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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   34653 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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I think what is causing some confusion here is that "sovereignty" is a bit of an innuendo in the Ukrainian context.

The contentious element of "Ukrainian sovereignty" is not the right of ethnic Ukrainians to rule themselves domestically, it's about Ukraine's right to join the Western block via institutions like the EU and NATO.

It's this element of foreign policy that Russia is concerned by and sees as a strategic threat - the loss of (somewhat) independent buffer states and Western domination of the Black Sea etc. Likewise, the Western block wants to pull Ukraine closer, and prevent it being dominated by Russia, for largely the same (mirrored) reasons.

So, when you see people talking about "Ukrainian sovereignty", remember that this is what we're really talking about. It has almost nothing to do with domestic rule, GDP growth or the welfare of the Ukrainian people. It's about Great Power politics and spheres of influence.

The contentious element of "Ukrainian sovereignty" is not the right of ethnic Ukrainians to rule themselves domestically, it's about Ukraine's right to join the Western block via institutions like the EU and NATO.

No, it isn't. Since the beginning of the war, Putin has been saying that he wants to "denazify" Ukraine, which in his language means changing the government to a pro-Russian one. There are four aims:

  1. International recognition (including in Ukraine) of Crimea as part of Russia.
  2. To take the four oblasts that Putin declared as Russian
  3. Ensuring that Ukraine never becomes a NATO or EU state
  4. Install a puppet president in Ukraine, as in Belarus ("denazification").

All these goals have something to do with the loss of sovereignty. This is obvious for (4), but also for (1) and (2). And anyway, the very concept of a sphere of influence is very anti-sovereignty: it means that a great power should have a say in what a lesser power does, so that lesser power is typically not sovereign.

The contentious element of "Ukrainian sovereignty" is not the right of ethnic Ukrainians to rule themselves domestically, it's about Ukraine's right to join the Western block via institutions like the EU and NATO.

Yes, that's part and parcel of sovereignty. To be able to rule yourselves domestically but to have another power control your foreign relations means you are not sovereign.

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