Few issues are more topical today than the question of Ukraine. The present contribution is dedicated to examining the key aspects of this territory, which has only been an independent country since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and is currently a key—and war-torn—territory on Europe’s eastern border, in order to understand and explain it. In essence, the aim is to think about—and explain—Ukraine’s uncertain past, focusing first on the frustrated dream of an independent state between the First and Second World Wars, and then on the situation of Ukrainian territories during the Second World War. The final corollary is to establish whether, in the current situation, the aspiration for a truly independent Ukraine is possible, taking into account the background that developed in the first half of the twentieth century.