Title: Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia | Council on Foreign Relations
Headings: Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia
Ukraine: Conflict at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia
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Summary
Introduction
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Why has Ukraine become a geopolitical flash point?
What are Russia’s interests in Ukraine?
What motivated Russia’s moves against Ukraine?
What triggered the crisis?
What are Russia’s objectives in Ukraine?
What are U.S. priorities in Ukraine?
Ukraine’s Post-Independence Struggles
What are U.S. and EU policy in Ukraine?
What do Ukrainians want?
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Content: However, Russia still relies on Ukrainian pipelines to pump its gas to customers in Central and Eastern Europe, and it pays billions of dollars per year in transit fees to Kyiv. In early 2020, Russia was close to completing Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline through the Baltic Sea that some have warned could starve Ukraine of essential revenue. However, Russia is contracted to keep moving gas through Ukraine for several more years. Political sway. Russia has been intent on preserving its political influence in Ukraine and throughout the former Soviet Union, particularly after its preferred candidate for Ukrainian president in 2004, Viktor Yanukovych, lost to a reformist competitor as part of the Orange Revolution popular movement. The shock in Ukraine came after a similar electoral defeat for the Kremlin in Georgia in 2003, known as the Rose Revolution, and was followed by another—the Tulip Revolution—in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. Yanukovych later became president of Ukraine, in 2010, amid voter discontent with the Orange government. What motivated Russia’s moves against Ukraine? Western scholars disagree somewhat on the motivations behind Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Some emphasize NATO’s post–Cold War enlargement, which Russia viewed with increasing alarm.