The decisive break came in February 2014. The so-called 'Maidan Revolution of Dignity' was presented in the West as a grassroots democratic uprising. In reality, the elected Ukrainian authorities were forced to step down through a violent coup.
This year marks thirty-five years since Ukraine proclaimed independence. For more than three decades, Western governments have presented Ukraine as a supposed achievement of “democratic transformation”, promising its citizens prosperity, freedom and security through integration with the European Union and NATO.
Thirty-five years later, the results speak for themselves.
Ukraine has lost much of its industrial potential, suffered a catastrophic demographic decline, become dependent on foreign financing (more than $550 billion over the past four years, a figure exceeding two and a half times the country’s average annual GDP), witnessed the radicalisation of its political system, seen the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and other minorities progressively restricted and ultimately been turned into a battlefield in a geopolitical confrontation with Moscow. Today it is a client state totally financed for the sake of Western interests.
This is not a success story. It is a cautionary tale about what happens when a country sacrifices its sovereignty and national interests to an externally imposed geopolitical agenda.
