RUSSIA
Russia or the Russian
Federation, is a country spanning Eastern
Europe and North Asia. It is the largest country in the world, and extends across eleven time zones; sharing land borders with fourteen
countries. Russia is the most
populous country in Europe and the ninth-most
populous country in the world. It is a highly
urbanised country, with sixteen of its urban areas
having more than 1 million inhabitants. Moscow, the most populous metropolitan area in
Europe, is the capital and largest city
of Russia, while Saint Petersburg is its second-largest city and cultural
centre. It population stands around 146,028,325
million (including Crimea). And 143,569,029 (excluding Crimea). The official
language is Russian and the country this language as its lingua-franca with the
international environment. The country maintained a Federal Semi-Presidential
Republic under an authoritarian dictatorship named Vladimir Putin (as
President) along with Mikhail Mishustin as the Prime Minister. The Federal
Assembly is the Legislative body while the Federal Council is the upper House
and State Duma is the Lower House. In terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Products)
and PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) as at 2025, the country stands at 7.130
trillion dollars. Thereby occupying the fourth position.
The country did not experience
Colonialism but rather expanded her power to other territories in Eastern
Europe such as Siberia. Historically, Russia has been involved in many international
wars such as Russo-Turkish war from 16th – 20th centuries;
Crimea War (1853-1856); Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) over the control of
Manchuria region; First world war 1914-1918 (but Russia pulled out based on
internal uprising happening in the country such as the Bolsheviks Revolution);
Second world war (1939-1945) whereby Russia fought along with Axis power but exit
in 1941 which led to the defeat of the Axis power; The Cold war (1947-1991),
among others. Owing to its involvement in international environment, Russia
developed a set of principles to guide her behaviour between the Comity of
Nations and these principles served as a focal point under which Russia conduct
her activity and also interact with other powers across the different
international organisation she belongs to.
UKRAINE
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest
country in Europe after Russia, which borders it to
the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to
the west; Hungary, Romania and Moldova to
the southwest; and the Black Sea and
the Sea of Azov to the south and
southeast. Kyiv is the nation's
capital and largest city, followed
by Kharkov, Dnipro, and Odesa.
Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian.
Human
settlement in the region could be traced back to 32,000 BC. During
the Middle Ages, it was the site of early Slavic expansion and
later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state
of Kievan Rus', which emerged in the 9th century. Kievan Rus' became the
largest and most powerful kingdom in Europe in the 10th and 11th centuries, but
gradually disintegrated into rival regional powers before being destroyed by
the Mongols in the 13th century. For the next 600 years the area was
contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers including
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland,
the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austrian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire, and the Tsardom of Russia. The Cossack
Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century but was
partitioned between Russia and Poland before being absorbed by the Russian
Empire in the late 19th century. Ukrainian nationalism developed
and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the
short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed.
The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former
empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which
became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922.
In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in the Holodomor,
a human-made famine. During World War II, Ukraine was occupied
by Germany and endured major battles and atrocities, resulting in 7
million civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews.
Ukraine
gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved and
declared itself neutral. A new constitution was adopted in
1996 as the country transitioned to a free market liberal democracy
amid endemic corruption and a legacy of state
control. The Orange Revolution of 2004–2005 ushered electoral
and constitutional reforms. Resurgent political crises prompted a series of
mass demonstrations in 2014 known as the Euromaidan, leading to a
revolution, at the end of which Russia
unilaterally occupied and annexed Ukraine's Crimean
Peninsula, and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in
Donbas with Russian-backed separatists and Russia. Russia launched a
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Ukraine
is a unitary state and its system of government is
a semi-presidential republic. Presently, Volodymyr Zelensky is the
president while Denys Shmyhal is the Prime Minister. Ukraine has
a transition economy and has the lowest nominal GDP (189.827
billion dollars), with corruption being a significant issue. As at
2024, its population stands 33,443,000 million. Due to its extensive
fertile land, the country is an important exporter of grain, with
grain produce reduced since 2022 due to the Russian invasion,
endangering global food security. Ukraine is considered a middle
power in global affairs. Its military is the sixth largest
in the world with the eighth largest defence budget, and operates one
of the world's largest and most diverse drone fleets. Ukraine is a
founding member of the United Nations and a member of
the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organisation, and
the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It has
been in the process of joining the European Union and applied to
join NATO in 2022.
PRINCIPLES GUIDING RUSSIA FOREIGN POLICY
Principle
of reliable security, preservation and strengthening the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Russia: This principle is
holistic in nature as it covers the need to safeguard or protect the
territorial boundary and the integrity of Russia including its population. This
principle forms the cardinal point of Russia foreign policy especially during
the course of her interaction with other powers within the Committee of Nation.
Principle
of promoting Russia influence universally aimed at fostering a stable, just and
democratic world order build on political norm of international law: This principle is basically channels towards promoting
influence of Russia in matters of global concerns. In the view of Russia,
global issues must be treated without biases or prejudices as this would effect
on principle of equity and democratic structure which could also undermine
international law.
