Why have Russia and Ukraine reached this point? What are the reasons?

The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is caused by complex historical reasons superimposed on geopolitical changes.

The first aspect is historical origin. Ukraine and Russia have close historical ties. After the end of the Cold War and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's main political leaders and Russia have maintained a relatively close cooperative relationship that recognizes each other to a certain extent.

However, due to changes in Ukraine’s political orientation, it turned pro-Western and tried to control Russia according to the United States, which led to the emergence of ethnic conflicts within Ukraine and also caused the political relations between Russia and Ukraine to fall into a state of confrontation. Russia is worried that a pro-Western Ukraine may even join NATO, completely eliminating its strategic buffer zone and bringing Western military power directly to its doorstep, thus becoming a direct strategic threat to Russia.

Judging from the origins of this historical development, the historical entanglements between Russia and Ukraine led the pro-Russian Donbas region in Ukraine to seek separation, and Ukraine became the frontline of the confrontation between Russia and the West. Obviously, this change in Ukraine has led to a sharp confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.

The second aspect is the result of changes in international politics. First, there is a structural contradiction between the transatlantic and Europe and Russia, including structural contradictions between Russia and NATO, Russia and the United States, and Russia and Europe. At present, the two sides have fallen into direct confrontation due to the continuous provocation of the United States.

From the perspective of Western international political tradition, European and American countries have a concept of geopolitical theory, which believes that Russia, as a land-power country, is located in the heart of the Eurasian continent and has always constituted an obstacle to European countries and even the countries on both sides of the Atlantic. A huge suppressive force from land to sea. This situation has existed for hundreds of years.

The Soviet Union during the Cold War and now Russia maintain a prominent repressive geopolitical advantage over European or NATO countries. In order to eliminate this threat, Western countries are trying to push the source of this threat outward as much as possible through NATO's eastward expansion, and even expand eastward to the Russian border, thereby greatly restricting Russia's strategic behavior to ensure that NATO or Absolute security in Europe.

During the Cold War, the United States formed a theory of controlling the "edge zones" of the Eurasian continent to suppress the Soviet Union's "external expansion." As of today, the United States is trying to exploit the concerns of major European countries and Russia to provoke European allies into confrontation with Russia.

In this way, the United States can better attract Europe, bring European powers such as Germany and France into the U.S. geostrategic orbit, support the United States' alliance leader status, and fully serve the strategic interests of the United States in pursuing global leadership. . To this end, the United States needs to regard Russia as an important strategic rival and push Russia into the trap of confrontation with Europe in order to control Europe.

The third aspect is caused by the current complex changes in geopolitics surrounding Russia. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a series of independent and sovereign countries emerged around Russia, but these countries have complicated historical connections with Russia. Geographical proximity and historical connection have led to a geopolitical contradiction between Russia's neighboring countries and Russia itself.

Russia has complex geopolitical relationships in three directions around it. First, the Central Asian region. The recent turmoil in Kazakhstan and the intervention of the Russian-led "Collective Security Treaty Organization" are examples; The first one is the Caucasus region, where a war between Russia and Georgia broke out in 2008; the third one is the Eastern European region where Ukraine is located, where the most critical geographical relationship is vital to Russia's life and death.

The latest information on the situation in Ukraine

1. The Russian Ministry of Defense: Precision-guided weapons are being used to destroy Ukrainian military facilities and aviation forces

February 24, Russia The Defense Ministry said it was using precision-guided weapons to destroy the Ukrainian military's military infrastructure, air defense facilities, military airports and aviation units. In addition, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the attack on Ukraine did not endanger the safety of civilians.

2. The Russian landing operations began in the Black Sea and the Sea of ??Azov

On February 24, local time, Ukrainian military facilities were attacked by missiles. The landing operations of the Black Sea Fleet in the Sea of ??Azov and the Sea of ??Odessa have begun. At present, the Russian army has broken through the Kharkiv state border, and the Ukrainian army command post in Kharkiv has been attacked by rockets.

3. The entire territory of Ukraine has entered a state of war

Ukrainian President Zelensky said in a speech that the entire territory of Ukraine has entered a state of war.

4. Ukraine has announced the closure of the country’s airspace

On February 24, local time, the Ukrainian management authorities announced the closure of the entire country’s airspace. Earlier, the Russian aviation management department had notified all civil aviation companies that it had closed the airspace in the area bordering Ukraine.

For the above content, please refer to China News Service-Russia and Ukraine "why worry about each other?" Expert: Caused by historical origins superimposed on complex current situation