RUSSIA – UKRAINE conflict can snowball into broader conflict at this time when Russia has assembled 90,000 troops at the broader. As it rolls a large number of troops towards the frontiers, Russia wants confirmation from the US that Ukraine will not be put into NATO. However, US President Joe Biden has made it obvious that he is not prepared to give any such confirmation. This has left the countries in a stand-off, with tens of thousands of Russian troops ready to capture Ukraine at short notice, and the West not paying heed to Russia’s demands.
HISTORICAL ASPECT
Ukraine has toiled to create an independent path, for a eons, it was halved between Europe and the United States in the West and its long-standing associations to Russia in the East. Ukraine was an important fraction of the Soviet Union and the ideological foe, the United States during the Cold War. After Russia, it was the second–most populous and significant of the fifteen Soviet republics, home to much of the federation’s agricultural production, defense industries, and military, comprising the Black Sea Fleet and some of the nuclear weapons. Presently, the two countries are confronted in the Russo-Ukrainian War which began in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Relations between the two countries have been contentious and sour since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which ousted Ukraine's appointed President Viktor Yanukovych and his backers because he forbade to sign a political association and free trade pact with the European Union that enjoyed majority backing in Ukraine's parliament. Ukraine's post-revolutionary government desired to commit the country to a future within the EU and NATO, rather than proceed with playing the delicate diplomatic game of equalizing its own economic and security interests with those of Russia, the EU, and NATO members.
RUSSIA’S INTENT ON CLAIMING UKRAINE
Russia shares deep cultural, economic, and political bonds with Ukraine, and in many ways, Ukraine is prominent to Russia’s identity and vision for itself in the world. The Russian government is skeptical that Ukraine's membership of the EU and NATO would achieve a western wall of allied countries by constraining Russia's access to the Black Sea. President Vladimir Putin warned US diplomats that steps to bring Ukraine into the alliance “would be a hostile act toward Russia.”
WEST INTERESTS
For the United States and the European Union, Ukraine is a significant defense between Russia and the West. As frictions with Russia rise, the US and the EU are increasingly determined to keep Ukraine out of Russian control. US officials have said that they are trusting Russia‘s intention and if its motives are found malicious then Russia will face the consequences in the form of the USA's hard-hitting economic sanctions which might hurt Russia hard. The United States continues to be dedicated to the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. It does not acknowledge Russia’s assertions to Crimea, and it assists Russia and Ukraine to settle the Donbas conflict via the Minsk agreements
EUROPEAN UNION INTERESTS
The European Union on Friday cautioned Russia that it would face the aftermath if it invaded Ukraine, as Germany’s new chancellor called for talks to resolve frictions in the wake of Moscow’s recent military build-up. “Aggression needs to come with a price tag, which is why we will communicate these points ahead of time to Russia,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a joint news conference with Olaf Scholz. “We are deeply concerned about the troops we are seeing along the Ukrainian border, and that’s why Europe must be firm in this area and show clearly that Europe’s borders are inviolable,” Scholz said at a news conference later with Charles Michel, president of the EU’s European Council.
Despite Ukraine’s impetus for NATO and EU membership, recent polls imply that public opinion on these matters remains assorted. While more than half of those surveyed (not including inhabitants of Crimea and contested regions in the east) support EU membership, just 40 to 50 per cent are in favors of merging with NATO.
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