Was Ukraine ever an independent country?

Yes, Ukraine once belonged to Russia.

In 1654, the 11th year of the Shunzhi reign of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was the tenth year since the Qing Dynasty entered the customs. In the year when Emperor Kangxi, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, was just born, important events also occurred in distant Eastern Europe.

This year, Alexei, then the Russian Czar, began his personal expedition, targeting the Poles in southwest Russia.

The Poles ruled the Ukrainians on both sides of the Dnieper River, and at this time the Ukrainians on the east bank of the Dnieper River asked the Russians to send troops to liberate them and free them from Polish rule.

Ukrainians and Russians are both ethnic groups with the same origin from Kievan Rus in Vladimir, and the Russians also want to take the opportunity to expand their territory.

So when I was sleepy, the Ukrainians sent me pillows. The Russian army attacked the Ukrainians in the eastern Ukraine. In 1656, the Russians won a decisive victory in the war against the Poles. After that, the people east of the Dnieper River Ukraine officially became a territory of the Russian Empire. And remained so until the fall of the Russian Empire.

02

Western Ukraine later became Russia's

In 1656, after Eastern Ukraine merged with Russia and became Russian territory, Western Ukraine remained under Polish rule.

But as Russia continues to expand and become stronger, the Poles are even more fading.

Alexander I with a very fashy head

In the following more than 100 years, Poland was successively divided by the new European powers Russia, Prussia and Austria. By 1815, Tsar Alexander I of Russia defeated Napoleon and entered Paris. Later, at the Congress of Vienna, Poland, Ukraine's former suzerainty, was officially merged. Western Ukraine was also completely known as Russian territory until the demise of the Russian Empire.

03

The Russian Empire fell and Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union

In 1917, the Russian Empire was struggling to survive the First World War and faced the Then came the October Revolution, the empire collapsed, and the last Tsar Nicholas II was executed in Siberia.

After the collapse of Tsarist Russia, the Soviet Union was established in the eastern part of Ukraine, which was later merged with Soviet Russia to form the Soviet Union. The western part of Ukraine was first occupied by the Germans, and later annexed by the Polish people after the restoration of the country, becoming part of Poland. .

On the eve of the Germans' demise in Poland in 1939, the Soviets sent troops to defeat the Poles and regained Western Ukraine, which was taken away by the Poles in 1920, and became part of the Soviet Union's Soviet Union, Ukraine. .

The German army invaded the Soviet Union

In 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union. Ukraine was completely occupied by the German army and was not completely recovered by the Soviet Red Army until 1944.

Ukraine remained in the Soviet Union until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

04

The Soviet Union disintegrated and Russia lost Ukraine

In the Soviet era, Ukraine was the second largest republic after Russia. The fertile black soil, known as the "Breadbasket of Europe", also houses 40% of the heavy industry of the Soviet era.

At its peak, Ukraine could build long-range missiles that could reach the United States, aircraft carriers, bombers, transport planes, destroyers, and tanks.

From here came Khrushchev, Brezhnev and other top leaders of the Soviet Union. The top leaders of the Soviet Union also paid extra attention to Ukraine. For example, in 1956, in order to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Russia's liberation of Ukraine in 1656, the Soviet Union assigned Crimea, which originally belonged to Russia, to Ukraine.

And Donetsk, which is now fiercely fighting for independence, is the place where Khrushchev grew up.

However, in 1991, for personal selfish interests, Ukrainian leader Koravchuk and Russia's Yeltsin and others split the Soviet Union, eventually leading to the complete disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The basic model when the Soviet Union collapsed was that the 15 member states were divided according to their borders at that time. The result was that the eastern part of Ukraine, which had been ruled by Russia for more than 260 years, followed Ukraine as part of Ukraine. Achieved independence.

Due to geographical differences, eastern Ukraine is greatly influenced by Russia and has many Russians who are pro-Russian, while western Ukraine has been ruled twice by the Poles and has deep hostility towards the Russians.

After the 21st century, two color revolutions occurred in Ukraine. Pro-Russian forces were eliminated from the Ukrainian central government, and Ukraine completely turned westward.

So Russia took decisive action. In 2014, it sent troops to take back Crimea, which Khrushchev gave away in 1956. Now it has taken back Donetsk and Lugan, which became independent with Ukraine in 1991. Sk.

Russia has already lost Ukraine and cannot afford to lose Donetsk and Luhansk again.

Throughout the history of Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine was only truly established for 31 years, and most of the rest of the time belonged to Russia.