Nato indirectly provoked crisis

The situation in Ukraine and Crimea is now fraught with danger. If violent conflict occurs the people of Ukraine and Crimea could once again suffer catastrophically, having suffered more than any other European country under Stalin and Hitler.

For most Ukrainians, Crimea is part of Ukraine, but historically Russia has a substantial claim to it, and the Tatar people have always had ambitions for independence, but their population was decimated by Stalin’s deportation to central Asia. Russians now make up 58% of Crimea, with 24% Ukrainians and only 12% Tartars. Crimea only became part of Ukraine in 1954 when Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev gave Crimea as a gift to Ukraine.

The Crimean peninsula is of vital strategic importance to Russia, due to its access to the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. It is likely that Russia could have lived with a pro-western government in Kiev developing closer economic ties with the West, but it was the spectre of Ukraine joining NATO, thereby sealing off Russian strategic access to the south that was always going to be unacceptable.