Historical Roots of the Russo-Ukrainian War

Abstract

Since 24 February 2022, an exhausting local war begins with huge global impacts: in addition to the disastrous consequences in terms of loss of human life and material damage, especially in Ukrainian territory, there are heavy repercussions in agriculture and food, energy, economic and political fields. Diplomacy is struggling and solutions seem far to be found. The reason for this diplomatic stalemate lies in the Russian elite’s unwillingness to sit with conviction at the negotiating table and the lack of a minimum common denominator on which to start working. In addition to contingent problems such as Ukraine’s pro-European positions and its hypothesi-zed annexation to NATO, unwelcome to Moscow, the unresolved issue of Donbass, which has been dragging on for 10 years now, the annexation of Crimea, the question of energy supplies and gas pipelines, as well as broader international scenarios, which also involve Washington and Beijing (and not only), the profound reasons for the conflict lie in a complex and mix of ethnic, territorial, geopolitical and economic problems, which have increased in the area over the of history. Explaining and understanding them means providing a diagnosis not only of the war, but also and above all of the arcane causes that underlie it. The article reconstructs four salient moments of Ukrainian history, which represent as many fundamental turning points for determining the profound reasons for this war: the birth of Kievan Rus’, in medieval times; the creation of several Ukrainian republics during the Russian Revolutions and civil war; some of the problems of independent Ukraine born with the dissolution of the USSR; finally, the emergence of the reasons for the Euromaidan crisis in 2013-2014. Each of these phases reveals, with different intensity, how Ukraine is subject to incessantly changing its dimensions, how fragile its identity is and how its independence has always been precarious.

Keywords: Ukraine, Russo-Ukraine war, historical roots, frozen conflicts