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: Trade. Russia is Ukraine’s largest trading partner, although this link has withered in recent years. Prior to its invasion of Crimea, Russia had hoped to pull Ukraine into its single market, the Eurasian Economic Union, which today includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Energy. Russia supplied most of Ukraine’s gas until the Crimean invasion, after which imports petered out and then stopped entirely in 2016. 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.