📜 Historical Context of the Russia-Ukraine War

Understanding the Russia-Ukraine war requires deep historical context stretching back centuries. This section covers the history of Ukrainian statehood, from Kievan Rus through the Cossack Hetmanate, the brief Ukrainian People's Republic of 1918-1920, Soviet collectivization and the Holodomor famine that killed millions, through to independence in 1991. Key topics include the 1994 Budapest Memorandum where Ukraine surrendered its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees, the 2004 Orange Revolution, the 2013-2014 Euromaidan uprising that ousted Yanukovych, Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, and the eight-year war in Donbas before the 2022 full-scale invasion. Historical analysis examines Russian imperial ideology, the concept of "Russkiy Mir" (Russian World) that underpins Putin's revisionism, and why Ukraine's identity as a distinct nation separate from Russia has been central to the conflict's origins.