first Prime Minister of Ukraine.

• 1654 March Articles (2 April 1654)^[306] (undermined by the Truce of Vilna, Treaty of Hadiach, Treaty of Andrusovo)
  • approved by the Cossack Council (Pereiaslav, 18 January 1654)
• Union Workers'-Peasants' treaty (28 December 1920)^[307]
• Union treaty (30 December 1922; 31 January 1924) (surpassed by the Belavezha Accords)^[307]
  • approved by the 7th All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (10 December 1922)^[308]
  • ratified by the 9th All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (May 1924)^[307]
• 1954 Soviet Decree: Transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (February 1954)^[309]
  • decreed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (19 February 1954)^[310]

Leaders of Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Soviet republics signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving the Soviet Union, 8 December 1991

• Treaty between the Russian SFSR and the Ukrainian SSR (Kyiv, 19 November 1990) (surpassed by the treaty of 1997)^[311]
  • ratified by the Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR (23 November 1990)^[311]
  • ratified by the Supreme Council of Ukraine (1990) "yes": 352, "nay": 0^[311]
• Belavezha Accords (8 December 1991)
• Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances (5 December 1994)
  • Following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the subsequent War in Donbas in 2014, Ukraine,^[140] the US,^[312][313] Canada,^[314] the UK,^[315] along with other countries,^[316] stated that Russian involvement is a breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest Memorandum, a Memorandum signed by Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, John Major, and Leonid Kuchma,^[317][318] and in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
• Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet (Kyiv, 28 May 1997)^[41]
  • ratified by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2 March 1999)
  • the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by 433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014.^[319]
• Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine (Kyiv, 31 May 1997)^[320]
• Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait (2003)
• 2010 Kharkiv Pact
  • both the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments did ratify the agreement on 27 April 2010^[105]
  • the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by 433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014^[319]

Ukraine (has also) terminated several treaties and agreement with Russia since the start of the 2014 Crimea crisis (for example agreements in the military and technical cooperation sphere signed in 1993).^[321][322]

In December 2019, Ukraine and Russia agreed to implement a complete ceasefire in eastern Ukraine by the year-end. The negotiations were brokered by France and Germany, where the countries in conflict committed an extensive prisoner swap along with withdrawal of Ukraine's military from three major regions falling on the front line.^[323]

On 17 July 2022, Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish military delegations met with United Nations officials in Istanbul to start talks on the resumption of exports of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa. On 22 July 2022, Russian and Ukrainian officials have signed the deal to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Under the agreement, a coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN staff will monitor the loading of grain into vessels in Ukrainian ports, to allay Russian fears of weapons smuggling ^[324][325] before navigating a preplanned route through the Black Sea, which remains heavily mined by Ukrainian and Russian forces.^[324] On 29 October 2022, Russia said it was suspending its participation in the grain deal, in response to what it called a major Ukrainian drone attack on its Black Sea fleet.^[326]

Discover more about Treaties and agreements related topics

Truce of Vilna

Truce of Vilna

Truce/Treaty of Vilna or Truce/Treaty of Niemieża was a treaty signed at Niemieża near Vilnius on 3 November 1656 between Tsardom of Russia and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, introducing a truce during the Russo-Polish War (1654–67) and an anti-Swedish alliance in the contemporaneous Second Northern War. In return for ceasing hostilities and fighting Sweden alongside Poland–Lithuania, the treaty promised Alexis of Russia succession in Poland after John II Casimir Vasa's death. The Cossacks under Bohdan Khmelnytsky were excluded from the negotiations, and subsequently supported the Transylvanian invasion on the Swedish side.

Treaty of Hadiach

Treaty of Hadiach

The Treaty of Hadiach was a treaty signed on 16 September 1658 in Hadiach between representatives of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Zaporozhian Cossacks. It was designed to elevate the Cossacks and Ruthenians to the position equal to that of Poland and Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian union and in fact transforming the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into a Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth.

Pereiaslav

Pereiaslav

Pereiaslav or Pereyaslav, formerly Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi or Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskyy (1943–2019), is a historical city in the Boryspil Raion, Kyiv Oblast (province) of central Ukraine, located near the confluence of Alta and Trubizh rivers some 95 km (59.03 mi) south of the nation's capital Kyiv. Along with Kyiv and Chernihiv, it forms the nucleus of the medieval Ruthenia. Pereiaslav hosts the administration of Pereiaslav urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its population is approximately 26,273

Seventh All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets

Seventh All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets

The Seventh All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets was a congress of Soviets (councils) of workers, peasants, and Red Army men that took place in Kharkiv from December 10 to 14, 1922.

