These historical maps help explain Putin's attitude towards Ukraine as an independent, western leaning state. In may see a perversion of history to US, but look at this map from 1945:
The orange strip on Russia's western flank are territories it acquired after WWII. Ukraine as a country cannot be found on the map. The nascent Ukraine was crushed by the Bolsheviks, and Stalin gave the Crimea to Ukraine in 1954. Ukraine was one of the founding "socialist republics" of the Soviet Union. Going back in time farther, you will find Kyiv or Kiev was the capital (c. 882CE) of the ancient Viking kingdom of Rus (c. 862CE), the historic antecedent of today's Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine. The first Russian Tsar in history, Ivan the Terrible, was a descendent of the Viking king Rurik who founded a dynasty that lasted 700 years. It is a tangled relationship, indeed. and Putin's own words reveals how he thinks of Ukraine:
Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space. Since time immemorial, the people living in the south-west of what has historically been Russian land have called themselves Russians.
This map of the ancient kingdom backs up his propaganda assertion of one people, one nation:
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| 11th Century Kievan Rus territories after the death of Yaroslov the Wise, 1054CE |
Thus, Putin's seemingly bizarre claim that Russia "created" Ukraine. The pink countries in the map above were European communist satellites that were allied with the USSR--the "Warsaw Pact" of the Cold War era. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990-91, these satellite countries declared their independence. Ukraine SSR declared its independence from the Union in August, 1991, see map below from just prior to the collapse.
None of this revisionist history--even the fact that Ukrainians served in Hitler's Waffen SS--justifies the blatant aggression by Putin, but it does explain his peculiar thinking and sense of grievance, eerily similar to an American politician and Putin fan, who shall remain nameless and who tried to deny Ukraine $400 million in military aid. What Putin's new war in Europe demonstrates is the need to reach a political settlement for long-term European security, which must involve demilitarization of a region separating NATO from Russia's considerable military forces on the Northern European Plain. It also demonstrates how nuclear weapons hobble the range of responses the West can select in support of Ukraine' sovereignty.
Without direct military intervention from the West to preserve its independence--Putin has already threatened to use nuclear retaliation--Ukraine will probably have to reach an accommodation with Russia as a militarily non-aligned nation despite news reports of heroic resistance against the invaders. Russia, under Putin at least, is not willing to become another Spain. It has amassed two hundred thousand well-equipped soldiers on Ukraine's borders. See this interesting YouTube video that graphically explains the geopolitics involved in Russia's decision to invade Ukraine. You guessed it--oil and gas, and the vast revenues the resource generates, is a powerful motivating factor.