Ukrainian Voices

Misperceptions of Foreign Challenges in Times of War, 2014–2015With a foreword by Paul D'Anieri

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• Publisher: ibidem
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9783838277677
• Edition: 0

This book investigates the making of Ukraine's foreign policy towards the European Union and Russia between February 2014 and February 2015. To contextualize the events of the first year of the Russian-Ukrainian War, Nychyk lays out the history of the EU-Ukraine-Russia triangle since 1991 and draws lessons relevant for the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The book is based on her doctoral research and rests on a game-theory-inspired approach to foreign policy analysis. It relies on 38 elite interviews, official documents, and media reports. Nychyk uncovers various mutual misperceptions in EU-Ukraine-Russia relations. Looking at Ukraine's 'side of the story', her analysis shows how Russian assertiveness and the EU's passivity, but also Ukrainian leaders' limited crisis management experience and erroneous policy decisions contributed to worse outcomes for Ukraine. The latter included poor analysis of foreign interlocutors, trust in their good intentions, and corruption. After 2015, a persistence—although with certain changes—of some of these pathologies left Ukraine in a weaker position in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword by Paul D’Anieri
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Framing the analysis: A review of key scholarship and a proposal for a game theory-based framework
• 2 A backward look: Ukraine’s relations with the European Union and Russia in 1991-2014
• 3 Crimean Blitzkrieg (21st February – 26th March 2014)
• 4 Donbas on fire: Improvement of Ukraine’s crisis management (April – August 2014)
• 5 Efforts in reaching peace: The post-Minsk crystallised image (5th September 2014 – 12th February 2015)
• Conclusions
• Epilogue: Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022
• Annex 1. Interview guide
• Annex 2. Changes in Ukrainian leaders’ decision-making in relations with Russia and the EU in Feb 2014 - Feb 2015
• List of interviews
• Bibliography