The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has both economic and political background causes.
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has both economic and political root causes, but the key to the problem is Russia's gas and how to get the gas to Europe.
Europe does depend to a greater extent on Russian gas. It imports more than 46% of gas from Russia, compared to 20% from Norway, 11% from Algeria or 5% from Qatar, according to Eurostat.
Another issue is the passage of Russian gas to Europe through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a system that was to connect Russia with the interior of the EU via the Baltic Sea, without the need to pass through Ukraine.
Ukraine is the main land of passage for fuel supplied to Western Europe, so a suspension of supply could affect several European Union countries, as Ukraine refuses to separate the gas destined abroad from that used for its domestic supply, which is a way of internationalizing the conflict it has with Russia.
As in recent times it has been letting the deadlines imposed to pay expire, Russia has had no choice but to take hostile actions.
Background of the conflict
The conflict began after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukraine's desire to join the European Union and NATO, which is made up of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Luxembourg.
The fact of losing one of its most important allies, because the gas that the Russian government exports to Europe passes through the neighboring country, could deteriorate its economy.
That is why the causes of the war between Russia and Ukraine are several; since it is a conflict that has been latent for several months and ended up exploding after the Ukrainian government made the decision to join the European Union and NATO and that is why Russia declared war.
Due to the possible incorporation of Ukraine into NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin feared losing his economic benefits from the export of gas and made the decision to invade.
One of the main profits of the Kremlin is due to the export of gas to Europe and its commercialization is directly linked to Ukraine and this is because its gas pipelines pass through the whole country led by Volodymir Zelenski.