The situation in Ukraine is getting worse than the expected. As feared, Russian forces have entered the Crimean region of Ukraine and controlled all the important buildings and the number of Russian forces have turned the Ukrainian forces into minority and in a sense, turned them inactive. For this Russian act, there has been a great hue and cry in America and Europe and world leaders are stressing Russia to honor the sovereignty of Ukraine and evacuate its forces. On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister has called the presence of Russian forces in Crimea ‘an utmost necessity’ for the protection of Russian-speaking Ukrainians. According to the media reports, people in Crimea have welcomed the move of Russia while there have mass protests in Kiev against the ‘Russian Occupation.’
By the international powers, it was expected to be another scenario when the government was toppled down to bring their favorite ones into power and make secure their benefits and objectives in the country and also in the region but it did not happen the same way in Ukraine. Same game was played successfully and quite artfully in a number of Asian countries and especially the ones named as ‘Arab Spring’ but the following consequences showed that these attempts turned out to be ‘Arab Winter’. Anyhow, in a broader sense, the crisis in Ukraine can be termed as the clash of two strong blocs of the world and it reminded us of the famous ‘Cold War’ between then USSR and the Western Bloc, headed by the US.
Just like a number of other countries bordering Russia, Ukraine was also not able to get out of the Russian influence after it got its independence in 1991. But being an independent state, the country became of interest to the European Union (EU) that was trying to include it among the member countries of this bloc and take it out of the influences of Russia but it was not going to be easy. Same two-sided rope pulling was in case of Georgia that resulted in the inclusion of some of its Russian-speaking parts back into Russia.
No doubt, people were angry of the ousted President Viktor Yanukovych but it was not the first of its kind. Right from its independence from Russia, the country has been ruled by those who could never win the trust of people and who worked only to benefit themselves and kept relations with other nations of the world to strengthen their hold on power. In such circumstances, the inclusion of country with the European Union gave people a new hope of living in better conditions. The condition of general public in Ukraine is very poor and cannot be compared to even the poorest nations of this wealthy and prosperous continent. At the same time, it gave a chance to the Western bloc to take the country out of the Russian influence. But it was not helpless Egypt or Iraq, rather the benefits of a strong power was at stake on the other hand.
The relations and association of Russia with this land is not like that of other countries that got its independence from Russia in the last decade of last century. It has been a part of Russia’s history for over a thousand years. The peoples of Russia and Ukraine are ethnically, linguistically and religiously related. In Eastern Ukraine, ethnic Russians outnumber Ukrainians.
The Crimea was part of Russia until 1995, when it was ceded to the Ukrainian SSR. The Russian Black Sea fleet is based at Sevastopol in Crimea. Clearly, Russia’s interests are clearly affected by the events in Ukraine.
Given the above facts, it was quite understandable when Russian-backed Yanukovych abandoned the plan of association of his country with the European Union. Clearly, both the blocs had already entered a silent war with each other. It was an opportunity for the Ukrainians to get rid of the poor conditions but their dreams were shattered by their own president and it gave rise to the wide-spread protests in November of 2013. Till here, it could have been called the protest of common Ukrainians but as always, international powers mobilized their resources to get their desired results and a small crowd that included of common unarmed men, soon got its access to the shell bombs and became so much violent that police had to open fire on them which resulted in the killing of almost hundred protestants in a single day. It clearly showed that international powers were much busy in aggravating the situation and in the end, Yanukovych fled the capital Kiev and a new interim government was formed by the parliament. This pro-Western interim government has not been accepted by Russia and it still acknowledges Yanukovych as the elected and legitimate president of the country.
The plan setup in this regard was quite simple; bring an interim government that should hold elections and in elections, a new government was going to hail to power that could have removed all the obstacles in the association of Ukraine with European Union and then, rest of the steps could have been taken that could have ensured the gradual dissociation of the country with the Russian remnants. But it was forgotten that it was not Egypt or Libya. Almost half of the country includes of Russian-ethnic population who not only speak Russian but also have historic association with Russia. It was the reason why, when a pro-Western government was formed in Kiev, things quickly changed in Crimea.
Some well-armed, Russian speaking gunmen seized Simferopol’s parliament building and administrative complex. Simferopol is the administrative capital of Crimean part of the country. They also raised a Russian flag on the building which was not taken as something strange as people here are more associated with Russia. Soon, alleged undercover Russian Special Forces seized control of the airport of the city. Having a look at the divide of country over the protests against Yanukovych, it was clearly felt that the country was divided into two blocs; the Pro-Western parts and Pro-Russian Eastern part of the country.
Kremlin has denied any involvement in this Crimean coup but the Crimean parliament announced that it would hold a referendum on the peninsula’s future status on May 25. That is the same day Ukraine goes to the polls in the fresh presidential elections.
The arrival of Russian forces in Crimea has brought into danger the complete peace and stability of the region. A special session of UN’s Security Council has been summoned but it looks that Russia would not easily retreat from its decision until the conditions get normalized and its demands are not met. Though it seems that Russia has violated international laws, but having a look at the international conspiracy of some powers, the stance of Russia is both natural and logical. At least, there should be someone to stop the violent and destructive march of some powers in the world who take for granted all the opportunities to utilize in their favor and to comfort their ever-hungry appetite.