Page 3 - Empowerment and Protection - Ukraine Chapter

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Ukraine
Background
Situated in the fertile agricultural lands between Eastern Europe EU member states and Russia, Ukraine is home to 45 million people. While ethnic Ukrainians make up nearly three-quarters of the population, the population also includes minority groups of Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian descent. Eastern Ukraine is home to a large minority of ethnic Russians, along with the Crimea Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Crimean Peninsula.1
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annexation and resistance
Ukraine’s modern day territories have historically been divided among surrounding and competing empires. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires after World War I provided an opening for the brief emergence of a unified Ukrainian state, which was soon subjugated and divided once again, with the eastern territories falling to the Russian Red Army in 1920 and the western lands to the Polish. In the first decade
30 SToRIES of HUman SECURITY | Ukraine
of Josef Stalin’s totalitarian rule, the population
endured famine, mass executions and deportations. Most of Ukraine’s modern day territories were united following the Nazi-Soviet pact that redrew Eastern European borders. Heavy losses in World War II under Nazi occupation resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, including millions of Jews. The victory of the Allied Forces firmly established Ukraine as a satellite state of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) until 1991. The Crimean peninsula, initially part of the Russian Federation within the Soviet Union, became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. This was 10 years after Stalin had deported the Crimea Tatars to Siberia. They returned in the late 1980s and 1990s.2
a history of protest
Decades of Soviet repression of Ukraine’s language and culture sparked extended nationalist resistance, which led to mass protests in the final days of
the USSR and established the foundations for the strong civic activism and mass participation that still characterise Ukrainian politics. Ukrainians voted
for independence in a nationwide referendum in 1991, establishing the country as a democratic, independent state after hundreds of years of nationalist struggles. Ukrainian democracy had weak institutional foundations following decades
of totalitarian rule. Flagrant fraud and manipulation in the presidential election of 2004 galvanised Ukrainians to take to the streets in mass nonviolent
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protests to demand a new round of free and fair elections that eventually brought to power pro- Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko in what is known as the Orange Revolution.3
new crisis and conflict
In 2014, Ukraine again faced a political crisis that reflected many of the challenges of its political transition and its complex geopolitical and cultural legacy. This chapter portrays the public mood in Kyiv and Simferopol in the early stages of the crisis (December 2013), months before the development of the armed conflict currently unfolding in the eastern part of the country.
The’ Euromaidan’ crisis which began in late 2013
in response to a governmental decision to turn down an Association Agreement with the European Union (EU), increased incrementally after the interviews in this chapter had been conducted. Mass demonstrations in the Maidan square in downtown Kyiv spread across the country, and grew as clashes and violent government crackdowns left 167 people dead and 2,200 injured – including both protestors and security forces – and 32 missing.4 The government attracted international criticism by criminalising the protest movement and authorising riot police to use force against civilians, including stun grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets, and eventually firearms. As the conflict escalated, protesters increasingly called for the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. By the end of February 2014, demonstrators occupied government buildings, president Yanukovych had fled the country, and parliament voted to remove him from office.a Protestors demanded a radical overhaul of government structures and practices.
The events sparked fears among some Russian- speaking Ukrainians about alleged nationalistic Ukrainian tendencies and the distancing from historic ties with Russia. Following the ousting of president Yanukovich, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in March 2014. New elections were held in Ukraine on 25 May 2014, and were won by pro- European Petro Poroshenko by 54.7% of the votes.5 However, due to the annexation, the elections
did not cover Crimea, and were marred by safety
a At the time of writing, the course of these events are still being contested.
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