Why Does Putin Want Ukraine? – by Adi
When all world leaders are in hiding, silent and afraid of Vladimir Putin, this great man, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, with his strong spirit, is bravely out in the forefront fiercely defending his country.
Now, why is Putin after Ukraine? It goes back in time to the past history of Russia. During the era of the USSR, in the days of the Iron Curtain, the regime was repressive and not progressive save for the nuclear power. It appears President Vladimir Putin wants to capture back that old Russia and bind it together again.
Russia is vast and unimaginably massive. It is 11 time zones long and has a 36000 kilometers long coast and 17 million square kilometers in area.
Then, why does it still fear losing the support of Ukraine and desire its landmass so badly?
The answer is ‘Geography’
A simple history explainer 🧵
Even though Russia has a long coast, its entire length is far high up in the Northern hemisphere and hence the waters are not warm throughout the year
The coast freezes for close to half the year and that means they cant have good ports there and trade and commerce are affected.
And for trade, you need a warm water port enabling trade all year round with strong connections to the south.
Here comes the answer – Ukraine.
Ukraine has a coast along the Black sea and connects to the Mediterranean which opens up the entire world.
Russia so dearly desires this.
After the collapse of the USSR, the ‘Stans’ – Uzbek, Kazakh, etc fell along with the Russians. But the countries close to Europe – Romania, Lithuania, etc fell with the west and NATO.
Ukraine got caught in the middle. The Eastern part of Ukraine supported Russia & the west with the EU.
And Ukraine had Sevastapol, a warm water port in the region of Crimea (the small part that juts out in the south).
Russia had a lease to use this warm water port & run its ships for trade.
But if Ukraine went into the EU or NATO, there was the risk of losing this port.
Russia still had to cross the Bosphorus channel controlled by Turkey, a NATO member, to reach the Mediterranean. Turkey allows Russian trade vessels in good faith but can stop anytime to pressure Russia.
So, all the more reason for Russia to not let Ukraine go also to the west.
Ukraine has always juggled its interests with the EU and with Russia. In 2013, when it looked like they were going for EU membership, Putin had to take an action. He moved and annexed Crimea and took the port for himself.
Ukraine dropped the EU plan but it had already lost Crimea.
Putin actually gave an interview after annexing Crimea and said this boldly, ‘If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard. You must always remember this.”
🥺🤯🥺
Now fast forward to 2021 where Ukraine is fancying itself a NATO membership. If given a chance, the US can plan to cut off Russia from its trade using Ukraine, Romania, and Turkey.
Action: Spring is too compressed. Reaction: It snaps back hard.
Putin has made up a story of Russians facing genocide and is invading Ukraine to save them 🤔🤔
Whether the EU or NATO will come to help is anyone’s guess. More likely that the spring will complete its reaction
By Adi
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