Since Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union twenty years ago, the country’s 46 million citizens have been knocked about by the turbulent political climate and the contradicting pulls from the Moscow to the East and Brussels to the West. Now, Ukraine’s predominant political figures are finally all pushing in the same direction. In a foreign policy which hopes to offer Ukraine’s inhabitants the possibility of future freedom, justice and higher living standards, Kiev is facing towards the European Union.
For Ukraine, what was once a dilemma has now become a simple decision. The country’s linguistic and cultural connections to Mother Russia are indisputable, and have long been a cause for slow progress away from Ukraine’s colossal neighbour. However, relations with Moscow have become unmanageable; the Kremlin has turned back its clocks to immoral, “traditional” anti-gay legislation and at the same time pressures Ukraine to render its economic sovereignty in its customs union, and even a Moscow-led Eurasian Union (a proposed organisation which clearly aims at outright rivalry against Brussels).
Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s President, speaks on the importance of EU integration for his country at a summit in Bratislava earlier this year
Ukraine has witnessed with shock the trauma undergone by its fellow Eastern European nation Belarus in recent years as its economy has been sapped by Russian forces. Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yushchenko expressed to the EU Observer his fears of Russia “turning Ukraine into Belarus II.” “It is time to think of 46 million Ukrainian people,” he stated, adding that moving towards the EU “is a guarantee of our national sovereignty.”
The President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, has in recent years followed through his country’s mission to gain EU rapprochement through a series of legislations and political acts. In order to meet EU expectations, the President has pushed through a new criminal procedure code to ensure just trials and eliminate torture concerns. At the same time, the country has been expanding its gas potential in order to liberate itself from energy dependence on Russia.
Perhaps the most significant of Ukraine’s developments since its independence in 1991 is set to take place this year. At the Eastern Partneship summit in Vilnius this November, President Yanukovych will sign an association agreement with European leaders – a step to rewriting the course of the nation and catapulting Kiev in its reforming development.
Ukraine’s fellow Eastern European country Lithuania has already undergone the process of Western rapprochement to become an EU member state, and has been strongly in favour of helping Ukraine and other Eastern European fringe nations to reach their EU targets.
The Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė told press officials earlier this year: “We all have great expectations that the EU-Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in autumn in Vilnius will open up a new phase of EU-Eastern Partnership countries’ collaboration. Our aim is economically strong and safe Europe, which is inconceivable without safe neighbourhood. Therefore, determination of Eastern neighbours to choose the European path is particularly important.”
The country’s efforts also require considerable support from the EU. “If we don’t have a dialogue with the EU, or if we have a weak dialogue, this is what makes [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin so successful,” Yushchenko said.
The encouragement from Lithuania, along with that of other nations such as France and Poland, is particularly imperative right now, as Ukraine has felt the pressure, threats and blackmail coming from Russia intensify tenfold in a bid to cripple Ukraine and stop the country from improving EU ties.
Earlier this month, Russia banned all goods coming from Ukraine’s world-renowned cake company Roshen, under claims (which were later disproved by Moldovan experts) that the products were unsafe. This was followed by the rejection of all Ukrainian exports going crossing the border to Russia. Sergei Glazev, who advises Putin on the Customs Union, dictated in no uncertain terms, “We are preparing to tighten customs procedures if suddenly Ukraine makes this suicidal step of signing the EU Association Agreement.”
The consequences for the entire country of failing to achieve the accord would be dismal: a return to Russian subordination, retrogressive policies… the dark ages. It is now more than ever that Ukraine needs the support of Brussels and its member nations. Like the nation’s politicians, the EU should equally be considering the fate of Ukraine’s 46 million citizens.