The start of the crisis in Ukraine initially goes back to 21st of November, when Victor Yanukovich the former president of Ukraine abandoned the trade agreement with EU, to have closer ties with Moscow. Since that, the public started to protest against this decision, and the public support grew as the pro-EU and anti-government protestors were slammed by Police Special Forces called Berkut. In Kiev and just in Independence Square 300,000 people protested, and the activists seized the City Hall. The situation even got more as the anti-protest law in parliament was passed. Three protestors were killed, and an opposition activist, Dmytro Bulatov, after eight days, being imprisoned and tortured, by a pro-Russian group, was found outside Kiev. Meanwhile, the Russian government tried to tranquilize the situation by a $15bn help to Ukrainian government and also reducing the costs of natural gas. Also, Mykola Azarov, Ukraine’s prime minister was resigned, and the anti-protest laws were repealed by parliament, even the government promised amnesty for arrested protesters, if the protestors relinquish government buildings. City Hall was relinquished by protestors, and 234 jailed protestors were released. On February 18, the parliament stalled passing the constitutional reform. The reform limited the presidential powers and stalling it just triggered a horrible violence, at least 18 protestors were killed, and hundreds of them were injured as they attacked the police lines. The governmental buildings were taken back. The deadly violence kept taking lives, February 20 was the bloodiest day, since the government snipers shot protestors from rooftops, and killed over 70 protestors. Next day Ynukovich and protest leaders agreed to form a new government, until the early election. Yulia Timoshenko the former prime minister of Ukraine was freed after 3 years being imprisoned and Yanukovich was removed by Ukrainian politicians. On February 23rd, Oleksandr Turchinov, the new speaker of the parliament was assigned as the temporary president. Meanwhile in Crimea the pro-Russian protestors stood against the new government in Kiev. Russian government due to what they call it, defending the Russian natives of Crimea transferred hundreds of troops to Crimea and took control of all government buildings, and actually the whole island. A referendum was set up and with a high rate of 96%, Crimea only according to the authorities of the Russia and Crimea became a part of the Russian federation. Until now, this referendum was not recognized by any of the international authorities. United Nations, EU, and US, and Ukrainian authorities have condemned this referendum as it was against the Ukrainian constitution and international laws. But this crisis has more to do with EU and US. As already mentioned, the crisis started only after that the government abandoned the trade agreement with EU. So here we have three major players, those who will suffer and profit from this agreement. One side its EU and US, which urge Ukraine to sign this agreement, and from the other side Russia, which is doing its best not let Ukraine, sign this agreement, and of course Ukraine itself. It’s easy to understand that if Ukraine becomes a part of EU the Russian and NATO’s borders will meet each other, which is a security threat for Russia. Supporting Crimea was the last thing Russia could do to prevent its loss in Ukraine, which is also considered to be a bigger threat for EU. Therefore, EU and US authorities started to set sanctions against some of Russian authorities, specifically allies of Putin. In my view unfortunately Ukraine has become another battle field, for Russians and western countries, and only Ukrainian will pay an extremely high price in this battle. For now, the government is leaning on west as the economy of the country is in a fragile situation, and strongly needs foreign helps. Therefore, I think none of the angles of this tripartite battle has achieved a complete victory. Russia has lost Ukraine as one of its important allies, Ukraine has lost Crimea, and EU is being threatened by Russian troops in the Baltic region. And we should remember that now is the moment, when a slight slip in international policy may result in a full-scale war.
Works Cited
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