Previous Subchapter → 1.8 Maidan - Ukraine’s Third War
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In the early 1900s, Ukrainians didn’t have their own country, the Ukrainian people were split between 2 Empires, the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire
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These 2 empires participated in the First World War, also known as the Great War, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, they were both defeated
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As the war ended the 2 empires collapsed, and their former territories were marked by conflicts between various nationalist groups, including Ukrainians
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In the former Russian Empire, Ukrainians formed the Ukrainian People’s Republic, while in former Austria-Hungary, Ukrainians formed the West Ukrainian People’s Republic
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These 2 Republics faced various threats, including rival nationalist groups and the warring factions of the Russian Civil War
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Eventually, West Ukraine was occupied by rival nationalists from Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia, while the UPR was defeated by the Communist Red Army
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The Communists recognised Ukraine as an independent entity from Russia, but not as an independent country entirely, Russia, Ukraine and various other Communist controlled territories were brought together as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922
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The USSR later annexed Ukrainian territory lost to the rival nationalists in the 1930s, shortly after, World War 2 broke out
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During the war, Ukraine was occupied by Germany, a group of Ukrainian nationalists led by Stepan Bandera attempted to create an independent Ukrainian state aligned to Germany, the Germans rejected this and Bandera was arrested
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As the war was coming to an end, with a German defeat, the Germans released Bandera and other Ukrainian nationalists, hoping they would form a Ukrainian nationalist army, but shortly after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the USSR and its allies
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With the end of the war, all of Ukraine was under Soviet control, and the territory of Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine by the Soviet government in 1954
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In 1991, the USSR collapsed: Its former Republics including Ukraine and Russia became fully independent states
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Shortly after, in 1994, a local Crimean politician named Yuri Meshkov attempted to return Crimea to Russian control, but he didn’t receive Russian support and he was deported from Crimea in 1995
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Despite Meshkov’s failure, Ukraine still faced an identity split between those who favoured a strongly independent Ukrainian identity, particularly found in the West of the country, and those who preferred an identity closer to Russia, usually found in the East these 2 groups often supported different political candidates and alliances
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These differences reached their breaking point when the Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovytch, who promised to support integration with the EU in his 2010 election campaign, changed course after being pressured by Russia, and rejected the EU in 2013
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Yanukovytch’s decision led to a wave of unrest known as the Euromaidan, with the protest movement being led by a coalition of Pro-EU liberals and far-right radicals, the far-right didn’t support joining the EU, but they were strongly Anti-Russia and saw the protests as a chance to gain influence
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By early 2014, the protests had turned into an uprising, with half of the country under opposition control and the opposition forming paramilitary “self defence groups” to take power
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After the paramilitaries threatened to storm the Ukrainian parliament and Yanukovytch’s home if he didn’t resign, he fled the capital Kyiv for the Kharkiv region, and later crossed the border into Russia
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The opposition then took control of the Ukrainian government, and Russia reacted by occupying and annexing Crimea
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Pro-Russian rebels then emerged in the regions of Donbas and Kharkiv, attempting to separate from Ukraine, the Kharkiv rebels were defeated but the Donbas rebels survived and launched an armed uprising
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The Ukrainian military was shattered by these events, so the Maidan paramilitaries took up arms to resist the separatists
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In the rest of Ukraine, elections were held to form a new government, electing President Petro Poroshenko
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The Pro-Russian rebels successfully held a third of the Donbas region in a stalemate with the Ukrainian forces for the next 8 years, while Ukraine retrained and rearmed its army with the help of the NATO alliance
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In 2019, a new Ukrainian President was elected, Volodymyr Zelensky, who committed Ukraine to joining NATO, angering Russia
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Russia demanded that NATO rule out the idea of Ukraine joining, when NATO nations refused to do this, Russia invaded Ukraine