INTRODUCTION
Russia is the largest country in the world with a population of 145.5 million. It covers over 17,125,191 square kilometers. The capital of Russia is Moscow and it is also the most populous city. Russian is the cultural language of Russia. It was also used as a second language in some of the other former republics of Soviet Union. A former intelligence officer Vladimir Putin is the president of Russia and Mikhail Mishustin is the Prime Minister of Russia. It has a Federal semi presidential constitutional republic.
Ukraine is the second largest country by area after Russia and shares its borders with Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary. It is the eighth most populous country in Europe with a population of 43 million and spans an area of 603,626 km². Ukraine’s capital is Kyiv and it is also the most populous city. The majority of people speak Ukrainian and it is written in the form of the Cyrillic alphabet. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the president of Ukraine and Denys Shmyhal is the Prime Minister. It has unitary semi-presidential constitutional republic. Russia has more firearm power than Ukraine.
1918: UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE
The Ukrainian war of independence was a sequence of conflicts that involved many advisories which started in 1917 and lasted till 1921. It also results in the establishment and the development of the Ukrainian republic, most of which was later devoured by the Soviet Union as the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The war has many conflicts between different political, governmental and military forces. Belligerents of war included Ukrainian nationalists, Ukrainian anarchists, Ukrainian Bolsheviks, the forces of Germany and Austria- Hungary, the White Russian Volunteer Army and Second Polish Republic forces. They struggled for control of Ukraine and it lasted from February 1917 to November 1921 and also became responsible for the division of Ukraine into the Bolshevik Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia.
1945: THE ENLARGED UKRAINIAN SOVIET SPECIALIST REPUBLIC
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was the constituent republic of the Soviet Union from the union’s inception until its breakup in 1991. The republic is referred to as Ukraine. The republic was commanded by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union through its republican branch. It was established through armed aggression against the Ukrainian National Republic by Soviet Russia and local Bolshevik forces. The Ukrainian soviet socialist republic is situated in eastern Europe to the north of the black sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Byelorussia, Moldavia and Russia.
1954: TRANSFER OF CRIMEAN PENINSULA
The transfer of the Crimean oblast was an administrative action by the presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. It was during 1954. It transferred the government of the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian Soviet federative socialist republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. This took place after the revolution of dignity and is part of the wide Russo-Ukrainian war. Two official rationales that were published in 1954 were the cession of Crimea was a noble act on the part of people living in Russia in order to remember the 300th anniversary of ” reunification of Ukraine with Russia” and to “evince the boundless trust and love the Russian people feel toward the Ukrainian people. The second one was a natural outgrowth of the territorial proximity of Crimea to Ukraine, the resemblance of their economies and their close agricultural and cultural ties between Crimean oblast and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Either of the apparent justifications holds up to close examination. Even though 1954 was the 300th anniversary of the treaty of Pereyaslav there is no connection between the treaty and Crimean Peninsula. The treaty has nothing to do with the peninsula and it did not come under Russian control until 130 years later.
COLLAPSE OF SOVIET UNION
There are many reasons that led to the collapse of Soviet Union like internal political, economic and ethnic disintegration. It was a fortuitous result of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev’s endeavour to reform the Soviet political and economic system, in a venture to end the ‘Era of Stagnation’. In 1991 the three union’s founding and a largest republic declared that the Soviet Union no longer exists. It happened on December 31,1991.
2014: ANNEXATION OF CRIMEA AND THE WAR OF DONMAS
Viktor Yanukovych was elected as the president of Ukraine in 2010. It was a free and fair election judged by international observers. November 2013 was the beginning of some agendas which later led to the removal of the president. Yanukovych rejected a pending EU agreement so as to cut close ties with Russia. This led to protests. In January 2014 there were clashes in many places across Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens opposed the berkut and special police units. In February 2014 Ukraine was at the edge of civil war. The clashes between protestors and police ended up with many being dead and injured. After a lengthy discussion, Yanukovych reached an agreement with the opposition. Later, the same day, he left the capital for Kharkiv. He said that his car was shot at as he left Kyiv, and travelling next to Crimea, and in the course of time to exile in South Russia. On 22nd February 2014, the Ukrainian parliament voted against him to remove him from his post as he “has restrained himself from performing his constitutional duties” and he resigned rather than following the impeachment process. 25 May was the date set up by the parliament for replacement elections and after two days a warrant was issued against him accusing him of mass killing of civilians. After his quitting he conducted several press conferences. In one of the press conferences, he declared himself as the head of the state (” the legitimate head of the Ukrainian state elected by free and fair elections”). On 18th June 2015, Yanukovych was officially removed from the title of the president by parliament. On 24th January 2019, he was imprisoned for 13 years for high treason by a Ukrainian court.
The masked soldiers of Russian federation invaded and occupied key Crimean locations including airports military bases etc. They were following Putin’s orders. Admiral Berezovksy who was the head of the Ukrainian navy defects and later half of the Ukrainian military was stationed in the region. Russian forces took hold of the supreme council on 27th February. The council of ministers of Crimea was disintegrated and a new pro-Russian prime minister was put in place. And then the Supreme council declared the Republic of Crimea as an independent, self government entity. It conducted a contentious referendum on the status of Crimea on 16 March and the majority of votes were in favour of joining the Russian federation. On 18th March Republic of Crimea and the Russian Federation signed a treaty at Krelim so as to formally initiate Crimea’s accession to the Russian federation. Crimean protesters and Russian troops removed the Ukrainian armed forces from their bases on 19th March and after that Ukraine announced the withdrawal of its forces from Crimea. The federal law admitting to the Russian federation the republic of Crimea was officially passed by the Russian state Duma on 21 March. Following Russia was suspended from G8.
It is an ongoing war that primarily involves Russia, pro- Russian forces and Belarus on one side and Ukraine and its international support on the other. Its conflict exactly began in 2014 which focused on the status of Crimea and parts of the Donbas. Donbas is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. Later Vladimir Putin demanded a promise from the USA and its western allies that Ukraine or any other Eurasian countries sharing a border with Russia will not be inducted into the NATO alliance. But NATO didn’t give such an assurance immediately to the Russian President. This provoked the Russian side and it viewed NATO’s continuing expansion in the Erstwhile Soviet Union countries as a major security threat. This thinking from the side of Russia acted as a trigger for the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces. Russia built up a large military presence on the border from 2021 and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022.
2022: RUSSIA RECOGNIZES BREAKAWAY UKRAINIAN REGIONS AS SOVEREIGN
After Russia decided to partially pull back troops from the Ukraine border, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree which officially recognises the independence of two separatist regions Donetsk and Luhansk. After this happened US announced financial sanctions against rebel territories recognised by Russia. Putin’s decision cripples the efforts between Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to abate tensions caused by intense speculation about an imminent expansion of Ukraine by Russia. The pro-Russian separatist regions in Donetsk and Luhansk have announced independence from Ukraine in 2014. No country has recognised the republics as sovereign so far.
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