From Atlantic Council By Peter Dickinson
There are few more meaningful public holidays on the 2023 calendar than Ukrainian Independence Day. However, with the country locked in a brutal fight for national survival, few are in the mood to celebrate. Instead, this week’s thirty-second anniversary of the 1991 declaration of independence is an opportunity to reflect on the deep historical roots of the war that is currently raging on Europe’s eastern frontier.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion shocked the watching world, but it was actually anything but unprecedented. On the contrary, the war unleashed by Vladimir Putin eighteen months ago is merely the latest chapter in a dark saga of Russian imperial aggression against Ukraine that stretches back centuries. The Ukrainian people may have officially achieved statehood more than three decades ago, but they are still battling to defend their country against a far larger and more powerful neighbor who refuses to accept the reality of an independent Ukraine.
Voice of Ukraine 