During the
Great Northern War, Hetman
Ivan Mazepa allied with
Charles XII of Sweden in 1708. However, the
Great Frost of 1709 greatly weakened the Swedish army. Following the
Battle of Poltava later in 1709, there was a diminishment in Hetmanate power, culminating with the disestablishment of the Cossack Hetmanate in the 1760s and the destruction of the
Zaporozhian Sich in the 1770s. Following the
Partitions of Poland (1772–1795) and the Russian conquest of the Crimean Khanate, the
Russian Empire and
Habsburg Austria were in control of all the territories that constitute present-day Ukraine for over a hundred years.
Ukrainian nationalism developed in the 19th century.
A
chaotic period of warfare ensued after the
Russian Revolutions of 1917, as well as
a simultaneous war in the former
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria following the dissolution of the
Habsburg monarchy after
World War I. The
Soviet–Ukrainian War (1917–1921) followed, in which the
Bolshevik Red Army established control in late 1919.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine#cite_note-6"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a> The Ukrainian Bolsheviks, who had defeated the
national government in
Kiev, established the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which on 30 December 1922 became one of the founding
republics of the Soviet Union. Initial Soviet policy on the
Ukrainian language and
Ukrainian culture made Ukrainian the
official language of administration and schools. Policy in the 1930s turned to
Russification. In 1932 and 1933, millions of people in Ukraine, mostly peasants, starved to death in a devastating
famine, known as the
Holodomor. It is estimated that 6 to 8 million people died from hunger in the Soviet Union during this period, of whom 4 to 5 million were Ukrainians.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine#cite_note-7"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a>
After the Soviet Union and
Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, the Ukrainian SSR's territory
expanded westward.
Axis armies
occupied Ukraine from 1941 to 1944. During
World War II, elements of the
Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought for Ukrainian independence against both Germany and the Soviet Union, while other elements
collaborated with the Nazis, assisting them in carrying out
the Holocaust in Ukraine and their
oppression of Poles. In 1953,
Nikita Khrushchev, ethnic
Russian former head of the
Communist Party of Ukraine, succeeded as head of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and
enabled more political and cultural freedom, which led to a
Ukrainian revival. In 1954 the republic expanded to the south with the
transfer of Crimea from Russia. Nevertheless, political repressions against poets, historians and other intellectuals continued, as in all other parts of the USSR.
Ukraine became independent when the
Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. This started a period of transition to a
market economy, in which Ukraine suffered an eight-year
recession.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine#cite_note-Macroindicators_NBU-8"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></a> Subsequently however, the economy experienced a high increase in
GDP growth until it plunged during the
Great Recession.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Ukraine#cite_note-9"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a>
A prolonged political crisis began on 21 November 2013, when president
Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for the implementation of
an association agreement with the
European Union, instead choosing to seek closer ties with
Russia. This decision resulted in the
Euromaidan protests and later, the
Revolution of Dignity. Yanukovych was then impeached by the Ukrainian parliament in February 2014. On 20 February, the
Russo-Ukrainian War began when Russian forces
entered Crimea. Soon after, pro-Russian
unrest enveloped the largely
Russophone eastern and
southern regions of Ukraine, from where Yanukovych had drawn most of his support. An
internationally unrecognized referendum in the largely ethnic Russian
Ukrainian autonomous region of
Crimea was held and Crimea was
de facto annexed by Russia on 18 March 2014. The
War in Donbas began in
Donetsk and
Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine involving the Russian military. The war continued until 24 February 2022, when Russia launched a major
invasion of much of the country.
Too bad you can't substantiate your paranoid delusions with evidence.