Who Started The Ukraine War?

Kenny Murray

There is a lot of debate surrounding the Ukraine/Russia war. While no one would deny that Russia invaded the sovereign state of Ukraine, we cannot honestly say that it was done without provocation. Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union until the USSR's fall in 1991, at which point Ukraine became it's own sovereign state. So while for younger generations, they have always lived in a world with a drawn border between Russia and Ukraine, this divide is not as rigid as many seem to think. This is further exacerbated by the imperial spirit of the Soviet Union, which never disappeared from the psyche of the Russian people.

This imperial spirit cannot allow Ukraine, which Russian society still sees a part of their great union, waiting to be reunited with the motherland, to align itself with Western powers. Just imagine this from an alternate perspective. Imagine if you are a Canadian, and one day the province of British Columbia started separating from Canada and began seeking military alliances with China. Or, if you are American, imagine the State of Hawaii renouncing their fealty to you and began seeking military alliances with Russia. What would be your reaction? Best guess, it would be shock, anger, disgust and the feeling that an enemy power is trying to gain influence on your territory, and frankly, you'd probably be right to think that way.

That's how Russians feel when Ukraine seeks NATO alliances.

Ukraine joining NATO would be a devastating blow to the imperial spirit that animates Russian society. Article 5 of NATO states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. This means that should Ukraine join NATO, Russia would have two options. The first is accepting that Ukraine is now a Western aligned state and sees more value in the American, British and French society then your own. The second is continuing your imperial actions and immediately initiating WW3 with multiple nuclear powers.

Which of these options seems reasonable? If your answer is none, you would be correct.

This is why the war remained relatively stagnant until Ukraine began talks of joining NATO and discussing possible NATO membership with Western countries. Russia knows Ukraine cannot join NATO while under siege and they know NATO countries won't join the war in an official capacity, as Article 5 would then be initiated, which gives the Russian army the upper hand.

This leads to an important question: how does the war get ended? Simply put, this war will always continue. Like Israel/Palestine or North/South Korea this war is to engrained in the national identity of both nations to end. However, in the short term, NATO must say that Ukraine will never receive membership, NATO members must put heavy energy sanctions on Russian exports and Russia must accept a deal with minimal land exchange and heavy consequences in the event of a broken deal.