Ukraine vs. Russia

These two countries are side-by-side, and they have had a lot of conflict between them for the past 31 years. Why?

It all started in 1919, when Ukraine became a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) under the Soviet Union, headed by Russia. In 1954, Russia gifted Ukraine the land of Crimea, a gift for 300 years of union in one country or another. Then in 1991, Ukraine and Russia became independent from the Soviet Union when it collapsed.

Now that we know how Russia and Ukraine got founded, let’s find out how they became enemies. You see, when Vladimir Putin became the 4th president of Russia in 2012, he had a dream to take back what was ‘rightfully Russian,’ including Ukraine. So in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea and got it back for themselves. Note that Crimea wanted to be a part of Russia since it was full of Russians. Then extremists in another part of Ukraine, the region of Donbas, wanted to join Russia as well. Also, Ukraine was thinking of joining NATO, who opposed Russia’s policies. So to stop this, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This act was condemned by the United Nations, and many countries have been supplying military aid to Ukraine.

What will happen in the future? Will Ukraine be able to push the invaders away? Only time will tell.

By Mihir Gupta