Russia Ukraine war, page-1109

@TonEdi - pretty sad, but most likely true - in 1991 the Ukraine was still part of Soviet Russia.

I quote:

"The dissolution of Soviet Russia was an unintended result of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's effort to reform the Soviet political and economic system, in an attempt to end the Era of Stagnation. In late 1991, the leaders of three of the Union's founding and largest republics (the Russian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR) declared that the Soviet Union no longer existed, and eight more republics joined them shortly thereafter. Gorbachev had to resign his office as president and what was left of the parliament to formally acknowledge the Union's collapse as a fait accompli."

The West simply stunned by the news, because it all happened in a relatively short period of time, so it is quite possible as these new states were all scrambling to get out of the Soviet Union and hoping to join the West in some alliance or other, some managed.
The really nasty aspect for Gorbachev was that he was now a man without a job, and Yeltsin, being the second in command of 'Russia' became the new leader of Russia, we all know how that ended. Putin was probably already on the lookout for an opportunity even then.


There is more on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union

Taurisk