Welcome to a new series I’m starting - this is the full text of the posts I’ve been crafting on instagram because I know some people would rather read the things. As a disclaimer, I have a political science degree but am by no means an expert on the things that I’m breaking down. What I do have is a passion for explaining complicated things in simple ways. Now, more than ever, I think it’s really important. If you have something you specifically want me to cover, please message me on instagram (linked at the bottom).

2014 Ukraine conflict

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until 1991 (ps should I do a little summary on the dissolution of the USSR? Very relevant to all this, let me know or ask questions on the question slide!), and since then has been a democracy (albeit a less than perfect one) with foreign policy that flips between pro-Russian and pro-European.

It started as an internal Ukrainian crisis in November 2013 in response to the president rejecting a deal for greater integration with the European union taking $15 billion from Russia instead. Huge protests erupted in parts of the country, met with violence from the state (first in the form of internal security forces and second in passing laws that restricted freedom of speech and assembly. Russia backed Yanukovych (the then president) where US and Europe supported the protesters. In February 2014, anti-government protestors overthrew the government and in response, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea (annex: the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, Crimea: a peninsula along the northern coast of the Black Sea) and the protests also lead to the self-proclaimed breakaway states of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Let’s sidebar for a minute because the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states by Russia (the first UN member state to ever do so, just a few weeks ago) was the kick off to the current crisis. In Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, just as Russia was annexing Crimea, armed Russian-backed separatist groups seized government buildings throughout the Donbas, leading to armed conflict with the Ukrainian government forces. Fighting was violent on both sides and in September 2014 all three parties (Russian, Donbas, & Ukraine) agreed to a ceasefire. The ceasefire was violated constantly by all sides (including warlords now taking areas of land that were already destabilized) and in February 2015 a new ceasefire was signed. (An deeper explanation of this – including the heavily documented deteriorating humanitarian situation in the conflict zone – would require it’s own post!) This has continued constantly since – there have been 29 ceasefires, the longest lasting 6 weeks, since 2015. Russia officially recognized the DPR and LPR on 21 February 2022 and three days later launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine.

Back to 2014, the interim Ukrainian government signed the EU association agreement (remember, this was the kick off to all the destabilization and fighting at the beginning of this) and after new elections were hold, the president restored the 2004 amendments to the Ukrainian constitution that had been controversially repealed as unconstitutional in 2010 and purged most civil servants associated with the overthrown regime.

The country has been divided between Ukrainians who see Ukraine as part of Europe and those who see it as intrinsically linked to Russia. Currently, one in six Ukrainians is ethnically Russian, and one in three (mostly in the east of the country) speak Russian as their native language. This divide between east and west Ukraine and the pull between Russia and “the West” – none of it is new even if the conflict it feels that way for those of us who haven’t been following these stories closely. It also gives me pause – and maybe you too – to think about how arbitrary boarder so often are (and how often they cause just as many issues as they create).