UKRAINIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT IN THE DONBAS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF WESTERN HISTORIOGRAPHY: CHARACTER, ORIGINS, REASONS

Keywords: Ukrainian-Russian conflict, civil war, armed conflict, Eastern Ukraine

Abstract

Object of research: analysis of the works of modern foreign authors, which reflect the process of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas, which cast doubt on the European security system, has complicated the lives of millions of citizens. Clarification of the reasons that led to the amorphous national identity of the population of Donbas, rejection of Western values, mythical ideas about fascists-Banderites. Disclosure of the diversity of assessments of Western historiography regarding the origins and causes of the conflict, its nature. From a critical point of view, the work of "geopolitical realists" who are trying to minimize the Kremlin’s actions in relation to Ukraine is considered.

Investigated problem: to show and prove that the revival of Russian neo-imperialism, which even after 1991 considered Ukraine a vassal, became the main external factor that led to the escalation of the conflict and its actual “freezing”. The attention is focused on the reasons for the appearance of peculiar stereotypes of thinking and behavior of residents of the Donetsk basin, contrasted with the mentality of citizens of other regions, especially Western Ukraine. The cultural-historical split of Ukraine, which developed historically, could not be the cause of the armed conflict, even with the pole opposition “Lviv-Donetsk”. Therefore, the separatist sentiments that appeared in Donbas at certain times were not a mass phenomenon even in 2014 because of this, it is impossible to explain Russian aggravation of relations between the elites of Kyiv and Donbas without analyzing external interference. The state of affairs was also aggravated by both sabotage of the Donbas elites, they did not recognize the legitimacy of the new government in Kyiv after February 2014, and by the mistakes made by the central government in Kyiv. Hasty and ill-conceived, according to Western experts, was the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of a law abolishing the regional status of the Russian language. The name of the military operations from the Kyiv side as “anti-terrorist operation” was doubtful. It was changed late.

Main scientific results: in fact, for the first time in the historiography of Ukraine, the latest works of Western scholars on the Ukrainian-Russian conflict have been analyzed. Conclusions are made about the inconsistency of the views of Western historians regarding the nature and causes of the conflict, the prospects for its settlement.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Valeriy Semenenko, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Department of Ukrainian studies

Svitlana Rudenko, Kharkiv College of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics

Department of Tourism and Socio-Humanitarian Disciplines

Alla Nikolaienko-Lomakina, Kharkiv College of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics

Department of Food Technologies and Hotel and Restaurant Business

Oksana Balashova, Kharkiv College of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics

Department of Food Technologies and Hotel and Restaurant Business

References

Matsiyevsky, Yu. V. (2019). Internal Conflict or Hidden Aggression: Competing Accounts and Expert Assessments of the War in Ukraine’s Donbas. Political life, 2, 55–58. doi: http://doi.org/10.31558/2519-2949.2019.2.9

Haran, O., Yakovlyev, M., Zolkina, M. (2019). Identity, war, and peace: public attitudes in the Ukraine-controlled Donbas. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 60 (6), 684–708. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2019.1667845

Malyarenko, T., Wolff, S. (2019). The Dynamics of Emerging De-Facto States: Eastern Ukraine in the Post-Soviet Space. Routledge, 100. doi: http://doi.org/10.4324/9780429448409

Smolii, V., Yakubova, A. (2019). Krym i Donbas: problemy y perspektyvy intehratsii v modernyi ukrainskyi proekt (analitychna zapyska). Kyiv: Instytut istorii Ukrainy Natsionalnoi Akademii nauk Ukrainy, 116.

Solchanyk, R.; Kuzio, T. (Ed.) (1998). The Post-Soviet Transition in Ukraine: Prospects for Stability. Contemporary Ukraine: Dynamics of Post-Soviet Transformation. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 17–40.

