Historicising and Theorising the Russo-Ukrainian Relationship Since the Soviet Union Collapse

Widespread speculations abound with regard to the causes of Russia’s invasion of its neighbour, Ukraine. In the absence of detailed explanations, comprehensive details are lacking with regard to the motivations for Russia’s offensive on its neighbour. This chapter, thus, offers a brief historical overview of the Russo-Ukrainian relationship since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 so as to flag the motivations for the conflict that eventually broke out on 24 February 2022 between the two countries. Relying on secondary literature, both scholarly and grey, and some archival documents, this chapter deploys a timeline analysis which covers the key events that preceded and unfolded during the course of the war to provide a clear analysis of the causal events. This chapter also shows Ukraine’s vulnerability and the failure of various legal and diplomatic efforts to deter Russia from military belligerence. It concludes that Russia’s disregard of the various legal and diplomatic efforts which uphold state sovereignty is a danger to development efforts. The findings challenge standard diplomacy assumptions that economic sanctions can be an effective approach to deter belligerence.