When Russia occupied the Ukrain a few years ago, it was a major international incident. The diplomacy between Putin and Trump and the nature of their relationship was obscure on several levels and confusing on several issues. What was clear was that Russia reoccupied a strategic territory (including major military bases and industries) that was once part of the former Soviet Union and had a large proportion of Russian citizens living there. Russia's post-soviet borders were drawn in such a way that when the former Soviet Unioon broke apart into separate independent nations, large swaths of territory with ethnic Russians, and their industries ended up in the Ukraine.

There is an old fashioned and much beloved basic issue of sovereignty and national identity based on the concept of irredentism. This is the desire for minorities caught on the other side of a new border to want to remain or return to the "mother culture". At the very least they do not want to be minority or second-class citizens in another country. So, they staged a revolt, and asked the Russians to come to their aid, and that is exactly what happened. Violently, as the Ukrainian army rightly saw this as an invasion.

The violation of the internationally recognized borders in this annexation belies the reality of Russia's defacto real-world long-term occupation and effective governance of territories outside the current Russian Federation boundaries. These include a region that was disjunct with Russians living within what became an independent Ukraine, after the fall of the Soviet Union. (This also occurred in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, with terrible conflicts resulting among several groups.) Besides the conflict described below, several other unresolved Russian people’s sovereignty situations remain. Latvia and Estonia have a significant resident Russian ethnic population, so does Transdniestria, as did the central Asia republics until they migrated.

1.Define sovereignty (and the related terms autonomy or colony (preferably from a geography or political science source) with an example that is different from the one cited below. Perhaps as it applies to the national level verses state level responsibilities in the USA as it related to COVID. include appropriate graphics.

A  negotiated in Minsk, capital of Belarus, between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine went into effect Friday. Fighting has raged through the summer in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, industrial hotbeds near the border with Russia, leading to thousands of deaths. "The highest value is human life, and we must do everything possible to stop the bloodshed and put an end to suffering," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement.

Throughout the crisis, Moscow has been accused by officials in Kiev and the West of arming and abetting the rebels. Last week, NATO presented  claiming that Russia had sent in its own forces into the country.

It's unclear how long this cease-fire will last. But in the brief quiet, it's worth noting how Russia is establishing new facts on the ground. President Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his dreams of a greater Russia, wrapped up in a Soviet nostalgia that is gaining traction among Russians.

A few years ago, Russia (re)annexed Crimea in a swift takeover involving paramilitary forces stationed with its Black Sea Fleet. It then staged a referendum it had no chance of losing, given that the majority of the peninsula's population is pro-Russian.

Crimea joined a series of  scattered around Europe where local breakaway governments have turned into de facto Russian client states. Abkhazia and South Ossetia, bolstered in their separatist ambitions following Georgia's war with Russia in 2008, exist beyond the authority of Tblisi. The sliver of land that is Transnistria, a breakaway republic on the Ukrainian border with Moldova, is  by Western media as the last corner of the Soviet Union.

If the rebel-held territory in the eastern Ukrainian regions Donetsk and Luhansk remain autonomous or in separatist hands, it would mark Moscow's most considerable gains yet. This is Ukraine's  and a key wing of the , a Russian imperialist vision for its domains by the Black Sea that dates back to the 18th century.

2. What is the situation now? Have people accepted the status quo of Usi Possidentis? Define national sovereignty or territorial conquest.

for a much more detailed analysis of the conflict in the eastern Ukraine, Go to this site.

3. Look up this conflict and report on what the situation is now. Will the cease fire hold? Is Ukraine now back under Russian control? Find a map and a write or copy a quick update on the situation.