Ukraine at center of power struggle

As a former part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, especially the Black Sea region, has long been the focus of the power games between the United States and Russia.

For nearly two decades, the US government has done its utmost to seek strategic dominance in Ukraine. Now the "Color Revolution" the US has tried to promote in Ukraine and its provision of large-scale aid to Ukraine's pro-West opposition have directly resulted in the current crisis in the East European nation that has ousted its nationally elected president via what Russia described as a coup.

As the US strategist and former US national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski points out in his book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geo-strategic Imperatives, Ukraine is an important part of the US' Eurasian chessboard. The US believes if Ukraine is an independent nation it will help squeeze Russia's geostrategic space and contain Russia's reemergence. Without the support of Ukraine, which boasts a population of 52 million, important resources and Black Sea ports, Russia will no longer be a Eurasian power.