How it came to be: Ukraine drifted further and further away from Russia | Abroad

Ukrainians pay tribute to the victims of the uprising against the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev’s Maidan Square.

Ⓒ EPA

Amsterdam – Zbigniew Brezinski, a prominent American diplomat and White House security adviser, saw the storm in 1994. “Russia can be an empire or a democracy, but it can’t be both,” he declared that year, when President Boris Yeltsin tried to transform his country into a liberal democracy. Nearly three decades later, Vladimir Putin proves him right with his attack on Ukraine.