Throughout history, Russia and Ukraine have been allies and foes. No doubt they had indissociable bonds. In this article of former CAWU intern Valeria Bez we will see how the two nations evolved, what sort of relations shaped between them, and what the ethnic issue has to do with the war of 2022.

 

The tendency of great powers to decide people’s fates has proven to be destructive (the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc. are there to illustrate that). Russia is no exception.

 

However, we must not neglect the interrelated nature of history of the two nations. Russia’s geopolitical interest in the war of 2022 is strongly backed up and justified by the heartbreaking narrative of the brotherhood between Russians and Ukrainians which somehow co-exists despite the destruction of the latter in the war of 2022. The issue of ethnicity has further divided Ukraine itself as we can see in the on-going events in Donetsk and Luhansk. Their resistance provided Putin the reason for armed intervention into a sovereign country. 

 

This is a war that will leave no winners. We must keep in mind that also Central and Western Europe risks being drawn into this war. Escalations will make it far worse.

 

If one has ever dreamt of living in a book, they can now experience George Orwell’s 1984.