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Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands Paperback – March 30, 2016

by Richard Sakwa (Author)

4.3 162 ratings

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The unfolding crisis in Ukraine has brought the world to the brink of a new Cold War. As Russia and Ukraine tussle for Crimea and the eastern regions, relations between Putin and the West have reached an all-time low. How did we get here? Richard Sakwa here unpicks the story of Russo-Ukrainian relations and traces the path to the recent disturbances through the events which have forced Ukraine, a country internally divided between East and West, to choose between closer union with Europe or its historic ties with Russia. As the first full account of the Ukraine crisis from the Euromaidan Protests to the catastrophe of MH17 and up to the October 2014 parliamentary elections, Frontline Ukraine explains the origins, developments and global significance of the internal and external battle for Ukraine. With all eyes focused on the region, Sakwa unravels the myths and misunderstandings of the situation, providing an essential and highly-readable account of the struggle for Europe’s contested borderlands.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

I.B.Tauris
Publication date

March 30, 2016
Dimensions

5.66 x 1.04 x 8.52 inches
ISBN-10

1784535273
ISBN-13

978-1784535278
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a very good book…the most balanced study that I’ve seen..."

(Noam Chomsky 2016-06-07)

About the Author

Richard Sakwa is Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent, an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His main research interests are Russian domestic and international politics, European international relations and comparative democratization. Recent books include The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism and the Medvedev Succession (2011), Putin and the Oligarch: The Khodorkovsky-Yukos Affair (I.B.Tauris, 2014) and Putin Redux: Power and Contradiction in Contemporary Russia (2014).

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ I.B.Tauris; Updated edition (March 30, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1784535273
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1784535278
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.02 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.66 x 1.04 x 8.52 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,527,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #722 in Russian & Soviet Politics
- #4,438 in European Politics Books
- #5,506 in Russian History (Books)

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4.3 162 ratings

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Andrew Baldwin

A humane and civilized analysis of the Ukrainian tragedy from one of Britain's leading experts on the Former Soviet Union

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2015

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Mr. Sakwa frames the Ukrainian crisis in terms of competing views of Europe and Ukraine. On the one hand, there is the concept of a Wider Europe, achieved through enlargement of EU and NATO, which will stop well short of the Urals. On the other hand, there is the concept of a Greater Europe, that will include Russia and stretch to the Pacific. There are also two visions of Ukraine, a monist one where Ukrainian is the only official language, and a pluralist one where Ukraine is a bilingual or multilingual country, with Russian as the official language at the regional and the national level.
Unstated, perhaps because he thought it too obvious to mention, is that a Greater Europe would require a fundamental reordering of the working languages of the EU. Now it essentially operates in three languages: English, German and French. In a Greater Europe, Russophones would be the largest group, and Russian would necessarily be one of the main working languages.
Mr. Sakwa assigns the primary blame for the Ukrainian crisis to the leaders of the EU, who have become increasingly attached to the idea of a Wider Europe that excludes Russia, and is allied with the US. (By the way, Mr. Sakwa is wrong when he states that no country has joined the EU since 1989 that did not also join NATO. Austria, Finland and Sweden joined in 1995, and are all neutral countries. Cyprus joined in May 2004 but it is kept out of NATO by Turkey, which gobbled up Northern Cyprus in an ethnic cleansing operation in 1974.) The Eastern Partnership agreements planned for Ukraine and five other ex-Soviet republics forced them to choose between closer trade ties with the EU and with Russia, and put them on a path to NATO membership. There was no way that they could sign an Eastern Partnership agreement and contemplate joining the Eurasian Union being promoted by Russia, although some countries would have liked to join both. Further the EU would not negotiate with Russia and Ukraine on changes to the association agreement.
This was the issue that split Ukraine apart between monists and pluralists, leading first to an unconstitutional seizure of power, then the secession of Crimea and finally a civil war in the East. While US State official Victoria Nuland’s scheming to replace the existing government was pernicious, the Americans only took advantage of a situation that, for the most part, the EU leaders had created for them.
Now the monist view is on the ascendant in rump Ukraine (Ukraine less Crimea) and the Wider Europe view in the EU. Mr. Sakwa argues convincingly that salvation lies in a change of mind and a change of heart on the part of Ukrainians to embrace pluralism, and of Europeans, to embrace the idea of a Greater Europe.
On p.173 Mr. Sakwa says: “Ukraine ranked one hundred and ninth in the world in terms of per capita GDP ($3,920).” I assume that this is an estimate based on exchange-rate adjusted GDP. The IMF estimate for Ukraine’s GDP on a PPP basis for 2013 is $8,651 per capita, more than twice as high. One doesn’t expect a political science professor to be an economist, but it is really a pity all social scientists aren’t aware by now that exchange-rate-adjusted GDP estimates for lower income countries are badly downward biased; only PPP estimates should be cited by reputable scholars in most contexts.

