Empowerment and Protection - Stories of Human Security Oct. 2014 | Página 30

DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE
Ukraine
CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS
INDEX 2013

Background
Situated in the fertile agricultural lands between Eastern Europe
EU member states and Russia, Ukraine is home to 45 million
people. While ethnic Ukrainians make up nearly three-quarters of
the population, the population also includes minority groups of
Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian descent. Eastern Ukraine is
home to a large minority of ethnic Russians, along with the Crimea
Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Crimean Peninsula.1

Annexation and resistance

LD BANK 2014A)

DGE)

144/177

Ukraine’s modern day territories have historically
been divided among surrounding and competing
empires. The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian
and Russian empires after World War I provided
an opening for the brief emergence of a unified
Ukrainian state, which was soon subjugated and
divided once again, with the eastern territories
falling to the Russian Red Army in 1920 and the
western lands to the Polish. In the first decade
of Josef Stalin’s totalitarian =10.000.000
rule, the population
endured famine, mass executions and deportations.
Most of Ukraine’s modern day territories were
united following the Nazi-Soviet pact that redrew
Eastern European borders. Heavy losses in World
War II under Nazi occupation resulted in the deaths
of millions of Ukrainians, including millions of Jews.
The victory of the Allied Forces firmly established
Ukraine as a satellite state of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) until 1991. The Crimean
peninsula, initially part of the Russian Federation
within the Soviet Union, became part of the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. This
was 10 years after Stalin had deported the Crimea
Tatars to Siberia. They returned in the late 1980s
and 1990s.2

A history of protest

Decades of Soviet repression of Ukraine’s language
and culture sparked extended nationalist resistance,
which led to mass protests in the final days of
the USSR and established the foundations for the
strong civic activism and mass participation that still
characterise Ukrainian politics. Ukrainians voted
for independence in a nationwide referendum in
1991, establishing the country as a democratic,
independent state after hundreds of years of
nationalist struggles. Ukrainian democracy had
weak institutional foundations following decades
of totalitarian rule. Flagrant fraud and manipulation
in the presidential election of 2004 galvanised
Ukrainians to take to the streets in mass nonviolent
30 stories of Human Security | Ukraine

(TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL 2014)

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

17.3%
IN 2012

(WORLD BANK 2014B)

protests to demand a new round of free and fair
elections that eventually brought to power proWestern candidate Viktor Yushchenko in what is
known as the Orange Revolution.3

concerns in the eastern Donbass region. At the
time of writing, pro-Russian separatists are fighting
the Ukrainian government for control of territories
in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. The
conflict continues to unfold, and has escalated into
fully-fledged armed warfare. Many fear that the
international ramifications of this conflict signal a
return of Cold War dynamics.

New crisis and conflict

In 2014, Ukraine again faced a political cr isis that
reflected many of the challenges of its political
transition and its complex geopolitical and cultural
legacy. This chapter portrays the public mood in
Kyiv and Simferopol in the early stages of the crisis
(December 2013), months before the development
of the armed conflict currently unfolding in the
eastern part of the country.
The’ Euromaidan’ crisis which began in late 2013
in response to a governmental decision to turn
down an Association Agreement with the European
Union (EU), increased incrementally after the
interviews in this chapter had been conducted.
Mass demonstrations in the Maidan square in
downtown Kyiv spread across the country, and
grew as clashes and violent government crackdowns
left 167 people dead and 2,200 injured – including
both protestors and security forces – and 32
missing.4 The government attracted international
criticism by criminalising the protest movement and
authorising riot police to use force against civilians,
including stun grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets,
and eventually firearms. As the conflict escalated,
protesters increasingly called for the resignation of
President Viktor Yanukovych and his government.
By the end of February 2014, demonstrators
occupied government buildings, president
Yanukovych had fled the country, and parliament
voted to remove him from office.a Protestors
demanded a radical overhaul of government
structures and practices.

PRIMARY SCHOOL
ENROLLMENT (% GROSS)

POVERTY AT NATIONAL POVERTY LINE
(% OF POPULATION)

106

9.1%

IN 2012

IN 2012

(WORLD BANK 2014D)

(WORLD BANK 2014C)

This chapter portrays
the public mood in Kyiv
and Simferopol in
the early stages of the crisis,
before the development of
the armed conflict currently
unfolding in the eastern part
of the country.

The events sparked fears among some Russianspeaking Ukrainians about alleged nationalistic
Ukrainian tendencies and the distancing from
historic ties with Russia. Following the ousting of
president Yanukovich, Russian president Vladimir
Putin ordered the annexation of the Crimean
peninsula in March 2014. New elections were held
in Ukraine on 25 May 2014, and were won by proEuropean Petro Poroshenko by 54.7% of the votes.5
However, due to the annexation, the elections
did not cover Crimea, and were marred by safety
a At the time of writing, the course of these events are still being
contested.

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