Description
Until recently Ukraine was often portrayed as a weak, artificial or even failed state. Its response to Russian full-scale aggression since February 2022, however, has changed this country’s image drastically. Ukraine’s ability to effectively resist the attack of a superior Russian military might on the battlefield and behind the frontlines has revealed a resilient nation with fairly efficient institutions. It is evident that such a change could not have happened overnight and that the alleged weakness of its state and social institutions had been greatly exaggerated.
In the proposed paper, I will address some key problems that are cited among the most acute problems of Ukraine’s development: societal divide and insufficient national cohesion; ethno-centric Ukrainian nationalism; and corruption. I will demonstrate that these problems were misinterpreted and significantly overstated, which led to making unfounded claims about Ukraine as a weak and even ‘artificial’ state formation. At the same time, these accounts did not spot what, in fact, has been a very successful Ukrainian state- and nation-building taking place since its acquisition of independence in 1991.