5 people found this helpful

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Ryan B. Ward

A broader context for the Ukrainian crisis

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2016

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Firstly, a word of warning. This book is not a general day-by-day history of the crisis. It assumes the reader already has a good knowledge of the basic story, and focuses on broader interpretive issues. For this reason, it's not a good choice for someone who knows little to nothing about the events.
However, if you've already got the basic story straight, this is a really good challenge to the way that story is usually told. Most treatments of this issue don't make any attempt to place the crisis in its proper international context, or to understand the Russian perspective. Furthermore, they often assume a very simplistic account of the relationships involved (Yanukovich was a Russian cat's paw, the Eastern rebels are mostly Russian soldiers, neither of which is true) This book does a good job correcting these imbalances. To really understand this crisis, you have to take account of the role of all the major players (the various Ukrainian factions, the Eastern rebels, Russia, the EU, the US). This is the only book I've seen that even makes a serious attempt to do that.
Finally, I think a hint of the book's quality can be seen by looking at the negative reviews. Most of them don't even attempt to answer any of Sakwa's point, but just rant about "Putinist propaganda" (how dare Sakwa make an attemptto look at things from more than one point of view?) The few reviews that do go into detail focus mainly on points that are peripheral to the main thrust of the book, and badly strawman Sakwa's arguments. This book is making all the right people uncomfortable.

15 people found this helpful

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tony kevin

Excellent, scholarly book.

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2015

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Excellent book, scholarly, and free of the usual anti-Russia and anti-Putin biases. Tony Kevin, Canberra, Australia.

3 people found this helpful

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Judith A. Weller

BEST BOOK TO UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT CRISIS

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2015

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This is the best book out right now to read if you want to understand the current crisis. Unlike many writers who focus on the Maidan Riots and the issue of the EU, this book look squarely at the history of the region, and look closely at how the various regions of Ukraine have a very different history. As the author points out, Ukraine was really a creation of the USSR and it existed within the USSR as an SSR. The West, especially the US, kept these administrative borders in order to grab as much land as possible from Russia in 1991. By spending time on the creation and history of Ukraine as an SSR, parts of which were nothing but gifts by Khruschev, stripped from Russia and given to the Ukrainian SSR, he makes it easy to understand why Ukraine is really two countries in one border. Ukraine really has two different histories and cultural experiences.

When the Maidan Riots erupted in early 2014 the separate histories and cultures of the two halves of Ukraine clashed causing the current crisis. This book also has the advantage that it takes the events in the crisis up to September 2014 and gives some idea of the personalities involved in the East.

If you want to have some understanding of this crisis, then this is the book for you. I heartily recommend it.

44 people found this helpful

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Detailed and sourced account of the origins of the disaster.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2023

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This book takes us up to about 2016. The same author has written a more recent one 'How the West lost the peace'. I would expect that to be just as good.

This is not "pro Kremlin propaganda masquerading as scholarship", nor in fact does it lay all the blame at the door of the West as a result of analysis.

This is a detailed and sourced work examining the Ukraine crisis up to 2016. The Kremlin comes in for criticism. A section on the annexation of Crimea is far from following the Kremlin line, for example. An especially useful section covers how the EU provoked a crisis - not even discussing the Association Agreement with Russia, though it affected Russia both economically and in the security sphere. The author covers internal Ukrainian politics in more detail than I have come across elsewhere. The short-sighted and confrontational policies of the 'hawks' and 'democracy' exporters in Washington is also covered.

Not only is this a detailed work well supported by research it is also, in my view, a book with an inner moral strength. If only more people would try to think clearly about difficult matters we perhaps wouldn't be in the mess we are.

Thus book is essential reading on Ukraine.

