CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XIII

CHRONOLOGY XVII

MAP XX

1 Why Ukraine? 1

Why did Ukraine become a key reference point of American political struggles? 1

What is the Maidan, and what made it top news around the world? 4

How and why did Russia annex the Crimea from Ukraine? 6

Why did fighting break out in eastern Ukraine in the spring of 2014? 8

Why did the Ukrainian crisis cause tensions between Russia and the West? 10

2 The Land and the People 13

What is Ukraine's geographical location, and what natural resources and industry does it possess? 13

What is Ukraine's demography and ethnic composition? 15

Who are the Ukrainians, and what is modern Ukrainian national identity? 16

Is it true that Ukraine is split into pro-Western and pro-Russian halves? 19

How large is the Ukrainian diaspora, and what role does it play in North

American politics? 22

3 The Making of Modern Ukraine 24

Was Ukraine always part of Russia? 24

What was the medieval state of Kyivan Rus, and was it a Russian or

Ukrainian polity? 26

Who were the Cossacks? 28

Is it true that Ukraine was “reunited” with Russia in 1654? 30

Who was Ivan Mazepa, and why is he considered a “traitor” in Russia? 32 What were Russia's imperial policies in Ukraine? 34

Did the Austrian Empire govern its Ukrainian lands differently? 36

What happened in the Ukrainian lands during the revolutionary turmoil of 1917-1920? 38

Why did the Bolsheviks create a Ukrainian republic within the Soviet Union, and how did they determine its borders? 40

What was the Holodomor (the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933), and was it genocide? 43

Is it true that all the Ukrainian lands were united in a single polity for the

first time under Stalin? 45

What is Babi Yar, and how did the Holocaust unfold in Ukraine? 47

Who was Stepan Bandera, and what was the Ukrainian Insurgent Army? 48 What were the Soviet policies in Ukraine during the postwar period? 51

Who were the dissidents, and how did they contribute to the collapse of communism? 52

Why did the Chernobyl accident happen, and what was its impact on Ukraine? 53

4 Ukraine after Communism 56

Did the Ukrainians have to fight the Russians in order to secede from the

Soviet Union? 56

What is the Commonwealth of Independent States? 57

When and why did Ukraine give up its nuclear arsenal? 59

What were Ukraine's relations with the West and Russia in the first decade after independence?

Did the presidents of independent Ukraine promote a united national identity? 62 What religions came to prominence in Ukraine after the Soviet collapse? 65 How did independent Ukraine become an inefficient economy and a

paragon of crony capitalism? 68

Who are the oligarchs? 69

What are the roots of corruption in Ukraine and how have the changing

Ukrainian governments been addressing it? 71

Is Ukraine dependent on Russian gas supplies? 74

5 The Orange Revolution and the EuroMaidan 78

What did the two recent revolutions in Ukraine (2004 and 2013-2014) have in common? 78

Why did mass protests against President Kuchma develop in the early

2000s, and who led them? 80

What sparked the Orange Revolution in 2004? 82

Was Yushchenko poisoned, and were the culprits ever prosecuted? 84

How was a peaceful resolution reached in the winter of2004-2005? 85

Did the victors of the Orange Revolution manage to create a new Ukraine? 87 How did Viktor Yanukovych return to power, first as prime minister and later

as president? 89

Why was Yulia Tymoshenko imprisoned? 91

What caused the new popular revolt in late 2013? 93

What role did the Ukrainian radical right play in the protests, and what

symbols did they use? 95

What led to the high number of casualties on the Maidan in 2013-2014, as

opposed to 2004? 98

Where did Yanukovych seek asylum, and how was the transfer of power

formalized? 100

Was either of the two Ukrainian revolutions the result of a Western conspiracy? 101

6 Russia's Annexation of the Crimea and the War in

the Donbas 104

What shared characteristics led the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas region to become conflict zones? 104

What was “New Russia, ” and why did President Putin revive this concept? 106

Who are the Crimean Tatars? 108

Why was the Crimea transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian

SSR in 1954? 110

Did the Crimea try to separate from Ukraine in the 1990s? 111

Was there a previous conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the Black

Sea Fleet, and how was it resolved? 113

Why was Russia able to take over the Crimea so quickly and with so little resistance? 115

How is the Crimea being absorbed into Russia? 118

Was the Donbas historically a Russian region? 120

Is it true that a separate republic existed in the Donbas during the revolutionary era? 121

Did the Donbas stand out among other Ukrainian regions during the late

Soviet period and the post-communist transformation? 123

Why did the armed conflict with the new Ukrainian authorities start in the

Donbas and not in other eastern regions in the spring of 2014? 125

What polities did the separatists create in the Donbas, and why did Russia not annex them outright, as was the case with the Crimea? 128

Why did the Ukrainian army initially perform poorly compared to the pro-Russian forces in the Donbas? 130

Under what circumstances was the Malaysia Airlines passenger flight shot down over the Donbas on July 17,2014? 133

How has the Ukrainian army performed since 2015? 135

What has been the human cost of the armed conflict in the Donbas? 137

7 The War in Ukraine as an International Issue 140

What sanctions did the West introduce against Russia, and did they work? 140

Did Western diplomatic mediation assist in the de-escalation of the conflict in the Donbas? 142

What is the Steinmeier Formula, and why did it become a stumbling block

in the peace process? 144

What role has the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

played in monitoring the conflict? 147

How should the results of the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections

in Ukraine be interpreted? 149

What was the composition of the new Ukrainian government after the

EuroMaidan Revolution, and what were its first steps? 152

How should one evaluate Petro Poroshenko’s tenure as president

(2014-2019)? 154

What were the results of the anti-corruption policies during the Poroshenko

presidency? 158

What were the consequences of Ukraine's Association Agreement with the

European Union? 161

What assistance has the United States provided to Ukraine since 2014? 162

Did the Ukrainian authorities meddle in the 2016 presidential election in the

United States? 164

What do we know about the involvement of Joe Biden and his son Hunter in

Ukrainian affairs? 168

How can one explain the sweeping victory of Volodymyr Zelensky and his party in the Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections of 2019? 171

How can one evaluate President Zelensky's first year in power? 174

How did the Zelensky administration react to the attempts to embroil

Ukraine in American politics? 178

Has the Ukrainian crisis sparked a new Cold War? 181

How did the issue of election interference change the dynamics within the

Russia-Ukraine-United States triangle ? 182

NOTES

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FURTHER READING

INDEX