Through a series of articles written between 2013 and 2017, this book examines Ukraine during its period of conflict – from the protests and uprising of Euromaidan, to the Russian annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of war in Ukraine’s two eastern provinces Donetsk and Luhansk. It also looks at Ukraine’s response to Russian incursions in the form of Decommunisation – the removal of Lenin statues, Communist symbols, and the imposition of the so-called Memory Laws of the spring of 2015. The book places these events in the context of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, and Ukraine’s geostrategic location between Russia and the European Union. It seeks to provide answers to questions that are too often mired in propaganda and invective and to assess whether the road Ukraine has taken is likely to end in success or failure.
Ukraine in Conflict: An Analytical Chronicle
David R. Marples is a Distinguished University Professor of Russian and East European History and currently Chairman of the Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, Canada. He is the author of 15 books, including ‘Our Glorious Past’: Lukashenka’s Belarus and the Great Patriotic War (2014), Russia in the 20th Century: The Quest for Stability (2011), and Heroes and Villains: Creating National History in Contemporary Ukraine (2007).
Table of Contents
PROSPECTS FOR ‘PUTINISM’ IN UKRAINE
UKRAINE’S ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT WITH THE EU: ACCEPTABLE COMPROMISES AND SHARED HYPOCRISIES
WHAT DO UKRAINIANS WANT?
EUROMAIDAN: IS THERE AN END GAME?
THE PEOPLE AND THE OPPOSITION
ANALYSING EUROMAIDAN FROM THE WEST
CRIMEA: RECAPPING FIVE MONTHS OF CHANGE IN UKRAINE
ODESA AND THE ESCALATING WAR
KING COAL AND THE FUTURE OF THE UKRAINIAN DONBAS
IGOR STRELKOV: MOSCOW AGENT OR MILITARY ROMANTIC?
PUTIN’S DWINDLING OPTIONS IN UKRAINE
LONG LIVE THE DONETSK PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC!
THE AFTERMATH OF MH-17
THE UKRAINIAN ARMY IS UNPREPARED FOR WAR
ASSESSING UKRAINE’S OPTIONS
PREPARING FOR NEW PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN UKRAINE
THE SNIPERS’ MASSACRE IN KYIV
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLICS CAST THEIR VOTES
POROSHENKO’S CHOICES AFTER THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS
MINSK-2
ONE YEAR AFTER EUROMAIDAN
COMPARING MAIDAN 2004 WITH EUROMAIDAN 2014
ETHNIC AND SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF UKRAINE’S REGIONS AND VOTING PATTERNS
UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT LEGALISES ‘FIGHTERS FOR INDEPENDENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY’
VOLODYMYR VIATROVYCH AND UKRAINE’S DECOMMUNISATION LAWS
WHAT TO DO WITH DONBAS: PHASE 3
UKRAINE AT 24
PEACE AT LAST IN UKRAINE? ANALYSING RUSSIAN GOALS
COMMUNIST HEROES OF UKRAINE
THE DNR, ‘GRISHA PHILLIPS’, AND SPEAKING THE TRUTH
DECENTRALISATION: PROS, CONS, AND PROSPECTS
THE ‘IMMINENT COLLAPSE OF RUSSIA’: A RESPONSE TO ALEXANDER J. MOTYL
POROSHENKO, POLLS, AND THE RISE OF THE ‘GAS PRINCESS’
UKRAINE AND RUSSIA: REWRITING HISTORIES
DEATH OF A SEPARATIST LEADER
