the illashingtalt post Maps: How Ukraine became Ukraine lshaan 'Maroon March 9, 2015 For the past year, Ukraine has been plunged into chaos. Mass protests against pro- Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych led to his ouster in February 2014. That sparked a spiraling crisis: a fledgling interim government in Kiev looked on as Russia first seized and then annexed the territory of Crimea, a strategic Black Sea peninsula. A pro-Russian separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, believed to have direct backing from Moscow, has led to the deaths of thousands since. To some, Ukraine has become the geopolitical faultline between the liberal democratic West and authoritarian, neo-imperial Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Foreign policy luminaries in Washington openly discuss the current state of affairs as a new Cold War. Beneath the political divisions of the present lies a country's deep, complex past. The land that's now Ukraine has long been dear to Russian nationalists. But it has also been home to a host of other peoples and empires. Its shifting borders and overlapping histories all have echoes in the current heated moment. What follows is a sketch of how Ukraine became Ukraine over 1,300 years of history, mapped by The Washington Post's cartographer Gene Thorp. Ukraine's modern borders are outlined in green throughout. /Well Na ' is:79177- ,4 ', —1W ir 4he o Kievan Rua y 414•644 4.• • y 4 7 ege CovprOn40. • 44 Wage of 7 41144 1054 1O1 14"•1 UKRAINE ." I R E rP 0D4 T40•4/04M45.04GTOMPOS7 EFTA01205765