Is Putin Ready to Move Against Ukraine? (2021)
nationalinterest.org

... Russian President Vladimir Putin has published his hotly-anticipated essay on Ukraine, "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." The six-thousand-word treatise garnered no shortage of attention in the West, and for good reason: Putin's comments bear direct if not immediate implications for the ongoing Donbass conflict, which has lasted longer than World War II and claimed thousands of casualties on both sides. But the article carries a deeper set of political connotations that predated Putin by centuries, and may resonate in Russian-Ukrainian relations long after Putin's presidency.

Putin's epic opens with a protracted historical exposition, describing the ethnogenesis of the eastern slavic peoples. Present day Russians, Belorussians, and Ukrainians, notes Putin, are all descendants of Kievan Rus, a loose 9th century federation founded by the Scandinavain-derived Rurik Dynasty. As Putin guides the reader through the Mongol occupation, rivalries between Boyar clans, and the establishment of the Russian Tsardom, a common strand emerges: the peoples who have lived in these lands are inextricably linked by a common faith and language. Russian and Ukrainian are merely dialects of the same underlying language, Putin adds: "Many centuries of fragmentation and living within different states naturally brought about regional language peculiarities, resulting in the emergence of dialects. The vernacular enriched the literary language."

Putin hastens to add that the attempts to challenge this underlying unity came not from within, but from without: first, by Polish elites thirsting for eastward expansion, and centuries later, by Austro-Hungarian officials seeking to undermine the Russian Imperial war effort in WWI by stoking anti-Russian sentiment in Galicia. The late 1910s disintegration of the Russian Empire briefly left Ukraine at the mercy of German Imperial designs, but it wasn't long before Poland made its move by supporting nationalist leader Symon Petliura in exchange for territorial rights to Galicia.

Then came what Putin sees as perhaps the greatest betrayal of all: the early Bolsheviks poisoned eastern slavic unity with their policy of "Ukrainization," foisting a contrived Ukrainian national identity onto people who were essentially Russian. "The Bolsheviks treated the Russian people as inexhaustible fodder for social experiments," he wrote. "So they drew borders at will and handed out generous territorial gifts.' In the final analysis, it no longer matters what guided the Bolshevik leaders in cutting up the country. One can argue about details, the causes and the logic off certain decisions. One thing is obvious: Russia was essentially robbed."

With the historical background sorted, Putin arrives at his denouement: the contemporary Western powers have now picked up where the Poles, Austro-Hungarians, and Bolsheviks left off, latching onto old theories of Ukrainian nationhood to turn post-Soviet Ukraine into a kind of "anti-Russia."

Putin notes that these efforts culminated with the 2014 Euromaidan revolution, which placed Kiev under western suzerainty: "In the anti-Russia project, there is no place either for a sovereign Ukraine or for the political forces that are trying to defend its real independence," he wrote. ...

Revolution of Dignity
en.wikipedia.org

... The Revolution of Dignity (Ukrainian: , romanized: Revoliutsiia hidnosti), also known as the Maidan Revolution or the Ukrainian Revolution,[2] took place in Ukraine in February 2014[a] at the end of the Euromaidan protests.[1] Scores of protesters were killed by government forces during clashes in the capital Kyiv. Parliament then voted to remove President Viktor Yanukovych, return to the 2004 Constitution of Ukraine, and call new elections. The revolution prompted Russia to occupy Crimea, starting the Russo-Ukrainian war.[1][2]

In November 2013, a wave of large-scale protests known as "Euromaidan" began in response to President Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), instead choosing closer ties to Russia. Euromaidan soon developed into the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989.[29] The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) had overwhelmingly approved finalizing the EU association agreement;[30] Russia had pressured Ukraine to reject it.[31] The scope of the protests widened, with calls for the resignation of Yanukovych and the Azarov government.[32] Protesters opposed what they saw as widespread government corruption and abuse of power, the influence of Russia and oligarchs, police brutality, human rights violations,[33][34] and repressive anti-protest laws.[33]

A large, barricaded protest camp occupied Independence Square in central Kyiv throughout the 'Maidan Uprising'. In January and February 2014, clashes between protesters and Berkut special riot police resulted in the deaths of 108 protesters and 13 police officers,[20] and the wounding of many others. The first protesters were killed in fierce clashes with police on Hrushevsky Street on 19"22 January. Following this, protesters occupied government buildings throughout the country. Ukraine's government resigned on 28 January. Most of the slain protesters were killed on 18"20 February, during the most severe violence in Ukraine since it regained independence.[35] Thousands of protesters advanced towards parliament, led by activists with shields and helmets, and were fired on by police snipers.[20]

On 21 February, Yanukovych and the opposition signed an agreement to bring about an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections. Police abandoned central Kyiv that afternoon. Yanukovych secretly fled the city that evening.[36] On 22 February, the Ukrainian parliament unanimously voted to remove Yanukovych from office. About 73% of the parliament and members of all parties voted to remove him.[37][38][39][40]

Yanukovych claimed this vote was illegal and asked Russia for help.[41] Russian propaganda described the events as a "coup".[42][43][44]

Pro-Russian, counter-revolutionary protests then began in parts of south-eastern Ukraine. Russia occupied and then annexed Crimea,[45][46] while armed Russian-backed separatists seized government buildings and proclaimed the independent states of Donetsk and Luhansk, sparking the Donbas war.

The Ukrainian parliament restored the 2004 amendments to the Ukrainian constitution.[47] An interim government, led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, signed the EU association agreement and disbanded the Berkut. Petro Poroshenko became president after winning the 2014 presidential election. The new government began a removal of civil servants associated with the overthrown regime.[48][49][50] There was also widespread decommunization and de-Sovietization of the country. ...