Ukraine : the latest war in Europe.
We often talk about the wars in the Middle East and in Africa but few people know that Europe is also affected by wars. There is one for example in Ukraine. In this article, we will go through the origins of the conflict, the conflict itself and the tensions that still persist to this day.
The beginning of the conflict goes back to 2013 when Ukraine, an old member of the Soviet Union, negotiated with the European Union to find free trade agreements. Suddenly, the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich stopped the negotiations with Europe and turned to Russia. This betrayal angered the Ukrainian
population who marched in the streets to show their discontent and denounce the economic crisis as well as the corruption that reigned in the country. The protests were severely repressed by the Ukrainian government who sent the army. The Independence Square in Kiev became a true battlefield. At the same time, Russia took advantage of the chaos to organize a referendum in Crimea to proclaim the attachment of the region to Russia. The Donbass region also seceded to join Russia. Those two regions wished to join Russia because their population mainly spoke Russian and was eurosceptic (against the EU). In response, Ukraine sent the army to retrieve those dissenting regions : it was the start of the war..
The war stalled in the Donbass region : it opposed the Ukrainian army to the separatist Ukrainians allied to members of the Russian army. Following the war, we discover numerous victims, 10 000 dead including 300 civilians dead in the involuntary attack of the commercial flight MH17.
​
​
​
Nowadays, the tensions still persist between the two countries. Ukraine wants to join NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) but Russia wants to keep the country under its influence, and prevent it from having a place on the international stage. It threatens Ukraine by placing soldiers at the border : the international commu, and especially the United States, denounce an “aggression” from Russia and a violation of the sovereign right of Ukraine who is only trying to regain social, political and economic stability. Negotiations will start the 10th of January in Geneva between the different camps to try and solve the conflict.