The long game of Ukraine and Russia | Opinion

Stacey Abrams announced her candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president last week when she stood up President Biden’s speech in Atlanta. Over in the senate, Lindsey Graham announced his candidacy for Senate Republican leader when he attacked Mitch McConnell. The news media spent their time talking about COVID and the failures of Congress. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, Russia has massed troops on its border with Ukraine.

Ukraine is the heartland of old Russian, and Kiev is the ancient capital of Russia. How Ukraine came to be separated from Russia is a long story that stretches back over 700 years to the time that the Mongul horde conquered half the world before falling into disarray. The Mongols burned Kiev to the ground, whereupon Poland and Lithuania invaded and seized Ukraine. Poland and Lithuania were Catholic countries, while Russia was an Orthodox country. Poles and Lithuanians then colonized the western part of Ukraine and established Catholicism as the primary religion. Eastern Ukraine, east of the Dnieper River remained largely Russian and Orthodox. Ukraine has been an ethnically and religious divided territory ever since.

Weakened Russia suffered one invasion after another from the West for the next 700 years: the German Teutonic Knights, Poland, Sweden, Lithuania, Prussia, France, Germany, and Germany again. Everybody wanted Russia. This succession of invasions has led to a general Russian paranoia about the motives and intentions of neighboring countries. Russia has neighboring countries galore. She shares borders with 14 countries, while a few miles across narrow straits lie Japan and the United States. Of course, Russia is paranoid.

After the Russian people threw off the yoke of tyranny of the brutal Soviet state, they expected the warm embrace of the West. Instead, NATO installed missiles in Poland next to Russia and said they were for defense against North Korea . . . on the other side of the globe. No wonder Russia is paranoid. Then in 2014, a coup toppled the Ukrainian government friendly to Russia and replaced it with a government friendly to the European Union. The political division within the country followed the divide between the two large cultural groups. The new government imposed a new minority status on the Russian language, the language of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea. In this climate, Russia troops stationed in Crimea seized control of that territory which Russia then annexed.

In some ways, the Ukrainian situation is like the divide between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland has a majority population of Ulster Protestants descended from the Calvinists that Cromwell sent to Ireland in the seventeenth century. In terms of Russia’s evident desire for the return of Ukraine, it would be similar to an aspiration of Mexico to gain the return of Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. It resembles in some ways the Arab-Israeli dispute over Jerusalem or the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir. It involves language, religion, culture, and centuries of history.

Peter the Great had his son executed for negotiating with the Austrians for their support in exchange for Ukraine. Lenin traded Ukraine to Germany in exchange for a separate peace in World War I. The conflict has a long history, and American politicians who deal with it in short sound bites and simple slogans will not help the situation.

Harry Lee Poe is the Charles Colson Professor of Faith and Culture at Union University. Readers can write to him c/o Union University, 1050 Union University Drive, Jackson, TN 38305.

This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: The long game of Ukraine and Russia | Opinion