Geopolitics
Why Does Russia Want to Invade Ukraine?
A crash course of Russian geopolitics
The tensions in Ukraine have become a challenge to sovereignty and self-determination. After the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared its independence in 1991. Since then, Russia has had difficulty recognizing it as a country at all.
To say it’s simply because President Putin is an egomaniac is to not understand the situation. He is an egomaniac, but no more so than any other person who rises to the same height of leadership. Russia has two very real problems it needs to solve: economic and military security.
NATO Expansion VS Russian Military Security
From this standpoint, Russia’s biggest concern is NATO. After the Cold War, the Baltic states declared their independence. In 2004 all three were admitted to NATO. This immediately raised an air of concern within the Russian government. However, these three nations don’t hold the same cultural significance that Ukraine does. Much of Russian culture stems from Kyiv. Additionally, the Ukrainian border is 460km from Moscow at its closest point. In the world of Air Defense systems, should Ukraine ever join NATO, that's a big problem if you are on the wrong side of a missile system.
