The Situation in Ukraine

Have you heard the latest news on of what’s been going on in Ukraine? Well, if you haven’t, here’s a main overview:

Ukraine is a country on the continent of Europe, it’s eastern side the bordering Russia. From the time the country was involved in World War I (early 20th century) to 1991, where Ukraine was made officially an independent state (in this case a country) the former Soviet Union, which was Russia and basically most of the surrounding countries to the west, governed Ukraine, since it was part of the former USSR (Union of Soviet Socialistic Republic).

This conflict basically started when Ukraine was trying to work out a financial deal about oil and natural gas (since Ukraine gets their oil and natural gas from Russia). It consisted of some billion dollar bailout from Russia, and because of Russia threatening Ukraine about oil and natural gas and some other actions as well, the Ukrainian government sided with Russia. This resulted in many protests (some even violent) by the Ukrainian people. The police soon got involved, which is when things got violent. The people eventually overthrew their president, Viktor Yanukouych. Russian president, Vladimeir Putin, said he wants Ukraine to join back with Russia, but the Ukrainian people don’t want that. In Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula, where Russia has a naval base, military troops (supposedly Russian) landed there. They turned out to be Russian troops, who seized control of the peninsula, and told the Ukrainian troops to surrender. Recently, a vote was held in Crimea for the Russian people there to join back with Russia and that majority won the vote (since about 60% of the people are Russian). This extremely upset the Ukraine population. Several countries, including the U.S. are “condeming Russia” and calling their actions “illegal”.

The vote,as it turned out, had more of the Russian people in favor of becoming a part of Russia again, and has currently become that .