2 people found this helpful

Paradesi K.Yarikipati

A Different Version of Russia -Ukraine Conflict

Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023

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The reasons for Russia -Ukraine conflict analysed and explained from different perspectives opposite to the Western or European.The rise of ethnic nationalism in Ukraine and the role played by the West stocking the fires of ehinic nationalism through color revolutions in the name of democracy..Those who fed up with western propaganda analysis of Russia -Ukraine conflict may found different version.A must read ..

J. Mikhail

Extrem tendenziös mit zunehmend dünner Quellenbasis

Reviewed in Germany on October 14, 2015

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Prof. Richard Sakwa ist Professor für Russische und Europäische Politik an der University of Kent. Leider hat ihn diese jahrzehntelange Beschäftigung mit Russland und russischer Politik aber scheinbar etwas zu sehr geprägt - so weit, dass er Teile der russischen Staatspropaganda verinnerlicht zu haben scheint.

Anfangs ist Sakwas Buch sehr interessant sowie mit einigen interessanten Erklärungen und griffigen Formulierungen gespickt. Dabei greift er vermehrt auf das Mittel der Gegenüberstellung zurück, welche zum Kern seiner ersten Kapitel wird. So unterteilt er die Ukraine in eine orangene und eine blaue, die Modelle ukrainischer Staatlichkeit in monistisch vs pluralistisch, die Modelle Europas in eine westorientiertes "Wider Europe" und ein Russland umfassendes "Greater Europe". Die aktuelle Krise hat für Sakwa ihren Ursprung im Ende des Kalten Krieges, dem ein "Kalter Frieden" folgte. Ursächlich für die Eskalation in der Ukraine sind laut Sakwa letztlich "strukturelle Widersprüche in internationalem System", ohne einen einzelnen Sündenbock (S. 5).

Munter springt er zu Beginn zwischen verschiedenen Themenbereichen hin und her, was zwar etwas unstrukturiert, aber doch gut lesbar ist. Zunächst wirken Einblicke in die ukrainische Sozialstruktur, ihre Nationalbewegung im Zweiten Weltkrieg und die Struktur von Svoboda vor allem informativ und gut recherchiert. Erst später offenbaren sie sich als Teil des extrem einseitigen Fokus des Autors. Nach und nach wird seine apologetische Haltung gegenüber Russland und die umgekehrt starke Ablehnung des ukrainischen Nationalismus deutlich.

Egal was Russland für einen Einfluss auf die Ukraine ausübte oder wie sehr es dessen Staatlichkeit in Frage stellte, Sakwa findet immer einen Weg um dieses Verhalten zu relativieren oder zu entschuldigen. Die Wurzel des ganzen Problems liegt für ihn primär in der Delegitimation russischer Sicherheitsinteressen. Je weiter man im Buch vorstößt, desto unerträglicher wird Sakwas fast an Propaganda grenzende Verteidigung von Putin und die Darstellung Russlands als Opfer.

Gelungen ist einzig der Einblick in die ukrainische Gesellschaft und die Politik. Auch wenn immer wieder eine gewisse Dämonisierung durchscheint, sind die meisten Informationen gut belegt und korrekt wiedergegeben. Besonders überzeugt dabei beispielsweise das Unterkapitel zur Oligarchen-Plutokratie und Janukovichs "Goldener Ukraine", konträr zur orangenen und blauen.

Ab Kapitel Vier wird es jedoch immer tendenziöser. Als wäre er ein Mitarbeiter von "Russia Today" erhöht Sakwa die Bedeutung des geleakten Telefonats von Victoria Nuland ins Unermessliche. Ihre geäußerte Präferenz, dass Jazenjuk der nächste ukrainische Ministerpräsident würde, drückt für Sakwa ein "high degree of US meddling in Ukrainian affairs" aus, dabei stellen solche Gespräche und Analysen einen völlig normalen Vorgang in der Außenpolitik einer Großmacht dar, wie es ja auch WikiLeaks gezeigt hat. Es wäre vielmehr verwunderlich, wenn sich ein Botschafter und das Außenministerium nicht über Vorgänge in Land austauschen würden.