Republics of the Soviet Union

Republics of the Soviet Union

The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union was formed in 1922 by a treaty between the Soviet republics of Byelorussia, Russia, Transcaucasia, and Ukraine, by which they became its constituent republics.

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Dissolution of the Soviet Union

The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the process of internal disintegration within the Soviet Union (USSR) which resulted in the end of the country's and its federal government's existence as a sovereign state, thereby resulting in its constituent republics gaining full independence on 26 December 1991. It brought an end to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system in an attempt to stop a period of political stalemate and economic backslide. The Soviet Union had experienced internal stagnation and ethnic separatism. Although highly centralized until its final years, the country was made up of 15 top-level republics that served as homelands for different ethnicities. By late 1991, amid a catastrophic political crisis, with several republics already departing the Union and the waning of centralized power, the leaders of three of its founding members declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed. Eight more republics joined their declaration shortly thereafter. Gorbachev resigned in December 1991 and what was left of the Soviet parliament voted to end itself.

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

In February and March 2014, Russia invaded and subsequently annexed the Crimean Peninsula, taking it from Ukraine. This event took place in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and is part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.

War in Donbas (2014–2022)

War in Donbas (2014–2022)

The war in Donbas, or Donbas war, was an armed conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine, part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a U.S. senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the first president of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism and Russian nationalism.

John Major

John Major

Sir John Major is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from November 1990 to May 1997 and Leader of the Conservative Party from November 1990 to June 1997. He previously held Cabinet positions under prime minister Margaret Thatcher, lastly as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1989 to 1990. Major was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon, formerly Huntingdonshire, from 1979 to 2001. Since stepping down as an MP in 2001, Major has focused on writing and his business, sporting and charity work, and has occasionally commented on political developments in the role of an elder statesman.

Leonid Kuchma

Leonid Kuchma

Leonid Danylovych Kuchma is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. Kuchma's presidency saw numerous corruption scandals and the lessening of media freedoms.

Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, is shown in pink. Pink in the Donbas area represents areas held by the DPR/LPR separatists in September 2014 (cities in red)

A number of territorial disputes exist between two countries:

• Crimea including Sevastopol, Kerch Strait, Sea of Azov. Russia lays claims onto territory of Crimea by the resolution #1809-1 of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation "On legal evaluation of decisions of the supreme bodies of state power of the RSFSR about changing the status of Crimea that was adopted in 1954". In 2014, Crimea was annexed by Russia. Ukraine considers this as an annexation and as a violation of international law and agreements by Russia, including the Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1991, Helsinki Accords, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of 1994 and Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.^[327] The event was condemned by many world leaders as an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, signed by Russia.^[328] It led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group,^[329] then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The United Nations General Assembly also rejected the vote and annexation, adopting a non-binding resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders".^[330][331] See also: International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, International sanctions during the Russo-Ukrainian War
• Tuzla Island. The Tuzla conflict is unresolved since 2003.
• Some Russian nationalists have disputed Ukraine's independent existence, considering Ukrainians (as well as Belarusians) to belong to the Russian nation, and Ukraine to belong to Greater Russia.^[332] In 2006, Putin reportedly stated, "Ukraine is not even a state"; after the annexation of Crimea, he stated in July 2021 that Ukrainians and Russians "are one people". In February 2020, leading Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov stated, "There is no Ukraine".^[333][334] According to international relations scholar Björn Alexander Düben, "Among the Russian public it is commonly regarded as self-evident that Crimea has historically been Russian territory, but also that all of Ukraine is in essence a historical part of Russia".^[335]
• In 2022, UK defence minister Ben Wallace characterized Putin's article “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” as a "skewed and selective reasoning to justify, at best, the subjugation of Ukraine and at worse the forced unification of that sovereign country."^[336]

Discover more about Territorial disputes related topics

Crimea

Crimea

Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The largest city is Sevastopol. The region has a population of 2.4 million, and has been under Russian occupation since 2014.

Donbas

Donbas

The Donbas or Donbass is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the Donbas are occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Donetsk People's Republic

Donetsk People's Republic

The Donetsk People's Republic is an unrecognised republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, with its capital in Donetsk. The DPR was created by militarily-armed Russian-backed separatists in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022.

Luhansk People's Republic

Luhansk People's Republic

The Luhansk People's Republic or Lugansk People's Republic is an unrecognised republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was created by militarily-armed Russian-backed separatists in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022.