Principle
of formulating a good relationship with border states in order to eliminate or
prevent conflicts in the regions: This
principle is recognised as one of the measure to protect the territorial
boundaries of Russia in relations to other states that allocated across the
Russian’s borders otherwise known as neighbouring countries. In order to
safeguard the interest of Russia across these neighbouring countries located as
its borders, the country opines to promote friendly relations with these
countries who could be used by other states to penetrate and cause havoc in
Russia.
Other
principles included; the need to create a favourable and external condition;
the need to seek a concord and coinciding interest with other countries and
inter-state association in resolving disputes; the need to popularize the
Russian language and cultures in foreign countries; the need to uphold every
possible way the right and interest of the Russian citizens and fellow
countrymen abroad.
RUSSO-UKRAINE WAR
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in
February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity,
Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then
supported Russian paramilitaries who began a war in the eastern
Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the
region to be occupied by Russia. These first eight years of conflict
also included naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February
2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began
occupying more of the country, starting the biggest conflict in Europe
since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and
tens of thousands of deaths.
In early
2014, the Euromaidan protests led to the Revolution of Dignity and
the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Shortly
after, pro-Russian protests began in parts of southeastern Ukraine,
while unmarked Russian troops occupied Crimea. Russia soon
annexed Crimea after a highly disputed referendum. In April 2014,
Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in Ukraine's
eastern Donbas region and proclaimed the Donetsk People's
Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as
independent states, starting the Donbas war. Russia covertly supported the
separatists with its own troops, tanks and artillery, preventing Ukraine from
fully retaking the territory. The International Criminal Court judged
that the war was both a national and international armed conflict involving
Russia, and the European Court of Human Rights judged that Russia
controlled the DPR and LPR from 2014 onward. In February 2015, Russia and
Ukraine signed the Minsk II agreements, but they were never fully
implemented in the years that followed. The Donbas war became a static conflict
likened to trench warfare; ceasefires were repeatedly broken but the
frontlines did not move.
Beginning
in 2021, there was a massive Russian military buildup near Ukraine's
borders, including within neighbouring Belarus. Russian officials
repeatedly denied plans to attack Ukraine. Russia's president Vladimir
Putin voiced expansionist views and challenged
Ukraine's right to exist. He demanded that Ukraine be barred from
ever joining the NATO military alliance. In early 2022,
Russia recognized the DPR and LPR as independent states. While
Russian troops surrounded Ukraine, its proxies stepped up attacks on
Ukrainian forces in the Donbas.
On 24
February 2022, Putin announced a "special military
operation" to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine, claiming
Russia had no plans to occupy the country. The Russian invasion that followed
was internationally condemned; many countries imposed
sanctions against Russia, and
sent humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. In the face of
fierce resistance, Russia abandoned an attempt to take Kyiv in early
April. In August, Ukrainian forces began liberating territories in
the north-east and south. In September, Russia declared
the annexation of four partially-occupied provinces, which
was internationally condemned. From then through 2023, Russian offensives
and Ukrainian counteroffensives gained only small amounts of territory. The
invasion has also led to attacks in Russia by Ukrainian and
Ukrainian-backed forces, among them a cross-border offensive into Russia's
Kursk region in August 2024. Russia has repeatedly carried out deliberate
and indiscriminate attacks on civilians far from the
frontline. The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an
investigation into war crimes and issued arrest warrants
for Putin and several other Russian officials.
THE WAR AND ITS ROOT IN RUSSIA
FOREIGN POLICY
Russia's
foreign policy has been historically rooted in the imperial legacy of the
Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, where Ukraine was viewed as an inseparable
part of a greater Russian state. A key ideological framework is the "unity
architype," which posits that Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians are
"one people" with a shared political destiny. This assertion,
promoted since the early modern era by figures like Innokenty Gizel, was
reinforced through Russian imperial policies that sought to suppress Ukrainian
nationalism. For instance, from 1863 to 1905, the Russian Empire banned
Ukrainian language publications and instruction, arresting prominent figures
like Taras Shevchenko to stifle Ukrainian identity. This historical narrative
has been echoed by modern Russian leaders, particularly Vladimir Putin, who has
repeatedly claimed that Ukraine's independence is artificial and that its
statehood is a historical anomaly, as seen in his 2021 article "On the
Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians".
Post-Soviet
Dynamics and Doubts About Ukrainian Independence
Following the dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991, Russia struggled to accept Ukraine's independence,
viewing it as a significant loss of influence. Ukraine, as the
second-most-populous and -powerful Soviet republic, played a crucial role in
the Soviet economy and military, with significant agricultural production,
defense industries, and military assets like the Black Sea Fleet and nuclear
arsenal. Its decision to break ties was described as a "coup de
grâce" for the Soviet Union, highlighting its importance. Early
post-Soviet Russian leaders, including Boris Yeltsin, and advisers like Gennady
Burbulis, doubted Ukraine's capability as a sovereign state, with figures like
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn advocating for a "Russian Union" that would
include Ukraine. This mindset laid the groundwork for Russia's foreign policy,
which often sought to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty and pull it back into
Russia's orbit, as seen in subsequent interventions.
