Posted on 02/23/2022 4:41:41 AM PST by tlozo
In the international discourse around Ukraine, the country has traditionally been portrayed as a divided nation with irreconcilable differences between east and west. This was always an unhelpful over-simplification of Ukraine’s complex political geography; since the onset of Russian aggression in 2014, fast-changing realities on the ground have rendered such stereotypes completely redundant.
With around 200,000 Russian troops currently concentrated on the Ukrainian border, Putin’s eight-year war against Ukraine is getting more global media attention than ever before. While this coverage is welcome, it has also underlined that current understandings of Ukrainian political and cultural identity are still often based on outdated assumptions.
Far too frequently, we are told that Russian-speakers in the south and east of the country are sympathetic towards Russia and broadly support separatism, while Ukrainian-speakers in central and western Ukraine want to join the EU and NATO. This is factually incorrect and deeply misleading.
Ukrainian national identity has undergone a dramatic consolidation since 2014. This process has been particularly evident in Ukrainian cities with predominantly Russian-speaking populations such as Kharkiv and Odesa that had previously been viewed as bastions of pro-Kremlin political sentiment.
Dr. Yuliya Bidenko, an associate professor of political science at Karazin Kharkiv National University, acknowledges that political and identity divisions between the many different regions of Ukraine have been visible since independence. However, she says the eight-year war with Russia has caused them to fade. Bidenko notes the striking similarities in the votes cast by residents of Kharkiv and Lutsk, a city on the other side of the country in northwestern Ukraine, in the 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Dr. Sergii Glebov, an associate professor of international relations at Odesa Mechnikov National University, has observed the same phenomenon in the Black Sea port city in southern Ukraine. Glebov sees the conflict with Putin’s Russia as a unifying force for the whole country. “While certain divisions persist, Russian hybrid warfare against Ukraine has increased the sense of Ukrainian unity like never before.” According to Volodymyr Chistlin, a freelance journalist and activist from Kharkiv, Ukrainians appreciate the international media attention they are getting in this challenging period of heightened alarm over a possible full-scale Russian invasion. However, Chistlin says it often seems that many in the West do not fully understand the extent of the issues Ukrainians are facing or the nation-building processes underway in the country.
Chistlin and Bidenko are both critical of international media coverage depicting Russia’s latest escalation as a “crisis.” They argue that the present situation can only be properly understood when viewed as part of an ongoing war that has already raged for eight years and has claimed more than 13,000 lives.
Russia’s latest saber-rattling build-up of troops has caused understandable anxiety among Ukrainians. But according to Bidenko, the expert community is more anxious about a possible escalation than the majority of Kharkiv residents. Many people in the city have distanced themselves from politics due to “war fatigue” and try to focus on their daily lives, she says.
The Ukrainian media has also played a role in this process, offering significantly less coverage of a potential Russian invasion than many Western outlets. President Zelenskyy himself has often walked a fine line as he has sought to promote calm among Ukrainian audiences while at the same time maintaining a sense of urgency on the international stage.
When Zelenskyy suggested to the Washington Post that Kharkiv could be occupied by Russia, this made many journalists, activists, and intellectuals in the city nervous. However, Bidenko says there is little real sign of panic in today’s Kharkiv, despite its close proximity to the Russian border.
The mood in Odesa is similar, with people well aware of the potential military threat facing the city but refusing to let it disrupt their everyday lives. At the same time, Glebov says preliminary preparations for a potential Russian invasion are also underway. Some Odesa locals have tentatively drawn up plans to move to western Ukraine or Poland, while others have signed up for territorial defense units to help protect the city. Recent media coverage of Ukraine has highlighted lingering gaps in international knowledge of the country. Analysis of today’s Ukraine often feels outdated and has yet to catch up with the dynamic changes taking place as Ukrainians continue to emerge from the Soviet shadows and forge an independent identity.
While regional differences in opinion are still evident throughout what is the largest country wholly in Europe, notions of a divided Ukraine do not tally with the contemporary situation. On the contrary, there are growing signs of shared national interests and common positions linking people across the country.
Putin’s war has had a profound impact on Ukrainian identity and done more to strengthen national unity than any other single factor since Ukraine first achieved independence three decades ago. Indeed, recent polls have found that levels of readiness to defend the country are strikingly high in every region of Ukraine, including 58% of men in the east and 48% in the south.
From Kharkiv in the east and Odesa in the south to Lviv in the west and Kyiv in the north, Ukrainians have become significantly more united in opposition to a common enemy since the start of the war in 2014. With Ukraine’s fate currently at the top of the geopolitical agenda, it is vital that outdated stereotypes about the country are discarded and Ukrainians themselves included in any discussion of their future.
Putin has seemingly united NATO. The Germans shutting down Nord Stream 2 from opening, is much stronger than any sanction Biden has initiated.
The Germans have not said they are shutting it down, only delaying the certification, which was not due for a few months in any case. The Germans are just waffling, trying to please Washington.