Sevastopol

Sevastopol

Sevastopol, sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base throughout its history. Since the city's founding in 1783 it has been a major base for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and it was previously a closed city during the Cold War. The total administrative area is 864 square kilometres (334 sq mi) and includes a significant amount of rural land. The urban population, largely concentrated around Sevastopol Bay, is 479,394, and the total population is 547,820.

Kerch Strait

Kerch Strait

The Kerch Strait is a strait in Eastern Europe. It connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea in the west from the Taman Peninsula of Russia's Krasnodar Krai in the east. The strait is 3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi) to 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) wide and up to 18 metres (59 ft) deep. The most important harbor, the Crimean city of Kerch, gives its name to the strait, formerly known as the Cimmerian Bosporus. It has also been called the Straits of Yenikale after the Yeni-Kale fortress in Kerch.

Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov is an inland shelf sea in Eastern Europe connected to the Black Sea by the narrow Strait of Kerch, and is sometimes regarded as a northern extension of the Black Sea. The sea is bounded by Russia on the east, and by Ukraine on the northwest and southwest, currently under Russian occupation. It is an important access route for Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea via the Volga-Don Canal.

Helsinki Accords

Helsinki Accords

The Helsinki Final Act, also known as Helsinki Accords or Helsinki Declaration was the document signed at the closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) held in Helsinki, Finland, between 30 July and 1 August 1975, following two years of negotiations known as the Helsinki Process. All then-existing European countries as well as the United States and Canada, altogether 35 participating states, signed the Final Act in an attempt to improve the détente between the East and the West. The Helsinki Accords, however, were not binding as they did not have treaty status that would have to be ratified by parliaments. Sometimes the term "Helsinki pact(s)" was also used unofficially.

Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet

Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet

The Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet consists of three bilateral agreements between Russia and Ukraine signed on 28 May 1997 whereby the two countries established two independent national fleets, divided armaments and bases between them, and set forth conditions for basing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea. The treaty was supplemented by provisions in the Russian–Ukrainian Friendship Treaty, which was signed three days later. Russia unilaterally terminated the Partition Treaty in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.

International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation

International reactions to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation have largely been condemnatory of Russia's actions, supportive of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and supportive of finding a quick end to the crisis. The United States and the European Union responded by enacting sanctions against Russia for its role in the crisis, and urged Russia to withdraw. Russia has accused the United States and the EU of funding and directing the revolution and retaliated to the sanctions by imposing its own.

G8

G8

The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia was expelled in 2014.

Non-binding resolution

Non-binding resolution

A non-binding resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body that cannot progress into a law. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion.

On 26 April 2022, the sculpture under the People's Friendship Arch in Kyiv, which depicted a Ukrainian worker and a Russian worker standing together, was dismantled.^[337] The arch and the Peoples' Friendship Arch monument are also planned to be renamed and to become a new monument.^[337] This would be one of the first steps in a plan to demolish about 60 monuments and to rename dozens of streets associated with the Soviet Union, Russia and Russian figures across Ukraine.^[338] Days before the People's Friendship Arch statue was removed, aspects of this street renaming and monument removal plan were already being carried out across other areas in Ukraine as well.^{[339][340][338]} Ukraine has decided to rename the streets of Ukrainian cities named after such Russian historical figures as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky or Leo Tolstoy.^[341] After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as part of de-Russification of Ukraine,^[225] Russian movies, books and music were banned and monuments to Russian and Russian-Ukrainian personalities such as Mikhail Bulgakov were removed.^[342]

Discover more about Removal of Russian street names and monuments across Ukraine related topics

Derussification in Ukraine

Derussification in Ukraine

Derussification in Ukraine is a process of removing Russian influence from the country of Ukraine. Derussification began after the collapse of the USSR and intensified with the demolition of monuments to Lenin during Euromaidan and the further systemic process of decommunization in Ukraine. The Russo-Ukrainian War gave a strong impetus to the process. The process manifests itself in the renaming of toponyms named after Russian statesmen and cultural figures, or those that are believed to reflect Russianism and the Russian worldview, or are otherwise associated with Russia. Also part of the process is the dismantling of objects of the Russian rule. As of April 8, 2022, according to a poll by the sociological group Rating, 76% of Ukrainians support the initiative to rename streets and other objects whose names are associated with Russia. In March 2023 the Ukrainian parliament did forbid to have toponymy with names associated with Russia.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin.

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major controversy.

Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov was a Russian, later Soviet writer, medical doctor, and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, which has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.