![]() Multiple senior Soviet officials – including leaders Nikita Khrushchev and Leonid Brezhnev – came from the Russia-Ukraine border regions, where Soviet rule was seen as secure as Russian Orthodox Christian dominance in centuries before.Įven after the USSR’s collapse and Ukrainian independence in 1991, opinion polls suggested Ukraine’s population and political elite remained either ambivalent or deeply divided over how to chart the path between Russia and the West. This is a battle of identities, ideas and armies that has already lasted centuries, from the initial rise of “Kyivan Rus” – in many respects the first real precursor state of what is now modern Russia – a millennium ago to its subjugation in more recent centuries by Moscow and the Kremlin.īy the time of the Cold War, most in Ukraine and beyond believed Ukraine and both its Russian and Ukrainian-speaking populations might forever be subdued. ESCAPING RUSSIA, EMBRACING EUROPEįor Ukraine itself, where the final border ultimately sits is arguably less important than that the Western-facing Ukrainian state survives the Russian onslaught, finally locking itself into a permanent and militarily defendable relationship with the West and mainland Europe in particular. presidential race, the United States is now a declining power in Europe and the fate of European member states will lie in their own hands. That itself points to a growing suspicion that whoever wins November’s U.S. political reluctance to supply Ukraine increases, particularly in Congress, it is Kyiv's relationship with mainland Europe and the European Union that is becoming particularly important. and to a lesser extent British aid was critical – particularly anti-tank rockets blocking Putin’s opening offensive and efforts to grab the capital Kyiv.īut as the war evolves and U.S. ![]() The next largest donor, Britain, contributed just under $7 billion, followed by smaller Nordic, Baltic and Eastern European nations, some of which are now donating more than 2% of their gross domestic product directly to Ukraine. The United States committed $46.3 billion worth of military aid and equipment Ukraine between the start of the invasion and the end of October, well over twice the $18 billion committed by Germany. There is clearly plenty of truth to that suggestion – the military aid provided by the United States and its allies, from shells to body armour, tanks and drones, has been more limited in both quantity and effect than Western officials initially promised. Increasingly, however, Ukrainian officials blame the West for failing to resource that ambition even as they supported it in public. Kyiv maintains its priority is evicting Russian forces from all territory captured since they seized Crimea and part of two other Russian-speaking regions in 2014. ![]()
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