MIN READFeb 23, 2016 | 09:00 GMT

Children hold portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin as they take part in a rally in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Ukraine has become a symbol of the ongoing competition between two superpowers: Russia and the West.

(MAX VETROV/AFP/Getty Images)

Throughout the Cold War, the symbolic center of the standoff between the Soviets and the West was Germany, split in two, much as the whole of Europe was, by the infamous Iron Curtain. But now, a new center has emerged in Ukraine as East and West face off against each another once again, dividing the country in ways that could prove to be just as enduring as the decades-long partition of Germany....