Ukraine over the edge : Russia, the West and the "new Cold War"

The Ukrainian drama, which burst onto the headlines in autumn 2013, was one long and complex in its making. In contrast to other studies of the Ukrainian conflict, the present study examines in detail its historical background and complex causality—from the rise of the mass demonstrations on Kiev’s Maidan to the making of the post-revolt Maidan regime. Two great schisms that shaped the Ukrainian crisis and their historical, cultural, and geopolitical causes are disected. One schism lay within Ukraine itself with western and southeastern Ukraine divided by different historical, ethnic, linguistic, religious, ideological, socioeconomic, and ultimately political and international orientations. The other – at the international level – was driven by geopolitical factors, real and conjured or `imagined.’ Western-Russian competition for Ukraine – epitomized most by NATO and EU expansion to Russia’s very borders – exacerbated Ukraine’s internal divisions, setting the country aflame. New light is shed on the role of radical Ukrainian nationalists and neofascists in the February 2014 snipers’ massacre, the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych, and their less than democratic outcome as well as on Russia’s seizure of Crimea and involvement in Donbass’s civil war. Finally, the analysis puts the rise of the `new cold war’ in context.