Публікація на EUobserver

Ever since the EuroMaidan revolution in 2014, Ukraine’s governments have been under close scrutiny to meet the expectations of the supporters of a pro-European, liberal, and democratic model.
The expectations that Ukraine becomes a utopia set a very high bar to meet. The bar is so high, in fact, that it could not possibly be met even by wealthy western nations that have enjoyed peace and stability.

Expecting the impossible meant that criticism of Ukraine’s ‘failure’ to swiftly undertake sweeping social change was inevitable. In recent months, a mounting wave of criticism of the Ukrainian government has flooded the media in Ukraine and abroad.

Unfortunately, these criticisms are often unreasonable, ignoring the reality of what can be achieved under even ideal circumstances, the vast difficulties of conducting reforms, the time required for meaningful institutional change to occur, and the challenge of reform during war time.

Remarkably, Ukraine is expected to pursue its utopian programme at the same time as it is trying to defend itself against Russia’s unprovoked, multi-vectored war.

It is a war which includes a massive information assault to discredit the Ukrainian state, unrestrained hate propaganda to dehumanise Ukrainians, unprecedented economic pressure, political subversion, intimidation of Ukrainian citizens by kidnappings, unlawful prosecution, terrorist attacks, and military invasion on its territory.

It is a war waged by a nuclear state whose population, economy, resources, and military force are several times larger than Ukraine’s, and a war waged by a country which is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council with the power to manipulate the global agenda.

Defending against an enemy like Russia is a gargantuan and all-consuming task on its own.

Публікація на EUobserver

The New Year began with optimism that the Ukraine crisis will be solved quickly. But the solution appears to be on Russia’s terms and at the cost of Ukraine’s national interests.

The problem goes back to the ceasefire accords endorsed by France and Germany in September 2014 (Minsk) and in February 2015 (Minsk 2), the latter precisely one year ago today.

On both occasions, Russia’s envoys sat at the table as observers, not as the representatives of an aggressor state.

The EU leaders and the US played along with the farce. It showed that their main objective was to avoid a large scale war in Europe at almost any cost to Ukraine.

They showed it again by doing nothing when Putin’s forces, a few days after Minsk 2, captured the Ukrainian town of Debaltseve amid a devastating artillery assault.

In the past 12 moths of “ceasefire” his hybrid forces have killed about 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

Nato and Ukrainian intelligence say there are still 8,500 regular Russian troops in east Ukraine and that Russia is preparing to escalate the war at any moment.

In fact, it hasn’t complied with a single point in the Minsk texts.

But the EU and the US are once again showing their true intentions.

The EU is instead piling pressure on Ukraine to fulfil its part of Minsk by devolving power to Russia-occupied Ukraine. US diplomats, as in Kaliningrad in January, are talking to Russia over Ukraine’s head.

It fills Ukrainian people with deep apprehension and mistrust.