Russia – Ukraine. 25 Years Between “Limited Cooperation and Limited Confrontation”

Abstract

state sovereignty of USSR” by the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Socialistic Soviet Republic on the 16th July 1990, Ukraine has been following the path leading towards independence. The document transformed Ukraine into a subject of international law. Although, during the referendum held on the 17th March 1991, initiated by the head of the Soviet state Mikhail Gorbachev, over 70% of Ukrainian citizens voted in favour of the existence of the Soviet Union, there was no will to defend the collapsing empire amongst Ukrainian elites, including the communist ones1. The percentage of the supporters of the USSR was anyway much higher than in other republics2. The project of The Union of Sovereign Soviet States put forward in Kiev in June 1991 provoked mass demonstrations of people who supported the full independence of Ukraine. The project of The Union of Sover-