The Ukrainian Crisis: Its Causes and Impacts on Russian-Western Relations After 2014

Abstract

Ukraine holds great importance for Russia and Europe due to its geographical and geopolitical location. It is the border between Russia and Europe and has become a link between the two global powers. The Orange Revolution is considered a turning point in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The revolution was a result of the political and social injustice imposed by Russia on the Ukrainian people, which forced Ukraine to retreat and surrender. The majority of the Ukrainian people wanted to join the European Union and distance themselves from Russian dominance. The significance of this research lies in its discussion of how the Ukrainian crisis emerged, its impact on European-Russian relations, its causes, and its consequences. This research aims to present the reasons for the crisis in Ukraine and the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, especially after 2014, as well as showing the impact of the crisis on relations between Russia and the West. Our study assumes that the Ukrainian crisis will have a negative impact on Russian-Western relations and will lead to further complexities, as each side will take a number of measures, decisions, and sanctions against the other. Another hypothesis is that the Ukrainian crisis will have two outcomes: militarily, the West will help Ukraine protect Europe's security against Russia, sending it weapons and military equipment, and will attempt to arm itself. Politically, the war in Ukraine will change the foreign policy of some European countries toward Russia. Some Western countries will also have differing stances on the war between Russia and Ukraine. In some European countries, the war will give far-right parties the opportunity to increase their votes and create problems with Ukrainian migrants.

 In this research, we relied on both the inductive and deductive approaches and integrated them. At the end of this study, we concluded that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had a negative impact on Russian-Western relations, and EU countries tried to arm themselves to face Russian forces. This demonstrated that Europe, for the first time, is trying, under the United States, to become militarily self-reliant. The war in Ukraine has created a favorable environment for the rise of the far-right in Europe and its popularity, as well as the migrant crisis in Europe, which has created security problems.