Reasons Why Putin Want Ukraine — Complete Explanation

Do you want to know why Putin want Ukraine?

Recently, after we published the transcript of Putin’s announcement of the invasion of Ukraine one of our readers asked us why is Putin invading Ukraine? Another asked why does Russia want Ukraine?

In this article, we will share the main reasons why Putin want Ukraine, so you can avoid an argument with people online.

Reasons why Putin Want Ukraine

You’ve heard numerous answers to this question in Ukraine. 71% of the population believe their country is already at war with Russia.

This is a complex crisis, and all the answers are hidden in history.

Did you know there was a time when Kiev was more powerful than Moscow?

There was also a time when Ukraine and the United States were adversaries. As fate would have it, in the ninth century, there was a state called kievan rus.

The Slavic people lived there, and the city of Kiev was their capital between 980 and 1015. The kievan rus was ruled by the grand prince, Volodymir. In Russian, his name is Vladimir. In Ukrainian, Volodymir When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, Ukraine and Russia both gained independence.

It inherited much of the Soviet nuclear arsenal but gave it up to Russia in 1994.

In exchange, Moscow guaranteed Ukraine’s security and promised to respect its sovereignty, and they signed the Budapest Memorandum with these countries.

Fast forward to November 2013.

Viktor Yanukovych was the president of Ukraine. He had a reputation for heavy-handedness, corruption, and, above all, being openly pro-Moscow. In 2013, he rejected an EU trade deal that could have meant greater integration with the European Union. Yanukovich’s government was toppled.

The president was driven out of Ukraine. He fled to Russia. Not every Ukrainian was happy with this. Many in the Russian-speaking east wanted Yanukovich to stay. The minority felt disenfranchised on the other side of the border. Russia was angry that it had lost its puppet to salvage the situation.

Moscow annexed Crimea. Why Crimea?

Well, let’s now zoom into this part of the world. Crimea is a peninsula. It is located in the Black Sea. In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea to Ukraine. It was given to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. Khrushchev hoped the transfer would strengthen the Both Russia and Crimea were part of the Soviet Union, so this transfer did not mean very much when Ukraine became independent in 1991. Crimea joined it. The peninsula was given special autonomy and it remained home to Russian military bases. Moscow promised to respect Crimean autonomy. Many in Russia were of the opinion that Crimea should not have been allowed to join Ukraine in 2014. When Yanukovych was ousted from power in Ukraine, the Russian military began seizing government buildings in Crimea. A referendum followed on the 16th of March 2014. Crimeans voted to become a part of Russia.

Was this vote legitimate?

Well, it depends on who you ask. For Putin, this was Crimea’s liberation for the rest of the world.

This was Crimea’s annexation. The focus then shifted to eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatists had seized territory in the Donbastian annexation. At first, Ukrainian forces did not launch an all-out offensive, but on July 17, 2014, when a flight carrying 298 people was shot down by these rebels, Ukrainian forces decided to flush out the rebels.

The separatists began losing ground, so the Russian army stepped in. They invaded eastern Ukraine and fought alongside the rebels.

What followed was a series of talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the West that resulted in the Minsk Accords. This was first signed in 2014. Both sides agreed to a ceasefire and a military withdrawal. Ukraine agreed to hold elections in the rebel-held areas eight years after the Minsk accords, which remain unimplemented.

Ukraine, excluding Russia, is the largest European country, with a population of 44 million people and a GDP of more than 155 billion dollars, with a per capita income of more than 3700 dollars.

Today, Ukraine is divided between east and west in more ways than one. The west sees itself as more European than the east. In terms of geography or sentiment, the east is closer to Russia than the west.

Most Ukrainians speak Ukrainian in the east. A third are native Russians. In the west, Russia is looked at with suspicion. In the east, Russia is looked at through the lens of shared history and heritage.

To begin with, there is domestic politics: when Putin annexed Crimea, his approval rating skyrocketed, and he also helped restore Russia’s superpower image.

Many Russians regard Ukraine’s independence as a mistake. It is true that Ukraine was ruled by Russia prior to 1991. There was a brief period before World War One and then another stint in 1600. For the rest of its modern history, Ukraine was under Russia. One in six Ukrainians is ethnic Russian. One in three speaks Russian as a native language as well.

Russian leader Catherine the Great started russifying Ukraine. Ethnic Russians were shipped to this part of the world. Schools were told to teach the Russian language by 1800.

The Ukrainian language was banned in 1930. The Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, steered a famine in Ukraine. The area was then repopulated with ethnic Russians.

In the 1940s, the ethnic Tartars were relocated. They too were replaced by Russians. There is a reason why eastern Ukraine today has so many native Russian speakers. It was designed to be that way.

Eastern Ukraine was always dear to Russia because it has coal, iron, and fertile land. Its historical ties to Russia were demonstrated both in discussions about the holy ruse and in saying that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

Seventy percent of Ukrainians oppose this notion.Today, 2% regard Russia as a hostile state.Thirty-three percent Three percent of Ukraine’s citizens are ready to take up arms against Russia.

One hundred and twenty points Seven percent of Americans are prepared to launch a civil uprising against Russia. Sixty-seven percent of Ukrainians want to join the EU. 59 percent want to join NATO.

Meet the current Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zylenski. He came to power in 2019 following a landslide victory.

He is a vocal critic of Russia. Zelensky openly opposes the Russian occupation of eastern Ukraine. Volodymir Zelensky represents the pulse of Ukraine, a Ukraine that wants to remain independent of Russia, but Vladimir Putin wants to be remembered as the man who resurrected Russian imperialism. He is unaware that the world has moved on.

What do you have to say?