Opposition to Western Integration and Major Turning Points
A significant driver of the conflict
has been Russia's opposition to Ukraine's efforts to integrate with Western
institutions, particularly the European Union (EU) and NATO. This tension was
evident in several key events:
·
Orange Revolution (2004): Following protests against
vote-rigging in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, Viktor Yushchenko's
victory over Viktor Yanukovych marked a pivot towards the West. Russian military
officers viewed this "color revolution" as a Western attempt to
undermine Russia, leading to strained relations.
·
Euromaidan and Revolution of Dignity
(2013-2014):
In 2013, Ukraine approved an EU association agreement, but under Russian
pressure, including embargoes and threats, Yanukovych withdrew in November
2013, sparking the Euromaidan protests. The subsequent Revolution of Dignity in
February 2014 ousted Yanukovych, leading to Russia's annexation of Crimea and
the initiation of the conflict in Donbas. This period highlighted Russia's
foreign policy of leveraging Ukraine's political disintegration to maintain
influence.
·
NATO Expansion Concerns: Russia's foreign policy has been
shaped by its perception of NATO expansion as a direct threat. The 2008 NATO
Bucharest Summit, which declared Ukraine's eventual membership, was a
significant point of contention. Russia viewed this as an encroachment on its
traditional sphere of influence, leading to heightened tensions and demands
that Ukraine be barred from NATO, as seen in Putin's statements before the 2022
invasion.
Military Interventions and Proxy Conflicts
Russia's
foreign policy has increasingly relied on military force to assert its
influence over Ukraine, reflecting a pattern established in earlier conflicts.
Key examples include:
·
Russo-Georgian War (2008): Russia's invasion of Georgia and
recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence demonstrated its
willingness to use military force to protect perceived interests in the
post-Soviet space. This action, and the West's weak response, encouraged
further aggression, influencing perceptions of Western warnings before the 2022
invasion.
·
Annexation of Crimea (2014): On February 27, 2014, unmarked
Russian soldiers occupied Crimea, leading to a referendum on March 16 and
annexation on March 18, violating the Budapest Memorandum, which had assured
Ukraine's territorial integrity in exchange for giving up nuclear weapons. This
action was justified by Russia as protecting Russian-speaking populations and
strategic interests, reflecting historical claims over Crimea.
·
War in Donbas (2014–2021): Pro-Russian protests in Donbas led
to the proclamation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics in April
2014, with Russia supporting separatists covertly, including troops, tanks, and
artillery. The International Criminal Court and European Court of Human Rights
confirmed Russian involvement from 2014, and the Minsk II agreement in February
2015 failed to end the conflict, leading to static trench warfare.
·
2022 Full-Scale Invasion: From 2021, Russia built up military
forces near Ukraine, denying invasion plans but demanding NATO roll back from
Eastern Europe and bar Ukraine from membership. Putin's address on February 21,
2022, denied Ukrainian statehood, claiming it was created by Bolsheviks and
lacked historical legitimacy, justifying the invasion on February 24, 2022.
However, Paul D'Anieri, a professor of Political Science and Public Policy states four major motivations behind Russia’s action in Ukraine.
|
MOTIVATION |
DESCRIPTION |
|
Desire
For Control |
Russia
sought to maintain Ukraine as a puppet regime, limiting its sovereignty. |
|
Great
Power Status |
Russia
views itself as a great power with influence over former Soviet Republics |
|
Security
Dilemma |
NATO
expansion was perceived as a direct threat, necessitating action. |
|
Threat
from Democracy |
A
democratic Ukraine was seen as threatening Russia’s authoritarian regime. |
Conclusion
The
Russo-Ukraine war is a culmination of centuries of Russian foreign policy that seeks
to maintain dominance over Ukraine, rooted in historical claims of unity,
opposition to Ukrainian sovereignty, and resistance to Western integration.
Russia's use of military force, historical narratives, and strategic culture
has consistently aimed to keep Ukraine within its sphere of influence, viewing
it as a critical component of its national security and identity. This
conflict, marked by significant escalations in 2014 and 2022, reflects a
complex interplay of historical legacies, geopolitical strategies, and
ideological battles, with ongoing implications for global security.
References
Alex, M. F. “Principles Guiding Russia Foreign
Policy.” Lecture, Principles of Great Powers HIS427, April 02&10, 2025, Tai
Solarin Federal University of Education.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine
Russo-Ukrainian
War - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Ukrainian_War
Russia’s War
in Ukraine: Identity, History, and Conflict. https://www.csis.org/analysis/russias-war-ukraine-identity-history-and-conflict
Ukraine:
Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia Council on Foreign Relations https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-crossroads-europe-and-russia
Understanding
the Roots of the Russia-Ukraine War and the Misuse of History | IHEID https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/communications/news/understanding-roots-russia-ukraine-war-and-misuse-history