page_title: Russia–Ukraine relations
section_title: 1990s
hierarchical_section_title: Russia–Ukraine relations / History of relations / Independent Ukraine / 1990s
caption_attribution_description: English: Embassy of Russia in Kiev, Ukraine
context_page_description: Russia–Ukraine relations refers to the relations between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Currently, the two countries are engaged in the Russo-Ukrainian War which started in 2014 following Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The modern bilateral relationship between the Russian Federation and Ukraine formally started during World War I as the former Russian Empire was going through its political reform. In 1920 the bilateral relationship between two countries was changed as Ukraine was conquered by the Russian Red Army. In 1990s immediately upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, of which both Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine had been formally founding constituent republics, bilateral relations were revived. Relations between the two countries collapsed since the
  2014 Ukrainian revolution, followed by Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and over Russia's backing for the separatists fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic in a war that by early 2020 had killed more than 13,000 people and brought Western sanctions on Russia.
context_section_description: After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine held almost 5,000 nuclear weapons, about one third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal and the third largest in the world at the time, as well as significant means of its design and production. 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 warheads remained on Ukrainian territory. While Ukraine had physical control of the weapons, it did not have operational control, as they were dependent on Russian-controlled electronic Permissive Action Links and the Russian command and control system. In 1992, Ukraine agreed to voluntarily remove over 3,000 tactical nuclear weapons. Following the signing of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances among the U.S., the U.K., and Russia, as well as similar agreements with France and China, Ukraine agreed to destroy the rest of its nuclear weapons, and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
  Additionally, several acute disputes formed between the two countries. The first was the question of the Crimea which the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic had administered since 1954. This however was largely resolved in an agreement that allowed for Crimea to remain part of Ukraine, provided its Autonomous Republic status is preserved.
  The second major dispute of the 1990s was the city of Sevastopol, with its base of the Black Sea Fleet. During the fall of the Soviet state the city along with the rest of Ukraine participated in the national referendum for independence of Ukraine where 57.07% of the turnout voted for the succession of the city in favour of the Ukrainian state, yet the Supreme Soviet of Russia voted to reclaim the city as its territory in 1993. After several years of intense negotiations, in 1997 the whole issue was resolved by partitioning the Black Sea Fleet and leasing some of the naval bases in Sevastopol to the Russian Navy until 2017. In 1997 the Friendship Treaty, which fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, respect for territorial integrity and mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other, was signed.
  Another major dispute was related to the energy supplies, as several Soviet—Western Europe oil and gas pipelines ran through Ukraine. Later after new treaties came into effect, Ukraine's gas debt arrears to Russia were paid off by transfer of some nuclear-capable weapons that Ukraine inherited from the USSR, to Russia such as the Tu-160 strategic bombers.
  During the 1990s both countries along with other ex-Soviet states founded the Commonwealth of Independent States and large business partnerships came into effect.
  While the Russian share in Ukraine's exports declined from 26.2 percent in 1997 to around 23 percent in 1998–2000, the share of imports held steady at 45–50 percent of the total. Overall, between one third and one half of Ukraine's trade was with the Russian Federation. Dependence was particularly strong in energy. Up to 70–75 percent of annually consumed gas and close to 80 percent of oil came from Russia. On the export side, too, dependence was significant. Russia remained Ukraine's primary market for ferrous metals, steel plate and pipes, electric machinery, machine tools and equipment, food, and products of chemical industry. It has been a market of hope for Ukraine's high value-added goods, more than nine tenths of which were historically tied to the Russian consumer. Old buyers gone by 1997, Ukraine had experienced a 97–99 percent drop in production of industrial machines with digital control systems, television sets, tape recorders, excavators, cars and trucks. At the same time, and in spite of the postcommunist slowdown, Russia came out as the fourth-largest investor in the Ukrainian economy after the US, the Netherlands, and Germany, having contributed $150.6 million out of $2.047 billion in foreign direct investment that Ukraine had received 
caption: Embassy of Russia in Kiev
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