The fake murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine over the shared territorial waters and the administrative lawsuit by Ukrainian Member of Parliament Nadiia Savchenko, Ukraine is at the centre of European news today. While recognised as an independent country, it has only been three decades since independence. 24thAugust 1991, the same year the Soviet Union officially dissolved, was the second time they announced their independence. Ukraine made very important steps in the process of democratisation, and to establish their armed forces and the infrastructure of an independent state.
However, the former Soviet republic suffered major economic and political issues post independence. Economic decline followed, as the Ukrainian Industry suffered from trade disruption from former Soviet Republics. Russia, Ukraine’s main supplier of energy sources, removed subsidies from fossil fuels and raised them to world levels. The joint effect of this, and the lack of monetary policy resulted in a hyperinflation, reaching 4735% in 1993. Further consequences include increased corruption and numerous social ills.
In fact, some of these contentious issued still remain today. The most recent being the construction of the Kerch strait bridge between Crimea and mainland Russia. Tensions between the two countries continues ‘between Kiev and Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s south-east’ (Andrew Roth, 2018) since the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and flight of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. The bridge itself has the length of 18.1 km and known as the longest bridge in both Russia and Europe with the hopes for easier transport. Its construction has been considered since 1903, but planning proceeded after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russia expects millions of users by car and rail and millions of tons of cargo each year. While transport to and from Russia had become easier, as all car traffic needed to travel across the Kerch strait by ferry or through Ukraine, Ukraine has said that the construction of the shows disregard for international law.
Interestingly, though Russia had annexed Crimea through a referendum in 2014, ‘sovereignty was disputed as Ukraine and the majority of the international community consider the annexation illegal, as was shown by the United Nations General Assembly adopting a non-binding resolution calling upon states not to recognise changes to the integrity of Ukraine’ (Wikipedia). Would the political contest over the republic of Crimea ever come to a conclusion?
Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/putin-opens-bridge-between-crimea-and-russian-mainland
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