The North Star Project, 2013-2014 Report Number Forty-Two, Crisis in Ukraine, by Misha Ignatenko with assistance from Marin Ekstrom

The North Star Project, 2013-2014 Report Number Forty-Two, Crisis in Ukraine, by Misha Ignatenko with assistance from Marin Ekstrom

Ukraine has always been the target of surrounding empires – the Ottomans, Poland-Lithuania, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union – who have harbored ambitions to conquer and use its resources. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Ukraine, is right in pointing out that “in the history of the 20th century there is no place on earth where the soil is more blood-soaked than [in Ukraine].”

The newly established government, which is heavily supported by the northern and western regions of Ukraine, is viewed as pro-Ukrainian and pro-EU. In contrast, most of eastern and southern areas of Ukraine share pro-Russian views. Claiming that the new government might suppress the interests of ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Russia sent troops to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea…