So in these days, our world is on the edge to World War III. The people of Crimea decided they want to go for Russia rather than being part of Ukraine. Most people barely were aware of Ukraine and its inner conflict of independence with European and western influences or becoming a part of Russia with obvious Russin influences.
But this conflict is old. The whole thing started with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ukrainian territories had changed ownership uncountable times in history.
So for now, I will take Lviv (one of two places in Ukraine which I have seen myself). Over the past eight centuries, eight different states had control over the city and the surrounding territories. During some struggles for power, the city has declared its independence for various reasons but never maintained this state.
So two years ago, back in 2012, I spent three weeks in Ukraine. My first week I solely spent understanding the historical identity of Ukrainians. And this really helped me, as it turned out that there is no such thing as one Ukrainian people seeking for liberty and independence. The Ukrainian borders have shifted to many times in history, to few time has todays Ukraine been united under one leader, never was any idea of nationality or patriotism formed.
When I was there, Ukraine was split. Split into two major groups, approximatly of the same size. Not officially, of course, but still it felt pretty real. One half of the people speaks Ukrainian, a mix of Russian and Polish that developed in Ukrainian territories over time, wants to open economy and politics to Europe and the US and wants their country to be independent. They aim for democracy and want to fight old Russian influences, habits and dependencies.
The other half of the people speaks Russian, wants Ukraine to become a part of Russia again or at least to have tight economic and political ties to Russia.
In 2010, Ukraine had presidential elections with two main candidates, one was (today) well known Yulia Tymoshenko, representing the Ukrainian speaking population, the other was Viktor Yushchenko, preferirng the Russian ideels. Viktor Yushchenko won the election and put his concurrent, Yulia Tymoshenko in prison under doubtable accusations. At the same time he was accused for having manipulated the election, but an official process about the fairness of the election was never opened.
Ukraine lived on, the inner conflict lived on and Yushchenko had the power and constantly made sure he would not lose it.
This partition in Ukraine, which I tried to describe in this text goes all the way through the country. In general, one could say that the western half is Ukrainian speaking, pro EU and pro independence, while the eastern half is Russian speaking and rather pro Russian. This is not only reflected in the people, but even in architecture.
Lviv, one of Ukraine’s biggest cities, situated in the west, is full of impressive historical relevant architecture, showing culture and individuality, whilst Kiev is dominated by gigantic Russian buildings from Soviet times, huge streets and spaces, all buildings looking pretty much the some. It is a classic soviet city of power, representing it through every little bit. Even the metro in Kiev is said to be dug deep enough in the ground to be used as a bunker in case of a nuclear attack.
Of course Russia is breaking international right and democratic ideels by taking power over Crimea. But nobody would have been happy by Crimea forcedly being a part of Ukraine, it would even have led to more instability in this region.
So if our international community agrees not to act upon this obvious provocation of our ideels and if Putin decides he does not have to show of his political and military power any longer, Ukraine can solve the current situation peacefully and become a strong NIC (newly industrializing country) on its best way to becoming a modern European country.
In my opinion, Ukraine is not worth starting a third World War for, there is no people that can be led to freedom and peace, a war would not change the situation in any positive way. Our world politicians have to understand that their game of power originates from a reality very different to our reality today.
Please forgive me in case of any typos, content or grammar mistakes, it is late at night and I am not a native speaker.
