Importanța geostrategică a Ucrainei în masterplanul Federației Ruse

After the collapse of the former communist colossus USSR, the Russian Federation constantly acted on the political scene of international relations in the direction of regaining the quality of a world power – and, implicitly, a formidable opponent and/or an equal partner at the negotiation table for the Western states. Thus, through its destabilizing actions that it undertakes in the Black Sea Region, Russia becomes a factor in undermining the order of international relations at the regional level, echoing in the entire international political system. In this article, I want to investigate the geostrategic importance of Ukraine for the Russian Federation’s long-term plans. Therefore, I aim to explore the way in which Russia decided to defy the rules established in the international relations system and to act aggressively towards Ukraine – in a first stage, taking the decision to illegally annex Crimea (March 2014) to Russia – a form of a hybrid war (the mixture of illicit means of action with elements specific to organized crime and acts of terrorism), respectively to invade the Ukrainian state with the army (February 2022), called by Russian officials special operation to denazify Ukraine. From this perspective, analyzing in a comparative way the actions of Russia undertaken in Ukraine (the annexation of Crimea phase vs. invasion/ military action phase) will allow revealing some specific elements of the modus operandi of the Russian Federation and also the geostrategic importance of the Ukraine for Russia. The findings of the research, when combined with theoretical elements from the field of international relations and geopolitics theory, are likely to lead to the identification of the geostrategic importance of Ukraine for Russia. Additionally, it may reveal operational patterns of the Kremlin in Ukraine, which could be replicated in other states within the Black Sea Region.