Manya Mishra
The history of Russia is the most vital element in understanding what is happening right now in Russia and Ukraine. In the 18th century, the place near Kyiv was a single geographic place called the Kievan Rus and it was a very strong province. The capital city of Kyiv has gotten stronger with time. Ukraine too was the second-largest part of the USSR and even today is the second-largest country in the European continent after Russia.
The USSR included both Ukraine and Russia. When the USSR broke in 1991, Ukraine became independent and so did Russia. Ukraine had a lot of agriculture, defence and was the storage of the nuclear arsenal that belonged to the USSR. Their division meant all this became the property of Ukraine.
The world economy isn't black or white. So, Ukraine did stand independent but they still wanted imports from Russia. So, they entered into trade agreements regardless of their coldness towards each other. In 1994, it gave up the nuclear arsenal back to Russia in exchange for Russia to respect their sovereignty and assure them security from themselves.
The 2013 President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovychin, was pro-Moscow. He was offered an EU trade deal. This would mean more inclusion of Ukraine with the EU. Viktor rejected the trade deal and instead signed a 15 billion bailout deal from Russia. This led to the infamous protests and the Ukraine rebellion. These protests gave birth to two sides of the show: A West Ukraine, which believes that they are independent; and an East Ukraine, which wants to be a part of Russia.
Simultaneously, Russia sent troops to fight with pro-Russia protesters. This broke the peace promise. Seeking this situation as an opportunity, USA and a few more countries offered support to Ukraine but at a price. Recently, they showed their interest in wanting Ukraine to join NATO, the military alliance founded by USA, UK and a few more countries who still are powerful members.
If Ukraine joins NATO, USA and UK will put an army at the border with Russia to show that they are protecting it but also show off the threat they are representing to Russia. On the other hand, if Russia takes over Ukraine, they will rule it herewith.
Under the umbrella of NATO, USA promised safety and support. If USA gets involved, this issue becomes bigger and worse. If USA doesn't intervene in the current situation, the crisis will defuse.
The people of Ukraine are the ones paying the highest price. This brings us to the real question, is this a fight for gaining the lesser evil or is this an egoistic battle that may turn into a world war because history has proven that the current circumstances are exactly what had given rise to tensions before the second world war. Sadly, the party gaining, like always, is the syndicate of arms dealers.
(The writer is management science student).