Cover -- Table of contents -- Introduction: What science can contribute to political controversy -- Acknowledgements -- Independent Ukraine -- Ukraine within the Soviet Union -- The road towards independence -- The political system of independent Ukraine -- From Leonid Kravchuk to Leonid Kuchma -- The Orange Revolution and its Aftermath -- Euromaidan: From the students' protest to mass uprising -- Causes of the protest -- The escalation of violence and the changing nature of the protest -- Main actors -- Maidan in post-Yanukovych Ukraine -- Borders within Borderland: The ethnic and cultural diversity of Ukraine -- A general overview of Ukraine's ethnic and religious structure -- East vs.West or South vs. North -- South, East vs West and Centre -- The regions of Ukraine -- The East -- Donbas -- The Southern Part of Sloboda Ukraine (Kharkiv) -- The South -- Dyke Pola (Zaporizhia and Budjak) -- Crimea -- The Centre -- Hetmanate and The Northern Part of Sloboda Ukraine -- Right-Bank Ukraine (Kyiv) -- Podillya -- The West -- Eastern Galicia -- Volyn -- Northern Bukovina -- Zakarpattia -- Oligarchy, Tyranny and Revolutions in Ukraine 1991-2014 -- Phase 1. The beginnings in the perestroika era -- Phase 2. The establishment of an oligarchy -- Phase 3. Change in the system -- Phase 4. An attempt to institute the "Russian variant" -- Nationalism, Party Politics and Political Transition: Batkivshchyna and UDAR -- Batkivshchyna -- Klitschko and UDAR -- Nationalism and the Ideological Identities of Svoboda and Right Sector -- "This Is a Strife of Slavs among Themselves": Understanding Russian-Ukrainian Relations as the Conflict of Contested Identities -- I -- II -- III -- IV -- V -- VI -- Crimea: from annexation to annexation, or how history has come full circle -- From Catherine II to Khrushchev: Crimea as a part of Russia.

From cession to secession: Crimea within Ukraine -- Crimea in the light of the 2001 census -- Sources of separatism after 1990 -- Crimea within Russia? -- The role of Crimea in Ukraine - Russia relations -- From the Soviet Union disintegration to the Big Treaty of 1997 -- Crimean separatism and Russian claims for Crimea in the first half of the 1990s -- The Crimean issue and the division of the Black Sea Fleet -- The role of Crimea in Russia's strategy of influence over Ukraine -- Conflict around Tuzla and a dispute about maritime borders -- Tools of Russian influence in Crimea -- Viktor Yuschenko's presidential attempts to minimise Russian influence -- Crimea after the Russia-Georgia war -- Yanukovych's presidency and the "gas for fleet" deal -- Russia's annexation of Crimea -- The role of NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian Crisis -- NATO's new/old role -- Ukraine and NATO -- NATO's reaction on Ukrainian crisis -- Ukraine and the EU -- From the Orange Revolution to Yanukovych -- EU, Ukraine and the recent crisis -- Preliminary comments on a process not yet ended -- Poland on the Euromaidan -- The beginnings -- Political support -- From 1992 to 1995 -- From 1995 to 2004 -- The Orange Revolution -- From 2005 to 2010 -- From 2010 to 2013 -- Historical background as the ending -- From Maidan to Moscow: Washington's response to the crisis in Ukraine -- Stage one: caution -- Stage two: increased interest -- Stage three: Crimea takes centre stage -- Three stages and four pillars of US involvement -- The Role of Digital Communication Tools in Mass Mobilisation, Information and Propaganda -- The Virtual Maidan -- Overview of Ukraine's media system -- The growing significance of new media -- Lessons from the Maidan - new media as a tool of spreading information -- Lessons from the Maidan - new media as a tool of co-ordination -- Political significance.

Propaganda and disinformation -- A Russian propaganda campaign abusing the internet? -- International Law Aspects of the Situation in Ukraine -- The legal construct of aggression -- Other crimes under the ICC Statute -- The United Nations' framework -- The Council of Europe -- The European Court of Human Rights -- The Challenges: Political and Economic Transition -- Political and constitutional reform -- Economic challenges -- Transitional Justice -- Ukraine and the ICC -- Transitional Justice and security sector reform -- Vetting the judiciary -- Summary and conclusions -- Timeline -- Bibliography -- List of geographic names -- Authors.

The crisis in Ukraine has revealed a lack of background knowledge about Ukraine among West European politicians, journalists and even academics. For a better understanding of the crisis, this book provides historical and political insights based on reliable Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Turkish sources and interviews with key actors and advisors.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2022. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.