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In the waning days of 1991, Ukraine stood at the edge of a historic transformation. The Soviet Union, long a monolith of centralized power and repression, was in its final throes. On December 1 of that year, Ukraine’s population voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence in a national referendum. Approximately 84 percent of eligible voters participated, and around 90 percent supported secession from the crumbling Soviet system. Concurrently, Ukrainians elected Leonid Kravchuk as their first president. This moment was more than a political rupture — it was a national rebirth.
Ukraine’s early independence years were marked by immense promise as well as daunting challenges. The collapse of the Communist Party and the appointment of Kostiantyn Morozov as Minister of Defense laid the foundation for Ukraine’s own military infrastructure. Symbolically and institutionally, Ukraine was shedding the vestiges of Soviet rule and asserting its sovereignty. It did so in the face of sustained pressure from Moscow, which sought to pull Ukraine into a restructured Soviet entity. However, the firm will of the Ukrainian people prevailed, and a week after the referendum, Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus signed the agreement to create the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which heralded the formal dissolution of the USSR.
In The Global geopolitics, truth is one, but the wise interpret it differently.— Here, we interpret these diversions
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