What is the Ukraine crisis?
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| Kiev protests |
The Ukraine crisis if you just look at the surface is an internal military conflict between two groups with opposing views. Those in the Western part of the country (the area around the capital Kiev) are pro-European and those in the East and the South are pro-Russia - the boundaries are obviously not that clear cut but for a generalisation it works. If you delve a little deeper things are a lot murkier. Ukraine has become a battlefield for the great and powerful to work out their differences. In 1989 when the Soviet Union collapsed Russia was put on the backfoot and powers such as Europe and the U.S capitalised on this. Many Eastern nations joined up with the E.U and NATO (OTAN) started signing up new members in the region. Now Russia is coming back to power and they're eyeing up their old territories - a line has been drawn in Ukraine and a conflict has erupted there.
