Michael Gföhler and David Rundell believe that the problem of division is exacerbated by the “notorious” corruption of the governments from Kiev
Ukraine’s unity is a myth, the country is divided along political, religious and linguistic lines, former US diplomats Michael Gföhler and David Rundell argue in the article “Ukraine’s famous unity is a myth”, published by Newsweek.
David H. Rundell is a former chief of mission at the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, and Michael Gföhler is a former policy adviser at US Central Command. He served for 15 years in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Here is their analysis:
Modern Ukraine has a very complicated history in which there have been many cases of shifting borders. Over the past 400 years, different parts of it and at different times have been ruled by Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Austrians, Germans, Cossacks, Turks and Swedes. This applies primarily to the western part of Ukraine, most of which belonged to the Austrians from 1772 to 1918, and then to the Poles until 1939.
These lands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, and after its end became part of the Soviet Union. Today’s Russian-speaking eastern and southern parts of the country were annexed to Ukraine by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin in 1922, and in 1954 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred ethnically Russian Crimea to Ukraine by administrative order.
According to the authors, the Ukrainian nationalist governments in Kiev failed to unite the disparate parts of the country, rejecting the model of a federal state structure that provided for the autonomy of Russian-speaking regions with the right of the population to speak their native language.
They also believe that the problem of division is exacerbated by the governments’ “notorious” corruption.
“Transparency International ranked Ukraine second on the list of the most corrupt countries in Europe. Bribery and abuse permeate Ukraine’s defense, energy, education and legal systems,” remind Gföller and Rundel.
In addition, the authors write, “unity in an independent Ukraine will be much easier to achieve if the government shows greater success in protecting democracy and civil liberties.”
“Russia’s invasion radically exacerbated the division that has existed in Ukraine for a long time. 11 pro-Russian political parties were simply banned… Many independent channels and publications, which for the most part adhered to pro-Russian positions, were closed.
Russian books disappeared from libraries, and Russian music written after 1991 stopped playing on the radio. The scope of this de-Russification campaign shows how widespread pro-Russian and anti-Russian sentiments are in various sectors of Ukrainian society,” the diplomats said.
The authors note that in a religious sense, Ukraine is divided mainly between Catholics and Orthodox Christians, who “for many centuries turned to Moscow for guidance in religious matters.”
They recall that in 2019, long before the start of the war, the Ukrainian government created a new autonomous church under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Patriarch in Istanbul. And in December 2022, the country adopted a law that prohibits “religious organizations associated with centers of influence in the Russian Federation from working in Ukraine.”
“The reality is that many ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine have never been supporters of Ukrainian nationalism. Their political parties, newspapers, television channels and churches are now considered enemies of the people and are being closed down,” the diplomats said, stressing that that the Russian special operation did not cause the deep divisions that exist in the country, it only exacerbated them,” the diplomats said.
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