New Ukraine: a breakthrough at great cost
New Ukraine: a breakthrough at great cost

Author(s): Jadwiga Rogoża
Subject(s): Politics, Geopolitics
Published by: OSW Ośrodek Studiów Wschodnich im. Marka Karpia
Keywords: Russia; Ukraine; war
Summary/Abstract: The Russian invasion of Ukraine has completed the process of identity transformation and the shaping of a Ukrainian political nation. The year of war, accompanied by an all-encompassing derussification of public life, has accelerated Ukrainians’ turn towards their native history, culture, language and symbols, seen as part of the broader European context. Both of these trends began when the country gained independence in 1991 and intensified sharply after the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the war in the Donbas in 2014, when the state clearly defined its politics of memory and launched an all-out effort to Ukrainianise public life. At that time, the identity changes were present in a section of society, but they are now consolidating the vast majority regardless of the region, age, and language of communication. The Ukrainian people are undergoing a mental decolonisation, rejecting the belief in Russia’s supremacy and in the cultural ties that bind the two nations, and they are instead adopting an attitude of superiority towards the former hegemon. However, they are paying a high price for this as Ukraine faces a demographic slump, economic ruin, people’s impoverishment and war trauma. At the same time, the heroic struggle for sovereignty finally made citizens stop treating Ukraine as a second-rate country. The frequent pre-war criticism has been replaced by pride and belief in the country’s high development potential.

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