Why Ukraine Is Divided

Amanda Taub, VOX: The real roots of the war in eastern Ukraine

We tend to talk about the conflict in eastern Ukraine as a tale of Russian aggression. That's not inaccurate — but it isn't the full story, either.

It's true Russia took advantage of Ukraine's weakness after massive protests forced former President Viktor Yanukovych out of office a year ago, first by invading and occupying Crimea, and then by backing a violent separatist movement in eastern Ukraine. Putin's aggression helped spark the war, and it has helped prolong it.

But as this video explains, Ukraine was already deeply divided long before the current conflict broke out in the country's east. Those divisions laid the groundwork for the war and have fueled it ever since. It's those divisions that lie at the root of the separatist conflict, and they mean that any solution to the war will need to be political as well as military.

WNU Editor: A few errors in the above video .... namely .... the Russian speaking populations in eastern Ukraine have been there for almost 1,000 years .... they were not resettled in the past hundred or few hundred years. Stalin's orchestrated Ukraine famine targeted everyone .... the Communists did not care if you were Ukrainian or Russian. Otherwise .... the above video gives a good summary on what divides in Ukraine .... namely that it involves more than just interference from Moscow, and that to achieve a lasting peace the leaders of Ukraine will need to address Ukraine's deep linguistic and cultural differences.