“The Germans shutting down Nord Stream 2 from opening, is much stronger than any sanction Biden has initiated.”
Yes. But Biteme can really put the hurt on Putin, and help the American people and Europe at the same time by withdrawing his disastrous bans on American energy independence, and move forward on the Keystone XL pipeline, re-open our refineries, allow drilling on federal lands, and bring back shale. But, he won’t.
only increased since Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea….
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Granted, most Ukraine not allied with Russia. However the two provinces in question do support becoming a part of Russia.
Numbers do not lie: since 2014, Crimea’s economy has blasted off , a 71 percent increase in economic activity , 300,000 plus people have moved to Crimea. ( 2019 figures). It is the fastest growing economy in Ukraine AND Russia. Prosperity compared to Corrupted Ukraine business practices. Whether Donbass and Lughansk will follow the Crimea model is unknown for now- but they are some of the poorest parts of Ukraine and tired of the Ukrainian failed “ economic” model….think Hunter Biden,Ukraine is one huge cesspool of bribes, deals and corruption.
Let’s settle this BS with you:
Russia spans something like 11 timezones. Only 6% of Russia’s borders are shared with NATO countries. Of that 6%, none of them have any significant military or weapons capable of posing a threat to Russia. In contrast, Russia borders NATO countries with nuclear missiles, including Poland and Lithuania with nukes in Kaliningrad. Russia has violated every arms treaty they have ever signed with us, a fact that has enabled them to become the most advanced nuclear power in the world despite having a shitty economy somewhere between Illinois and Florida.
Delaying the opening of Nordstream 2 is a gesture only. They still are buying Russian gas through Nordstream 1. Germany cannot easily survive without Russian energy. They won’t freeze and starve just to make a statement about Ukraine.
Polls in 2014 showed there was very little support in southeastern Ukraine even among ethnic Russians to join Russia. Regards
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2014/05/08/despite-concerns-about-governance-ukrainians-want-to-remain-one-country/pg-2014-05-08-ukraine-russia-0-01/
"Regional polls show few Ukrainians, Russians want a united, single state"
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/03/06/regional-polls-show-few-ukrainians-russians-want-a-united-single-state/
Correct. It is not operational, so it can’t be shut down. It’s correct to say the NS2 has been prevented from opening.
Putin is not happy about that, so it is a more effective sanction than than the ineffective Biden sanctions.
Donbas will go down in history as Biden’s Sudetenland.
LOL, well maybe Putin's neighbors wouldn't have joined NATO, if he would stop invading neighbors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told the nation Monday that the collapse of the Soviet empire “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”
Indeed, for example, the 125% voter turnout in Sevestopol.
As for the economy, a brief bit of research leads me to believe you're full of shit, or these are funny money numbers caused by Russia going full commie in Crimea, mass nationalizing businesses, pumping huge amounts of cash, resulting in extremely high inflation:
See economy section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Crimea#:~:text=In%20March%202014%20Crimean%20GDP,public%20workers%20(in%20Crimea).
In this article, the locals complain of sky rocketing costs of living and shitty services despite billions of dollars pumped into Crimea:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/21/the-devastating-human-economic-costs-of-crimeas-annexation
This article calls Crimea one of the most prosperous of all Russia--but says its misleading because it was created through gigantic investments on projects of dubious value:
https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/crimea-doesnt-pay-assessing-the-economic-impact-of-russias-annexation
300,000 plus people have moved to Crimea. ( 2019 figures).
Estimates list it as high as 1 million Russkies. Russkies lie about everything, including immigration numbers, to hide their project of shifting the demographics.
Prosperity compared to Corrupted Ukraine business practices.
Russia is one of the most corrupt countries on Earth, on par with corrupt business practices and government with the ChiComs. Putin is widely regarded as one of the richest men on Earth, and he has never held a real job, unless you count being a KGB thief as a job.
Exactly Germany’s just put it “suspension” until the dust settles in Ukraine....of course this easily appeases Biden.
As for Ukrainians uniting.....any war generally does this but for Ukrainians it’s just another day of all the conflicts they’re accustomed to having...like conflicts are the only thing holding them together. Otherwise they fight one another.
The only fighting going on is between the voices in your head, vatnik.
Well actually they are currently now fighting each other when it all boils down to it....
There are vast columns of Russian tanks moving into the DNR/LNR, and these modern weapons and tanks have been documented there for years already anyway. There are also large columns of tanks, missile systems, and troops massing all along the Russian and Belarus border with Ukraine, filmed within the past few days. Isn't it okay now to admit this since the Russian Duma has authorized their presence, at least in the DNR/LNR? Maybe it's time to check your propaganda feeds, vatnik. Get a software update so you can spread the same BS in synch with your fellow Orcs and Goblins.
Yes, people confuse speaking Russian with not being Ukrainian.
Do English speakers in Ireland want to rejoin the UK?
Point made.
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