Ukraine at the crossroads of the EU and Russia, again

Paper by Henrique Horta. As usual, each author is entitled to his/her opinion.
To commemorate Russia’s invasion of Crimea, after the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia, Vladimir Putin decides to invade the whole of Ukraine after the Beijing Winter Olympics. War is nothing new in Ukraine, after the country’s invasion and annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the Eastern part of Ukraine, the Donbass experienced a low intensity conflict ever since, making harder the lives of the Ukrainian citizens in the war’s frontier.
The most recent invasion, and subsequent war, can be traced to late 2013/ early 2014, as Kyiv was the epicentre of a geopolitical/ ideological protest, the Euromaidan which ended with the ousting of the pro-Russian president Yanukovych. Euromaidan, which in Ukrainian can be translated to “Euro square”, was the protest in which dozens of Ukrainians gave their lives to align their country with the European Union/ Brussels, instead of Russia.
For the average Ukrainian, the European Union and the values it allegedly defends (democracy, anti-corruption, freedom of expression) is high regarded as the means to a better life. As the people protested, and Yanukovych was ousted, the fate of country was sealed.
Ukraine, however, met the same fate of other former Soviet republics who haven’t been fully incorporated into Western institutions: war and annexation or ‘puppetization’ of some of its territory into Russian only recognized republics, the same goes for Georgia that has 1/4 of its land occupied by pro-Russian separatist forces (Abkhasia and South Ossetia), or Transnistria, a strip of land of Moldova, near the border with Ukraine.
Russia claims that NATO is getting too close to its own borders and that it seeks some sort of buffer zone/ frontier area where it can keep a ‘safety distance’. This course of action, of course that it creates anxiety on Russia’s own neighbours who seek to maintain independence and territorial integrity.
For people who like to argue over this, the discussion ends up being a “chicken or egg” dilemma. People who take Russia’s side say that Russia is being provoked by NATO while people who take Russia’s neighbours side say that it’s Russia’s own aggressions that push these countries into NATO and the EU.
This most recent invasion was the best gift Putin could ever give to NATO: a purpose. No more “democracy spreading” or “nation building”, no more out of area, out of business, the organization is returning to its origins.
In the beginning of it seems a new Cold War, a new iron curtain is being drafted, this time from the Baltic Sea in Estonia, all the way to the Black Sea, in Romania, with NATO now having direct borders with Russia.

No change in the EU-ropean scheme of things

As for the European Union, the support for Ukraine is now stronger than ever.
Support for Ukraine from the European Union is not anything new. Presented in 2008 by both Sweden and Poland in 2008 and launched in 2009, the Eastern Partnership, part of the EU’s Neighbourhood policy, was the first steppingstone into getting Ukraine closer to the bloc. In 2014, after a tumultuous beginning of the year, with Crimea annexed by Russia and war in the Donbass, Ukraine, together with Moldova and Georgia, each sign association agreements with the European Union in that same year.
In my master thesis I presented in late 2019, little over 2 years ago about the prospects of an Ukrainian adhesion into the European Union, the conclusions I have reached was that the process of Ukraine’s accession was still years away to go. The speeches made by officials at the time about enlargement of the bloc pointed to the Union’s desire to start negotiations with the Western Balkans, and that the free trade association agreements were only kind of a ‘halfway house’, described as an example of the integration of a non-EEA (European Economic Area) member into the single market of the European Union.
That all started to change in the last weeks ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine commenced.
Ever since the start of the latest Russian aggression on Ukraine, the EU quickly worked in order to instate new sanctions on the Russian economy, and for the first time ever since the history of the organization, it decided to provide military aid to another country, Ukraine.

REST OF THE PAPER : https://www.blue-europe.eu/en/analysis-en/short-analysis/ukraine-at-the-crossroads-of-the-eu-and-russia-again/