The emergence of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and its current position is not an instantaneous event. The Russia-Ukraine crisis has reached a level that will make the world uneasy at the moment. Despite the statements made by the EU and NATO, this tension between Ukraine and Russia causes concern. Biden underlined that Russia’s threat to invade Ukraine continues. The Russia-Ukraine crisis did not emerge today, the foundations of this crisis were laid in 2014. Here are the reasons for the Russian-Ukrainian crisis.
HOW DID THE RUSSIA UKRAINE CRISIS BEGIN?
The Russia-Ukraine crisis started with the “Yevromeydan protests” that broke out in November 2013 and the overthrow of the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, when all the balances were turned upside down. After the events that followed, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a press conference in March 2014 and shared with the public that he saw Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych as the legitimate President of Ukraine, that what happened was unconstitutional, and that this event was a coup d’etat. After such a period, the people of Crimea, who have close ties to Russia due to the nature of the population, did not accept the administration of Petro Poroshenko, who became the President of Ukraine after the “Yevromeydan protests”.
On March 18, 2014, a referendum was held and according to the result, the people of Crimea, who decided to leave Ukraine, announced that they were attached to Russia as a result of the armed uprisings. After this conflict environment, two states, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, were established. In September 2014, the Minsk Protocol was signed with the participation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia, Ukraine and Donetsk-Lugansk delegates and negotiations. However, both sides have violated this ceasefire protocol many times.
WHAT CAUSES THE RUSSIA UKRAINE CRISIS?
Volodymyr Zelensky from the People’s Servant Party came to power in the Ukrainian Presidential election in 2019, and a new process started in the country. Ukraine, which got closer to the EU and NATO with the Zelenski administration, sparked the fight. Russian President Putin has announced that Ukraine will never become a member of NATO and cannot host NATO’s missile defense systems. The Kremlin administration sought legal guarantees from western countries so that their demands would not come true. In a table where these demands were not fulfilled, he pointed out that the issue would be resolved by military intervention, and preferred to send military units to the Ukrainian border.