Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day, the 25th or 26th time such a day has been marked in modern Ukraine, depending on whose reckoning you follow.

Measured by area, Ukraine is the largest country whose land mass lies entirely within continental Europe. Formerly a Soviet Socialist Republic, it became independent due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

The Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine was passed by the Ukrainian Parliament on August 24, 1991, five days after Russia’s Communist Party old guard had tried and failed to stage a coup in Moscow. The Kiev legislators’ vote for independence was overwhelming – 321 for, two against, six abstentions – but independence was not finally confirmed until a referendum a little over three months later on December 1.

The referendum was of Scottish indyref proportions in terms of turnout – 84 per cent of the electorate took part but, unlike Scotland, it was not a close run thing, with 92.3 per cent voting Yes.

Leonid Kravchuk, chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, was elected first President of Ukraine that day, and he joined in the formal dissolution of the USSR later that month.

At first, December 1 was officially recognised as Independence Day, only for August 24 to be later reinstated as the day on which this country of such huge strategic importance celebrates its independence.

POST-INDEPENDENCE UKRAINE’S EARLY YEARS

At first, due to a crippled economy, Ukraine’s people suffered financial hardship while embracing the benefits of freedom – from having the third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons in the world, Ukraine went to having zero nuclear capability as the largest of three former Soviet republics to unilaterally disarm, the others being Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Despite widespread corruption in politics and business, the country’s economy began to improve in the new millennium but, practically from its foundation, Ukraine has been subject to the attentions of Russia and particularly that country’s president from 2000, Vladimir Putin. He made no secret of his wish to keep Ukraine in the fold of a “‘Greater Russia’” but no one really suspected his long-term game plan.

When the Ukrainian presidential election of 2004 returned the pro-Putin Viktor Yanukovych, the people cried “‘foul”’ and the Orange Revolution promptly brought forward Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko as leaders of a pro-European bloc.

The former survived an horrendous assassination attempt that left him disfigured, while the latter has been jailed for her activities. With support from pro-Russian activists and trade unionists, Yanukovych meanwhile clung to power.

RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT

With popular support growing for deals with the European Union, Yanukovych opted to sign contracts with Russia in late 2013, an action that led directly to civil unrest which ousted him.

In turn his removal from office led to last year’s conflict between government troops based in Kiev and the western part of the country on one side, and pro-Russian irregular forces in Eastern Ukraine.

Putin’s annexation of Crimea early last year was ‘legitimised’, as he saw it, by a referendum of the undoubtedly pro-Russian population in Crimea.

Despite Moscow’s claims of non-involvement, Russian arms have helped the irregulars in eastern Ukraine make significant gains. After the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, apparently by a Russian-supplied missile, and the killing of all 298 people on board, the conflict escalated still further and it is believed that as many as 7,000 people have died despite numerous ceasefires.


THE TRAGEDY OF INDEPENDENCE DAY, 2015

There will be celebrations, but whether they will unite Ukraine or dismember it is a moot point. Yesterday, Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko spoke gloomily of a military threat from the east for decades to come.

What is abundantly clear is that there is a vast and growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.

Aid agency Mercy Corps is one of the very few organisations working to bring humanitarian relief to civilians on the front line of the conflict in Luhansk Oblast (province) in |Eastern Ukraine.

According to the Corps, since the conflict erupted last year, 1.4 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and five million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

“As Ukrainians around the world celebrate the nation’s independence day, more and more people are suffering because of violence in the east,” says Stu Willcuts, Mercy Corps’ director in Ukraine.

“People have exhausted all their personal resources, they have worn out the hospitality of their host families, and they are desperate for help.”

In just the past month, 33,000 newly displaced people have registered for support.

Mercy Corps has set up and runs a telephone hotline that is advertised in newspapers and on posters throughout Luhansk Oblast. Those who need food, water and other assistance can call the hotline on a toll-free number.

Between three and five operators are dealing with 100-150 calls for help every day. Nearly 30,000 people have been registered through the hotline, and each person is interviewed and a questionnaire filled in.

Mercy Corps selects first, second and third level beneficiaries based on the data. Overwhelmingly, the main needs people share are food, medicine, cleaning materials and money for utilities.

Willcuts adds: “As winter approaches, Mercy Corps is working hard to restore war-damaged homes in government-controlled areas.

“More than 13,000 homes throughout Ukraine are in need of repair. We want to ensure that each family has at least one dry, winterised, warm room that can be used for shelter.”

With funding from the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the World Food Programme, Mercy Corps’ teams have also provided food, water and sanitation services to more than 100,000 people in Ukraine towns controlled by non-government forces, with plans to reach a total of 750,000 people by the end of 2015.