CLEVELAND — "Since World War II, there's a lot of history there."
Ukraine declared its independence in 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union, but its story goes back centuries.
"I really do believe we need to step back and be very mature and rational and face the Realpolitik that we're in right now," retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steven Oluic says, "and how did we get here, which predates today by decades."
Ukraine has had centuries of changing borders through war over land and power, eventually coming under Moscow's rule in the late 18th century. A territorial tug of war followed, with Poland taking back most of Ukraine after World War I only to return it to Soviet control following World War II.
As the U.S.S.R. began to dissolve in the early 1990s, nearly 85% of Ukrainians voted for independence. They got their wish, and despite what Russian President Vladimir Putin says, most Ukrainians don't want to be back under Russian rule.
"Ukrainians cannot forget because it's part of their family history," Case Western Reserve University History Chair Dr. Kenneth Ledford asserted, "as well as the national history."
Apart from the Cold War era, there is still bitterness over the Great Famine of the early 1930s, which led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. More recently, Ledford notes Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. The United States and European Union have both guided Ukraine since then in its efforts towards democracy and NATO membership, although the White House has said any final decision on joining the treaty organization rests solely with the Ukrainian government.
"Ukraine, having been a questionable democracy, has taken significant strides since 2014 to become a real democracy," Ledford explained. "President Biden said the world would change if Russia invaded Ukraine. Today, a sense of stability is shaken."
So, what comes next?
"Going forward, we have to think about things differently," Ledford said, "not only with Russia and Ukraine or Russia and the Baltics, but with other powers that have border grievances with bordering countries."
"It'll be a large-scale combat organization, [the] likes of which we haven't seen since World War II," Oluic added.