Russia and Ukraine have had no formal diplomatic relations since 24 February 2022.

The Russian Federation and Ukraine are currently in a state of war: the Russo-Ukrainian

War began in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. In February
2022, Russia invaded Ukraine across a broad front.
After the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, the successor states' bilateral relations have
undergone periods of ties, tensions, and outright hostility. In the early 1990s, Ukraine's policy
was dominated by aspirations to ensure its sovereignty and independence, followed by a foreign
policy that balanced cooperation with the EU, Russia, and other powerful polities. [1]
Relations between the two countries have been hostile since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity,
which toppled Ukraine's elected president Viktor Yanukovych and his supporters, because he
refused to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union that
enjoyed majority support in Ukraine's parliament. Ukraine's post-revolutionary government
wished to commit the country to a future within the EU and NATO, rather than continue to play
the delicate diplomatic game of balancing its own economic and security interests with those of
Russia, the EU, and NATO members. In 2004 the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia had joined the EU, followed
by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 (see Member state of the European Union). The Russian
government feared that Ukraine's membership of the EU and NATO would complete a western
wall of allied countries by restricting Russia's access to the Black Sea. With South Korea and
Japan being allied to the US, the Russian government was concerned that Russia was being
ring-fenced by potentially hostile powers. In the wake of the Revolution of Dignity, Russia backed
separatist militias in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in a
war in Ukraine's economically important Donbas region, on its eastern border with Russia. This
region has a Russian ethnic majority. By early 2022 the Russo-Ukrainian War had killed more
than 13,000 people, and brought some Western sanctions on Russia.[2]
In 2019, amendments were made to the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrined the
irreversibility of the country's strategic course towards EU and NATO membership. Throughout
2021 and 2022, Russian military buildup on the border of Ukraine has escalated tensions
between the two countries and strained bilateral relations, with the United States sending a
strong message that invasion would be met with dire consequences for Russia's economy. [3][4] On
24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, which prompted Ukraine to break diplomatic ties with
its eastern neighbour.[5][6]

Contents

 1Country comparison
 2History of relations
o 2.1Kyivan Rus'
o 2.2Muscovy and the Russian Empire
o 2.3Soviet Union
 2.3.1Ukrainian People's Republic
 2.3.2Holodomor
 3Current relations
o 3.11990s
 3.1.1Nuclear Disarmament
 3.1.2Division of the Black Sea Fleet and Sevastopol
 3.1.3Economics
o 3.22000s
 3.2.1Second Tymoshenko government
o 3.32010s
 3.3.1Viktor Yanukovych presidency
 3.3.2Economic integration and Euromaidan
  3.3.3Annexation of Crimea and war in eastern Ukraine
 3.3.4Continued deterioration of relations
 3.3.5Volodymyr Zelensky presidency
o 3.42020s
 4Border
 5Armaments and aerospace industries
 6Popular opinion
o 6.1In Russia
o 6.2In Ukraine
 7Treaties and agreements
 8Territorial disputes
 9See also
 10Notes
 11References
 12Further reading
 13External links

Country comparison
Russia Ukraine

Flag

Coat of
Arms

Population 146,171,015 (including Crimea) [7] 41,319,838 (excluding Crimea) [8]

Area 17,125,191 km2 (6,612,073 sq mi) [9] 603,550 km2 (233,030 sq mi)[10]

Population
8/km2 (21/sq mi) 73.8/km2 (191/sq mi)
density

Time zones 9 1

Exclusive 8,095,881 km2 (3,125,837 sq mi) 147,318 km2 (56,880 sq mi)

economic
zone

Capital Moscow Kyiv

Moscow (pop. 12,197,596; 20,004,462 Kyiv (pop. 2,900,920; 3,375,000

Largest city
Metro) Metro)

Governmen Federal semi-presidential Unitary semi-presidential

t constitutional republic constitutional republic

Official
Russian Ukrainian
language

34% Orthodox Church of Ukraine[12]

27.6% Orthodox unaffiliated
71% Orthodox[11] 13.8% Ukrainian Orthodox Church
15% non-religious (Moscow Patriarchate)
Main 10% Islam 8.2% Ukrainian Greek Catholic
religions 2% other Christian 0.7% Protestant and Evangelical
<1% Catholic 0.4% Roman Catholic
1% other religion 0.6% other
8.8% non-denominational
5.6% non-Religious

80.90% Russians
8.75% Turkic peoples
3.96% other Indo-European-speakers 77.8% Ukrainians
Ethnic
(2.03% Ukrainians) 17.3% Russians
group
3.78% Caucasians 4.9% others/unspecified
1.76% Finnic and Mongolian
peoples and others

GDP
(nominal) b $1,576 billion[13] $126 billion[13]
y the IMF

GDP
(PPP) by $4,328 billion[14] $576 billion[14]
the IMF

GDP $11,273 (2021) $4,384(2021)

(nominal)
per
capita by
the IMF

GDP (PPP)
per
$29,495 (2021) $13,943 (2021)
capita by
the IMF

 Russian Armed  Ukrainian Armed

Military Forces (2020) 900,000[15]: 190– Forces (2020) 209,000[15]: 
strength 205, 212  208–212 

Army 280,000
o oArmy 145,000
Navy 150,000
o oNavy 11,000
Air Force
o oAir
165,000 Force 45,000
o Strategic o Airborne 8,00
Rocket 0
Forces 50,000 o Special
o Airborne 45,00 Operations
0 Forces (not
o Special known)
Operations  Paramilitary 102,000
Forces 1,000 o National
o Railway Guard 60,000
Forces 29,000 (estimated)
o Command and o Border
Support Guard 42,000
180,000 (estimated)
 Paramilitary 554,000  Reserve 900,000
o Border
Guard 160,000
(estimated)
o Federal
Guard 40,000–
50,000
(estimated)
o FSB Special
Purpose
Centre 4,000
(estimated)
o National
Guard 340,000
(estimated)
 Reserve 2,000,000
Of the above, 28,000 are in Crimea,
internationally recognized as part of
Ukraine, and 3,000 reported in eastern
Ukraine.[15]: 212 

 Eastern Ukraine separatist

forces[15]: 212 
 o Donetsk
People's
Republic 20,00
0 (estimated)
o Luhansk
People's
Republic 14,00
0 (estimated)
Current
Vladimir Putin Volodymyr Zelensky
President
Current
Prime Mikhail Mishustin Denys Shmyhal
Minister
Nuclear
warheads
1,600 / 6,850 (2019) 0 / 0 (2019)
active/total

History of relations
Kyivan Rus'

Kyiv functioned as the capital of Kyivan Rus, which was ruled by the Varangian Rurikid dynasty which
gradually became Slavicized.

Both Russia and Ukraine claim their heritage from the Rus (also known as Kyivan Rus or Ancient
Rus), a polity that united several tribes and clans of different ethnicities under the Byzantine
church in the 10th century. According to old Russian chronicles, Kyiv, the capital of modern
Ukraine, was proclaimed the mother of Rus (Russian/Ruthenian) cities as it was the capital of the
powerful late Medieval state of Rus.[16]