As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate headlines, here is a glance back at the two countries’ lengthy, connected histories. It should demonstrate how the ongoing conflict started.

The two nations’ shared history extends over a thousand years to a time when Kyiv, now the capital of Ukraine, was the core of Kyivan Rus, the first Slavic kingdom that gave birth to both Ukraine and Russia. In 988, Vladimir I, the pagan prince of Novgorod and grand prince of Kyiv, converted to Orthodoxy and was baptised in the Crimean city of Chersonesus. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently proclaimed that Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a single whole. Ukraine has been partitioned repeatedly over the past ten centuries by competing powers. In the 13th century, Mongol soldiers from the east conquered Kyivan Rus. In the 16th century, Polish and Lithuanian forces attacked from the west. In the 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia in the 17th century brought territories east of the Dnieper River under Russian imperial rule. The east became known as “Left Bank” Ukraine, while regions west of the Dnieper were known as “Right Bank” Poland. The Russian Empire seized the right bank of (western) Ukraine more than a century later, in 1793. Following that, a policy of “russification” made it illegal to speak or study Ukrainian and forced people to convert to the Russian Orthodox faith.

Ukraine suffered the most trauma during the 20th century. Ukraine was one of the many countries to fight a brutal civil war. Individuals in eastern Ukraine have more links to Russia and are inclined to support Russian-leaning authorities since they were under Russian administration far earlier than people in western Ukraine. On the other hand, Western Ukraine has spent centuries under the influence of several European powers. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent nation. But uniting the country proved a difficult task. Many Ukrainians, particularly in the east, yearned for the relative stability of former ages since the transition to democracy and capitalism was painful and turbulent. The steppes, which separate the southern and eastern sections of Ukraine, may be seen on ecological maps. A history professor at Harvard and director of its Ukrainian Research Institute says a map depicting the distinction between the steppe and the forest, a diagonal line between east and west, bears a “striking resemblance” to political maps of Ukrainian presidential elections in 2004 and 2010. Crimea was occupied and annexed by Russia in 2014, followed shortly after by a separatist uprising in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas that resulted in the declaration of the Russian-backed People Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russian forces have once again massed on Ukraine’s borders, highlighting the region’s turbulent past.

Petro Poroshenko, a former government minister, and director of the Council of Ukraine’s National Bank was elected president of Ukraine in May 2015. He advocates for change, including steps to combat corruption and reduce Ukraine’s reliance on Russia for energy and financial assistance. In September 2015, representatives from Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany met in Belarus to attempt to negotiate an end to the violence in Donbas. They sign the first Minsk agreement, a deal between Ukraine and Russia to quiet the violence under a fragile ceasefire. The ceasefire soon breaks, and fighting continues into the new year. In February 2015, the Minsk Group met again in Belarus to reach a more effective deal to cease the war, which resulted in the Minsk II agreement. It, too, has failed to put an end to the bloodshed. From 2014 through today, more than 14,000 people have been killed, tens of thousands wounded, and more than a million displaced. As the battle in the Donbas continues, Russia has launched several cyberattacks against Ukraine, including a 2016 attack on Kyiv’s power infrastructure that resulted in a significant blackout. A large-scale assault on Ukrainian infrastructure, including the national bank and electrical grid, occurred in 2017. (Cyberattacks from Russia have continued through the present; the latest major attack targeted government websites in January 2022.)

In 2019, comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected president in a landslide rebuke of Poroshenko and the status quo, which includes a stagnating economy and the ongoing conflict with Russia. During his campaign, Zelenskyy vowed to make peace with Russia and end the war in the Donbas. President Trump held back Zelenskyy’s early efforts to find a solution to the bloodshed by temporarily blocking US military supplies to Ukraine and suggested that he should negotiate with Putin to settle the conflict. In 2021, Russia sent about 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s borders, ostensibly for military exercises. Later, Putin issues a contentious set of security demands. He asked for NATO to permanently bar Ukraine from membership and withdraw NATO military stations in countries that joined the alliance after 1997, such as the Balkans and Romania.In January 2022, leaders and diplomats from the United States, Russia, and European nations met several times to avoid a crisis. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, tells US diplomats in January 2022 that Russia has no intentions of attacking Ukraine. The State Department ordered embassy staff members’ families to leave Ukraine. NATO puts forces on alert the next day, with the United States ordering 8,500 troops to be ready to deploy. Representatives from the US and NATO provided replies to Putin’s requests. Officials believe they can’t prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, but they indicate a readiness to compromise on minor concerns like arms control. Efforts at diplomacy are picking up steam across Europe. Between Moscow and Kyiv, both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz travel. President Biden ordered 1,000 US troops from Germany to Romania and 2,000 additional US troops to Poland and Germany. 30,000 Russian troops stationed in Belarus along Ukraine’s northern border started joint military exercises on Feb.The US and the UK urge their citizens to leave Ukraine by February 11, as President Biden announces the deployment of another 2,000 US troops from the US to Poland. Western authorities warned that escalating the conflict could result in one of the most serious military conflicts in Europe since World War II.

In an emotional and aggrieved address to the Russian people, Putin hinted at the possibility of a wider military campaign and laid claim to all of Ukraine as a country created by Russia. The speech came after a day of extensive reports in the Russian news media of Ukrainian shelling against civilian targets in the separatist regions. Ukraine has denied it. Several states slammed Putin’s directive as a breach of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty at a United Nations Security Council emergency meeting. In his speech, Putin declared that Ukraine was an invention of Vladimir Lenin, but it was a historical blunder because Ukraine’s independence was granted by the Ukrainian people in 1991.

A military conflict between Russia and Ukraine on Europe’s border might collapse the global economy. Already, the prospect of punishing US penalties and the possibility of Russian reprisal have pushed stock returns lower and gas prices up. An all-out onslaught could drive up gasoline and food prices, spark inflation worries, and frighten investors, putting economies throughout the world in jeopardy. Russia provides approximately 40 percent of Europe’s natural gas and 25 percent of its oil. With weeks of cold weather coming, heating and gas expenses in the region are already skyrocketing, and natural gas supplies are at less than a third of capacity. European leaders have accused Russia of reducing supplies to gain a political edge.

According to Pentagon sources, a widespread war in Ukraine might result in one million to five million refugees, with many of them flowing into Poland. Many of the approximately 5,000 American troops who landed in Poland last week are assisting Polish forces in establishing processing facilities for the tens of thousands of civilians, including Americans, who will leave if Russia starts a full-scale assault. The prospect of conflict has brought back memories of previous tragedies for Jewish communities in Ukraine.

Sources: EuroNews, The Guardian, CNN.