In 1922, the U.S.S.R. was formed and in 1992 it diintegrated. There were many reasons why it didn’t line up with the ideals of the Russian Revolution. After the integration of the U.S.S.R., fifteen countries became independent: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Declaration Of Independence
In 1991, Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 24 August, a move that was intensely reinforced by Ukrainian voters in a referendum held on 1 December.
In 1992, there were months of political quarrel when Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and Russian President Boris Yeltsin extended agreements on Soviet-era military hardware located in Ukraine. In May, Ukraine signed the Lisbon Protocol, agreeing to turn over its sizable nuclear arsenal to Russia.
Also, an initial deal was extended on the Sevastopol based Black Sea Fleet, which would be managed jointly by Russia and Ukraine for 3 years.
On 10 January, 1994, Ukraine became a party to the Partnership for Peace, an agreement to build up political and military ties with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, formed in 1949).
In July, Leonid Kuchma defeated Kravchuk to become president of Ukraine. Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum in December, proceeding with Ukraine’s dedication to surrender its nuclear arsenal to Russia and the signer to admit and respect the boundaries of Ukraine as an independent country.
In 1995 Ukraine joined the Council of Europe, and in 1996, it replaced its Soviet time constitution with a democratic constitution that infused powerful executive power in the office of president and the currency was introduced as hryvnia (₴).
The Treaty Of Friendship
In 1997, Ukraine and Russia signed the Treaty of Friendship, owing for respecting each other’s borders and preserving the rights of national minorities in each country and the affair of the Black Sea Fleet was settled by agreeing that Russia obtains the ships in addition to an extended lease on port facilities in Sevastopol. It also gave them the right to recruit up to 25,000 troops in Crimea.
It received over $500 million in compensation, and the Russian troops in Sevastopol were subjected to a status of forces agreement that states that they might not control outside of their bases without the approval of Ukrainian authorities.
Leonid Kuchma appointed Viktor Yashchenko prime minister. He introduced several financial reform measures that are credited with turning around the Ukrainian economy.
In 2000, investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze, who uncovered evidence of corruption within the Kuchma regime, was seized in September; his beheaded body was found several months later in a forest outside Kyiv. In December, the final reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant was shut down.
Leonid packed Yushchenko, and Yushchenko became one of the leading figures in opposition to Kuchma’s government.
In December, Ukraine conducted its first post-independence statement. The most-considerable social class change was in Crimea, where some 2,50,000 Crimean Tatars came back to the peninsula. The Crimean Tatars were deported by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1944 and restricted from returning to their inherited home throughout the Soviet Period till 2001.
In 2002, all the opposition leaders asked for the resignation of Kuchma after the release of the audiotapes that were politically motivated in the killing of Gongadze. Also, there was a parliamentary commission the tapes had the evidence that Kuchma accepted a $100 million weapons deal with Iraq in contravention of a 1990 UN Security Council resolution.
The Orange Revolution
There was a protest during the presidential election of 2004. Yanukovych was declared the winner after a second-round that was held in November. Widespread protests blow out as Yushchenko supporters take to the streets in a movement that comes to be known as the Orange Revolution.
In December, the election results are reversed by the Supreme Court, and a second runoff is held, in which Yushchenko is righteous.
In January 2005, Yushchenko was inaugurated President, but his pro-Western management was soon with the uncertainty that would characterise his entire term in office. His first prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, was let go along with the rest of Yushchenko’s cabinet after just 9 months. Tymoshenko soon emerges as Yushchenko’s powerful challenger for leadership within the Orange coalition.
In 2006, The Ukrainian political landscape was modified when Yanukovych’s Party of Regions captured the largest share of votes in parliamentary elections in March. Unable to agree on a coalition with Tymoshenko despite extended negotiations, Yushchenko is forced to form a unity government with Yanukovych as prime minister.
In 2009, economic issues clutched Ukraine, and Russia stopped the flow of natural gas into the country over a dispute about bank settlements. Tymoshenko suggested a budget that secured a multibillion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Funds (IMF), but the IMF suspended spending after the Party of Regions parliamentarians passed a bill that defiled the terms of the agreement.
In 2010, Yanukovych expanded Russia’s lease on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, secured a deducted rate on Russian natural gas, and denied the Yushchenko government’s dispute that the Great Famine of 1932–33 was a Soviet-led act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.
In December, both Tymoshenko and her interior minister, Yuri Lutsenko, were charged with misuse of power in cases that are characterised as politically motivated by opposition leaders.
In 2011, Tymoshenko was found guilty and was sentenced to 7 years in jail. In October new round of charges were brought against her, claiming that Tymoshenko eluded taxes while heading an energy deal covered in the 1990s.
In 2011, Lutsenko was sentenced to 4 years in prison; he was sentenced to an additional 2 years in August. In December, the Party of Regions, headed by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, formed a government with the support of the Communist Party and independent representatives.
Maidan Uprising
In November, there were mass protests when Yanukovych announced that he would not proceed with long-anticipated association and trade agreements with the European Union (EU).
On 9 November, there was a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Yanukovych as an alternative moved to further expand the relationship with Russia. Demonstrators staged a protest camp in Kyiv’s Maidan (Independence Square). Opposition politicians stated their support for the protesters, but Moscow backed the Yanukovych management with promises of low-interest loans and a decrease in the price of natural gas.
For several months sequences of government restrictions were unsuccessful in suppressing disagreements. In February 2014, Ukrainian security forces did open fire on the Maidan protesters, killing notches and wounding hundreds of people.
Because of these events, Yanukovych released Tymoshenko and scheduled sudden presidential elections to take place in May 2014 and eventually fled the country ahead of an impeachment vote and a number of criminal responsibilities. Also, in 2014 Ukraine challenged the major peril to its national security since the collapse of the Soviet.
The interim government endeavoured to deal with a revolving economy, severely armed pro-Russian separatists held government buildings in Crimea and, with the support of Russian troops, declared independence from the central government in Kyiv. In March 2014, Russia formally seized Crimea; separatist activities spread into eastern Ukraine.
Its security services originally were unable to battle the attacks, which were often conducted by militias bearing Russian arms. Thousands of Russian troops marched across the border and the memory of the 2008 conflict between Russia and Georgia and leaders in Kyiv were forced to assess military response against Russian intrusion.
As Ukrainian forces began thoroughly recovering contested territory gaining of the May 2014 presidential elections, the Union States and the European Union (EU) expanded economic sanctions against Russian companies and individuals.