Russia, an ally of the Syrian Regime, turned houses into ruins, demolished villages and displaced thousands of Syrians from their home and land in the past 11 years of war. Today, Russia launched a devastating attack on Ukraine, hitting multiple cities and bases with air raids and attacking land and sea.  

In 1922, Russia and Ukraine became two of the founding members of the Soviet Union. Later in 1991, The Soviet Union was terminated via a treaty. Ukraine became independent and began a transition to a market economy.  

Since 1994, the division of the Black Sea Fleet and developments in Crimea have become the dominant aspects of Russian-Ukrainian relations. Russia attempts to maintain its strategic presence in the Black Sea to control the port of Sevastopol, a key naval base of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet.  

In February 2014, protests in Ukraine overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych, who was friendly to Russian interests. In April 2014, Russia invaded and then annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.

Tartus, Western Syria, is the centre of a rich agricultural region and has had a Russian naval presence since 1971. At the time, the Soviet Union was Syria’s primary arms supplier and used the port as a destination for shipments of Soviet weapons. After the fall of the U.S.S.R, Russia managed to maintain access to Tartus due in part to a deal that wrote off Syrian debts to the Soviet Union. On 30 September 2015, Russia launched its first airstrikes against targets in Ar Rastan, Talbiseh, and Zafaraniyeh in Homs province of Syria.

Russia has interfered militarily in both Ukraine and Syria. The civil war in Syria forced Russia to stop using its naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus in 2013; therefore, the Sevastopol naval port has become even more crucial for Russia today.