III. The Causes of Conflicts between Russia and Ukraine
Although Ukrainians and Russians have had the same ancestors and the same culture for over a thousand years, there were still some historical conflicts that had a lasting impact on the relationship between Russia and Ukraine.
The most significant one started with the Soviet-Ukrainian War in 1917-1921 and the Holodomor in 1932-1933.
1. The Soviet-Ukrainian War /Independent War (1917-1921)
After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Ukrainians declared autonomy from Soviet Russia as the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1917. The Bolshevik government
of Soviet Russia led by Lenin considered it as a Counter-Revolution government and did not accept its autonomy.
In January 1918, Ukrainians declared independence from Soviet Russia. The war broke out and eventually the Soviet Red Army, along with Kievan Bolshevik,
defeated the army of Ukrainian People’s Republic, and Ukraine was annexed back
into the Soviet Union in 1922. But Stalin remained skeptical of the ethnic
Ukrainians' loyalty to the Soviet Union, which led to the Holodomor in
1932-1933.
2. The Holodomor, the Terror-Famine, in Ukraine (1932-1933)
During 1932 and 1933, a great famine occurred in the Soviet Union, and the Soviet government took the grains from Ukraine to export to raise funds for its economic plan. Stalin rejected the outside aid to Ukraine, confiscated household food from peasants, and restricted Ukrainians from moving out to seek food, which caused 3 to 5 million Ukrainians starving to death.
The Holodomor was a man-made Terror-Famine, in addition to the natural famine, caused by Joseph Stalin, as Stalin thought those ethnic Ukrainians in the Western Ukraine were not loyal to his regime.
Joseph Stalin is one of the most murderous leaders in the world history. During his reign of Soviet Union, about 20 million people were killed or persecuted to death under his order, including those 3-5 million Ukrainians starved to death during the Holodomor.
During World War II, while the majority of Ukrainians joined the Soviet armies to fight with Nazi Germany, some Ukrainians joined the German armies to fight the Soviet armies in revenge of Stalin’s starvation of Ukrainians. Some Ukrainian Nationalists, led by Stepan Bandera, collaborated with Nazi Germany in hope to gain independence from the Soviet Union. That’s the root of Neo-Nazism in Ukraine today.
The Holodomor is a deep pain in the memory of Ukrainians, just like the Holocaust is a deep pain in the memory of Jews.
After the Independence of Ukraine from the dissolved Soviet Union in 1991, many Ukrainians began to commemorate the Holodomor, and some of them turned into Ukrainian nationalists. Unfortunately, a small fraction of them turned into the extremists of Neo-Nazism.
3. The Euromaidan Revolution of Dignity in 2014
After the Independence of Ukraine, most government officials became corrupted like those Russian Oligarchs, and plunged Ukraine into economic stagnancy. In November 2013, Ukrainians started the Euromaidan Protests against its government, after the President Viktor Yanukovych backed out of a deal with the European Union in favor of a closer tie with Russia.
In February 2014, Ukrainians started the Revolution of Dignity, also called Maidan or Euromaidan Revolution, to oust the Pro-Russia President Yanukovych. Yanukovych ordered the police force to crush down the protest, which resulted in about eighty deaths in February 2014. Following the violence, the parliament turned against Yanukovych and voted to remove him from power on February 22, 2014. Yanukovych then fled Kyiv to Russia for protection.
4. The Annexation of Crimea
After Ukrainians ousted the Pro-Russia President, the ethnic Russians in Eastern and Southern Ukraine started rallies against the new government. Amid the rising anti-Russia sentiment in Ukraine, Putin decided to take back Crimea where his Black Sea Fleet was stationed.
On March 1, 2014, Russia deployed the troops to Crimea and had complete control of Crimea. On March 16, 2014, Crimea conducted a Referendum to declare independence from Ukraine to join Russia. On March 18, 2014, Crimea was annexed into Russia, but both Ukraine and the United Nations do not recognize this annexation.
5. The Separatism in Eastern Ukraine
After the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the Russian-speaking people in Donetsk and Luhansk regions also held a vote to be independent from the new Pro-West Ukraine to become part of Russia. Russian
President Putin did not accept it this time as it did to Crimea in hope to keep the tie with
Ukraine, but he did send Russian army to support the Pro-Russian separatists to
fight against Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In August 2014 and February 2015, the
Ukrainian government and Pro-Russian Separatists signed Minsk Agreement I &
II to ceasefire, but both ceasefire agreements did not last long. In the next eight years, the Ukrainian troops and volunteer militias were sent to the region to fight Russian-supported separatists, which caused over 13,000 deaths, including 3,393 civilians mostly ethnic Russians. (According to the UN Report)
If the Ukrainian government could have negotiated with the separatists and offered them some sort of autonomy in their controlled areas, this full-scale invasion of Russia
might be avoidable.