Während die Scharfschützen auf dem Maidan häufig vorschnell allein mit Präsident Janukovich assoziiert werden, begeht Sakwa den gleichen Fehler umgekehrt: Er legt nur dar, dass Schüsse, die Demonstranten und Berkut töteten, aus Richtung der Aufständischen kamen, obwohl letztlich aus beiden Richtungen geschossen wurde. Zurecht verweist er derweil auf die Unrechtmäßigkeit des Amtsenthebungsverfahrens Janukovichs, welches in der öffentlichen Berichterstattung in der Tat vielfach zu unkritisch betrachtet wurde, insbesondere mit Blick darauf, dass das Parlament umlagert von Demonstranten war, dass diverse Kanäle wie das Verfassungsgericht übergangen wurden und dass nicht mal die eigentlich nötige, ausreichende Mehrheit vorhanden war. So korrekt Sakwas Beurteilung hier ist, so schnell rutscht er wieder ins tendenziöse ab, als er die Ernennung von Jazenjuk zum Ministerpräsidenten erneut in Verknüpfung mit Victoria Nuland bringt und behauptet, die ukrainische Regierung sei entsprechend ein amerikanisches Projekt (S. 95).

Mit den zunehmend hanebüchenen Behauptungen wird auch Sakwas Quellenbasis immer dünner, nehmen Belege für seine Schlüsse immer mehr ab. In Kapitel 5 spricht er beispielsweise vor einer drohenden Übernahme Sevastopols durch die 6. US-Flotte, ohne dies auf irgendeine Weise zu erläutern und mit Verweisen zu unterfüttern. Der vermutliche Tiefpunkt des Buches wird schließlich in Kapitel 6 erreicht, als Sakwa betont, dass Russland gezwungen war, sich an die Machtverschiebung in Ukraine anzupassen und daher rein reaktiv gehandelt habe. Ein Argument, als würde man sagen, dass "besorgte Bürger", welche Flüchtlingsheime anzünden ja auch nur auf veränderte Gegebenheiten reagieren würden und ihr Verhalten damit gerechtfertigt werden könne.
Auch die russische Beteiligung an den Kämpfen in der Ostukraine redet Sakwa natürlich mehrfach klein, um im Gegenzug - durchaus korrekterweise - die Radikalität mancher ukrainischer Kämpfer aufzudecken.

Insgesamt ist es ja durchaus sinnvoll und wichtig, sich von einseitigen Dämonisierungen Russlands zu lösen und auch Fehler, Widersprüche und die Verantwortung der Ukraine und der westlichen Bündnisse aufzudecken, zu analysieren und einzuordnen. Leider verrent sich Sakwa aber darin, im Gegenzug Russland regelmäßig zu glorifizieren und in die Opferrolle zu drängen - was mit der politischen Realität jedoch nicht viel zu tun hat.

9 people found this helpful

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Sam J

A scholarly review of a modern day tragedy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2015

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A thoroughly thought provoking book packed full of information on a subject that few of us from the west know much about. The sense of tragedy and desolation that he invokes of a talented and potentially wealthy country being ripped apart by outside influences is heart felt. The book is full of images of oligarchs, neo-Nazis, political hawks and incompetent politicians.

He offers a unique view point that Russia are the good guys in the conflict while the west has blundered in with no understanding of the situation causing untold damage. His theory that the EU was the main perpetrator of the Ukrainian civil war was, in my opinion pushing the point too far. However there is no doubt that the whole situation has spiralled into a complete mess and may have passed the point of the world's capability to resolve the situation satisfactorily.

The book is repetitive at times and I found myself skipping chunks that I had read many times before in previous chapters. The pro-Russian slant has been covered by other reviewers, but what frustrated me most was his kindly treatment of a number of pro-Russian 'monsters' that dominated the Donetsk People's Republic. For example the notorious 'Shooter' (Streklov) and the 'Demon' (Igor Bezler) were responsible for a number of horrific crimes in Ukraine and elsewhere, but it did not suit the author's purpose to dwell on their nefarious activities. However the Kiev neo-Nazis in the Azov Battalion were deservedly given the full treatment.

Overall the book had a powerful impact on me and I thank the author for giving me a well rounded view of a modern day tragedy,

31 people found this helpful

Jim Miles

Almost complete

Reviewed in Canada on September 11, 2015

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...but having kept tab on things via Fortruss and Russia Insider it misses some possible deeper definitions after the winter attack by Kiev against the Novorussia militias. Otherwise a strong read in particular about Ukraine's internal divisions.

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Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands Paperback – March 30, 2016

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