In Ukraine

See also: Remember about the Gas – Do not buy Russian goods!, Do not buy Russian goods!,
and Boycott Russian Films
Ukrainian attitudes towards Russia
Opinion October June September November September January April Mar– June
2008[243] 2009[259] 2009[245] 2009[246] 2011[247] 2012[247] 2013[260] Jun 2015[262]
2014[261]
Good 88% 91% 93% 96% 80% 86% 70% 35% 21%
Negative 9% - - - 13% 9% 12% 60% 72%
A poll released on 5 November 2009 showed that about 67% of Ukrainians believed the
relationship with Russia should be a friendship between "two independent states". [246] According
to a 2012 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 72% of Ukrainians preferred
Ukraine and Russia as independent but friendly states with open borders without visas or
customs; the number of unification supporters shrunk by 2% to 14% in Ukraine. [255]
In December 2014, 85% of Ukrainians (81% in eastern regions) rated relations with Russia as
hostile (56%) or tense (29%), according to a Deutsche Welle survey which did not include
Crimea and the separatist-controlled part of Donbass.[263] Gallup reported that 5% of Ukrainians
(12% in the south and east) approved of the Russian leadership in a September–October 2014
survey, down from 43% (57% in the south and east) a year earlier. [264]
In September 2014, a survey by Alexei Navalny of the mainly Russophone cities
of Odessa and Kharkiv found that 87% of residents wanted their region to stay in Ukraine, 3%
wanted to join Russia, 2% wanted to join "Novorossiya," and 8% were undecided. [265] A KIIS poll
conducted in December 2014 found 88.3% of Ukrainians were opposed to joining Russia. [266]
According to Al Jazeera, "A poll conducted in 2011 showed that 49% of Ukrainians had relatives
living in Russia. ... a recent [March 2019] poll conducted by the independent Russian research
centre "Levada" shows that 77% of Ukrainians and 82% of Russians think positively of each
other as people."[267]

Treaties and agreements

 1654 March Articles (2 April 1654)[268] (undermined by the Truce of Vilna, Treaty of
Hadiach, Treaty of Andrusovo)
o approved by the Cossack Council (Pereiaslav, 18 January 1654)
 Union Workers'-Peasants' treaty (28 December 1920) [269]
 Union treaty (30 December 1922; 31 January 1924) (surpassed by the Belavezha
Accords)[269]
o approved by the 7th All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (10 December
1922)[270]
o ratified by the 9th All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets (May 1924) [269]
 1954 Soviet Decree: Transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the RSFSR to the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (February 1954) [271]
o decreed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (19
February 1954)[272]
Leaders of Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian Soviet republics signed the Belavezha Accords, dissolving
the Soviet Union, 8 December 1991

 Treaty between the Russian SFSR and the Ukrainian SSR (Kyiv, 19 November
1990) (surpassed by the treaty of 1997)[273]
o ratified by the Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR (23 November
1990)[273]
o ratified by the Supreme Council of Ukraine (1990) "yes": 352, "nay": 0 [273]
 Belavezha Accords (8 December 1991)
 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances  (5 December 1994)
o Following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the
subsequent War in Donbas in 2014, Ukraine,[135] the US,[274][275] Canada,
[276]
 the UK,[277] along with other countries,[278] stated that Russian
involvement is a breach of its obligations to Ukraine under the Budapest
Memorandum, a Memorandum signed by Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, John
Major, and Leonid Kuchma,[279][280] and in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty
and territorial integrity.
 Partition Treaty on the Status and Conditions of the Black Sea Fleet  (Kyiv, 28 May
1997)[34]
o ratified by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation (2 March
1999)
o the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by
433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014. [281]
 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership Between the Russian Federation
and Ukraine (Kyiv, 31 May 1997)[282]
 Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on Cooperation in the Use of
the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait (2003)
 2010 Kharkiv Pact
o both the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments did ratify the agreement on
27 April 2010[99]
o the State Duma approved the denunciation of the treaty unanimously by
433 members of parliament on 31 March 2014 [281]
Ukraine (has also) terminated several treaties and agreement with Russia since the start of
the 2014 Crimea crisis (for example agreements in the military and technical cooperation sphere
signed in 1993).[283][284]
In December 2019, Ukraine and Russia agreed to implement a complete ceasefire in eastern
Ukraine by the year-end. The negotiations were brokered by France and Germany, where the
countries in conflict committed an extensive prisoner swap along with withdrawal of Ukraine's
military from three major regions falling on the front line. [285]

Territorial disputes
Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, is shown in pink. Pink in the Donbass area represents areas held
by the DPR/LPR separatists in September 2014 (cities in red)

A number of territorial disputes exist between two countries:

 Crimea including Sevastopol, Kerch Strait, Sea of Azov. Russia lays claims onto

territory of Crimea by the resolution #1809-1 of the Supreme Council of the Russian
Federation "On legal evaluation of decisions of the supreme bodies of state power of
the RSFSR about changing the status of Crimea that was adopted in 1954"
violationg. In 2014, Crimea was annexed by Russia. Ukraine considers this as an
annexation and as a violation of international law and agreements by Russia,
including the Agreement Establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States in
1991, Helsinki Accords, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons of
1994 and Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian
Federation and Ukraine.[286] The event was condemned by many world leaders as an
illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, in violation of the 1994 Budapest
Memorandum on sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, signed by Russia.
[287]
 It led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group,
[288]
 then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The United
Nations General Assembly also rejected the vote and annexation, adopting a non-
binding resolution affirming the "territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally
recognized borders".[289][290] See also: International reactions to the annexation of
Crimea by the Russian Federation, International sanctions during the Russo-
Ukrainian War
 Tuzla Island. The Tuzla conflict is unresolved since 2003.
 Some Russian nationalists have disputed Ukraine's independent existence,
considering Ukrainians (as well as Belarusians) to belong to the Russian nation, and
Ukraine to belong to Greater Russia.[291] In 2006, Putin reportedly stated, "Ukraine is
not even a state"; after the annexation of Crimea, he stated in July 2021 that
Ukrainians and Russians "are one people". In February 2020, leading Kremlin
ideologue Vladislav Surkov stated, "There is no Ukraine".[292][293] According to
international relations scholar Björn Alexander Düben, "Among the Russian public it
is commonly regarded as self-evident that Crimea has historically been Russian
territory, but also that all of Ukraine is in essence a historical part of Russia". [294]

 In 2022, UK defence minister Ben Wallace characterized Putin's article “On the

Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” as a "skewed and selective reasoning to
justify, at best, the subjugation of Ukraine and at worse the forced unification of that
sovereign country."[295]