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This article explains the causes of the Russia–Ukraine war starting in 2014 from the energy and energy markets perspective, based on resource dependency theory and the conceptual framework outlined by Jeffrey D. Colgan (2013). Our findings reveal that Russia is critically dependent on revenue from gas exports to Ukraine and the European Union, but also that Ukraine's energy deposits and pipeline system have the potential to be a direct competitive threat to Russia's energy exports. This paper argues that this was the underlying reason and main causal pathway leading to Russia's annexation of Crimea and the subsequent war in eastern Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]