6. The Nationalism and Neo-Nazism in Ukraine
Since the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the rebellion of the separatists in Eastern Ukraine in 2014, the nationalism of Ukraine has risen among Ukrainians. Besides the traditional patriotism and nationalism for Ukraine, some people resorted to the extremist groups
and embraced the ideology of Neo-Nazism.
According to the reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
as well as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
some of these neo-Nazi extremists even carried out brutal tortures and killing of ethnic Russian civilians
during the conflicts with the separatists in Eastern Ukraine. That’s one of the excuses that Putin used for “denazification” of Ukraine in his “Special Military Operation” against Ukraine.
7. The New Language Law
In 2019, Ukraine passed the new language law that requires all government officials, print media, schools, and service sectors to speak or use Ukrainian language, and sets the restrictions on Russian language in public usage. The law also imposes fines on business entities for non-compliance with the law in the field of customer service.
That caused some great resentment among 40% Russian-speaking people in Eastern Ukraine. Russia also condemned the law in the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council. It became another reason for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
8. Ukraine’s Desire to Join NATO
After losing Crimea and the battles with the separatists backed by Russians in Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian government has more urgency than before to join NATO. But Russia strongly opposes Ukraine joining NATO in fear of NATO having a military presence at its
doorstep and Ukraine using NATO to help them take back Crimea. That’s another main cause that led to Russia’s full scale invasion into Ukraine trying to stop Ukraine from joining NATO.
9. Putin’s Ambition for a New Russian Empire
Another main cause of this war in Ukraine is Putin’s personal ambition to rebuild the Russian
Empire as Peter the Great and Catherine the Great did two hundred years ago. But the time has changed. It’s time for the New Millennium of Peace & Wisdom, not the time for military invasion or dominance over other countries.
Unfortunately, Putin’s ambitious but obsolete dream of a new Russian Empire has turned into a nightmare for Russia. It’s time for Mr. Putin to recognize the reality and have the courage to end this war, otherwise he will be remembered in Russian history as the One who destroyed Russia’s economy and isolated Russia from the world, unlike Peter the Great who embraced the West for a modernized Russia.
10. Bad Karma for Both Nations
Before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, there was some bad karma for both nations that eventually led to this catastrophic disaster.
Since the independence of Ukraine from the dissolved Soviet Union, Ukraine, like many former Communist countries in Eastern Europe, had experienced economic difficulties due to the transition time and government corruption. Many Ukrainians looked for closer ties with the European Union, which led to the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014.
On one hand, Russia supported the pro-Russia government to crush down the democratic protest with excessive force and even poisoned the opposition leader Viktor
Yushchenko in 2004. That’s the bad karma for Russia, which turned more Ukrainians from pro-Russian to pro-European and eventually Viktor Yushchenko was elected as the President of Ukraine.
On the other hand, after the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014, those pro-Russian people in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine wanted to go independent from Ukraine and eventually join Russia. The Ukraine government sent troops and militants to crush down the separatist movement in the region. It’s normal to have some casualties in any war, but the excessive death of civilians will be bad karma for the aggressor.
During the eight year period of Donbas war from 2014 to 2022, Ukrainian government armies and militias caused over three thousand Russian ethnic civilians died in eastern Ukraine. Especially, some extreme militias tortured and killed pro-Russian civilians, including women and children. That’s bad karma for Ukraine, which led to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
When one nation commits crimes against the civilians in another nation, especially women and children, it creates bad karma for its own nation, which will cause misfortune and disasters for its own nation in the future. That’s the Principle of Karma for the nation.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russian troops also bombed the civilian buildings and caused over 10,000 civilian deaths in two years. It will become bad karma for Russia, which will lead to more disasters for Russia.
Therefore, it’s time for both Russia and Ukraine to find a peaceful solution to end this war in Ukraine before it escalates into a major nuclear catastrophe for both nations.
IV. The Peaceful
Solution to End the War in Ukraine
I | II
| III | IV
The Divine Revelation on the Peaceful Solution to End the War in the Middle East
God Bless!
