Since Feb.17th, 2022, the situation in the eastern parts of Ukraine has been deteriorating. The Ukrainian government and local civilian armed forces accused each other of launching aggressive shelling on the contact line. Feb.18th, the local civilian armed forces made an announcement to evacuate large scales of local citizens to Russia from then on, for fear that Ukraine will launch a military operation. Feb.19th, Russian troops are again massed on Ukraine’s borders, the fault lines that reflect the regions tumultuous history. Feb.21st, Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, declared the recognition of “People’s Republic of Donetsk” and “People’s Republic of Luhansk”, unilaterally. From then on, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been going on, until now.

However, Russia and Ukraine have always been contentious since more than 1000 years ago. Where and why? What the relationship between them? See below.

In fact, they both came from Kievan Rus , whose capital is Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. In A.D.988, Vladimir I, the pagan prince of Novgorod and the grand prince of Kyiv, accepted Orthodox, which is now the main religion in Russia! Odd, wasn’t it? But it’s real!

However, Kievan Rus was carved up over the past 10 centuries. In the 13th century, the Mongol Empire invaded the Kievan Rus and conquered it. In the 17th century, a war between Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the tsardom of Russia broke up. Then the former Kievan Rus was carved into 2 parts, the border of which is the Dnieper River. The west ones belonged to Poland, and the east ones belonged to Ukraine. In 1793, the Russian Empire annexed the east ones. (That means Ukraine) And people in those areas were pressured to convert to the Orthodox.

Time flies. In 1922, Ukraine was forced to enter the Soviet Union after a brutal war. However, the leader of USSR at that time (That means Soviet Union), Joseph Stalin, erected hero-worship of himself. He oppressed and exiled many ethnic minorities, including Ukrainians. He orchestrated a famine, which resulted in starvation and death of millions of Ukrainians. After that, Stalin sent many citizens, which has few ties with Ukraine and can speak little Ukrainian, to there, repopulating the East.

However, the legacies of history have been forming an invisible fault line. The eastern part, which is much closer to Russia, consists mainly Russian descents and tends to be more Russian-speaking and Orthodox, while the western one, which is much closer to Europe, spoke more Ukrainian and Catholic.

In 1991, the USSR collapsed, and the Ukraine became independent. However, the transition to democracy and capitalism was painful, chaotic as long as bloody. The eastern part of Ukraine was still in favor of Russia, and the western one, in favor of the NATO, which directly caused the famous 2004 Orange Revolution, in which thousands of Ukrainians marched to support greater integration with Europe.

In 2014, Crimea, which is actually controlled by Ukraine, was occupied and annexed by Russia, following with the one-side declaration of Russian-backed People’s Republic of Luhansk and People’s Republic of Donetsk after the referendum, which directly led to the occurrence of Donbas war, a civil war causing the death of more than 3000 people and making 1.3 million people become refugees.

As an old saying goes: as time went by, they would break up. This really happened between them. What do you think of the prospect between them?