Oleinikova, O. (2019). Democratic Transition Research: From Western to Post-Soviet East European Scholarship. East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies, 6 (1), 147–167. doi: http://doi.org/10.21226/ewjus479

Bojcun, M. (2015). Origins of the Ukrainian Crisis. Critique, 43 (3-4), 395–419. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/03017605.2015.1089085

Muradov, I. (2019). Donbas Conflict as a Form of Hybrid Warfare: A neoclassical Realist Analysis.

Giuliano, E. (2018). Who supported separatism in Donbas? Ethnicity and popular opinion at the start of the Ukraine crisis. Post-Soviet Affairs, 34 (2-3), 158–178. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/1060586x.2018.1447769

Giuliano, E. (2015). The Origins of Separatism: Popular Grievances in Donetsk and Luhansk. Available at: http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/origins-separatism-popular-grievances-donetsk-and-luhansk

Kuzio, T. (2017). Ukraine ‘Expert`s’ in the West and Putin`s Military Aggression: A new Academic ‘Orientalism’? Cicero Foundatoin great Debate Paper, 17/106, 26.

Giles, K. (2015). Russia and Its Neighbours: Old Attitudes, New Capabilities. Cyber War in Perspective: Russian Aggression against Ukraine. Tallinn: NATO CCD COE Publications, 19–28.

Szpak, A. (2017). Legal classification of the armed conflict in Ukraine in light of international humanitarian law. Hungarian Journal of Legal Studies, 58 (3), 261–280. doi: http://doi.org/10.1556/2052.2017.58.3.2

Angevine, R., Warden, J. K., Keller, R., Frye, C. (2019). Learning Lessons from the Ukraine Conflict. Alexandria, 29.

Jonsson, O. (2019). The Russian Understanding of War. Blurring the Lines between War and Peace. Georgetown University Press, 200. doi: http://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvr697c8

Osipian, A., Osipian, A. (2006). Why Donbass Votes for Yanukovych: Confronting the Ukrainian Orange Revolution. Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 14 (4), 495–517. doi: http://doi.org/10.3200/demo.14.4.495-517

Portnov, A. (2016). Ausschluss our dem eigenen Land. Der «Donbass» in Blick ukrainischer Intellektueller. Osteuropa, 66 (6-7), 171–184.

Sherr, J.; Giles, K., Hanson, Ph., Lyne, R. (Eds.) (2015). A War of Narratives and Arms. Chatham House Report. The Russian Challenge. London, 23–32.

Himka, J.-P. (2015). The History behind the Regional Conflict in Ukraine. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, 16 (1), 129–136. doi: http://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2015.0008

Carpinelli, C. (2014). Ucraina: un paese spaccato in due. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/7073634/Ucraina_un_paese_spaccato_in_due

Kudelia, S. (2016). The Donbas Rift. Russian Politics & Law, 54 (1), 5–27. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/10611940.2015.1160707

Hauter, J. (2019). Delegated Interstate War: Introducing an Addition to Armed Conflict Typologies. Journal of Strategic Security, 12 (4), 90–103. doi: http://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.12.4.1756

Wilson, A. (2016). The Donbas in 2014: Explaining Civil Conflict Perhaps, but not Civil War. Europe-Asia Studies, 68 (4), 631–652. doi: http://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2016.1176994

Dodonov, R., Aleksandrova, O. (2019). Discourse Techniques for constructing secessions: the experience of Donbass and Latgale. Ideology and politics, 1, 122–137.

Adrianopoli, S. (2015). Aspetti strategici del Confino Ucraino. Sistema informativo a schede. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/17954719/Aspetti_strategici_del_Confino_Ukraino


👁 353
⬇ 263
Published
2020-06-30
How to Cite
Semenenko, V., Radchenko, L., Rudenko, S., Nikolaienko-Lomakina, A., & Balashova, O. (2020). UKRAINIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT IN THE DONBAS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF WESTERN HISTORIOGRAPHY: CHARACTER, ORIGINS, REASONS. ScienceRise, (3), 30-35. https://doi.org/10.21303/2313-8416.2020.001342
Section
Social communications in the society development