GEOPOLITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE WAR IN THE DONBAS (12 APRIL 2014-24 FEBRUARY 2022)

Date

2024-1

Author

Akçin , Rümeysa

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After the success of the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014, the Donbas region was embroiled in an armed conflict between pro-Russian separatist groups and Ukraine's central government. In this regional war, pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas received covert and overt support from the Russian Federation, including political and military assistance. The West, on the other hand, took sides with Ukraine in this country's subtle dispute with Russia, despite simultaneously urging Kyiv to implement political decentralisation within the country. The Russian-Western confrontation in eastern Ukraine was widely interpreted in the academic literature in the light of what has been referred to as the "new Cold War". The eastward expansion of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western unilateralism in global politics, and the Western democracy promotion in the former Soviet space were primarily emphasised in explaining the international factors that led to the eruption of an armed conflict in the Donbas. This thesis, despite acknowledging the eventual influence of these developments on the Russian behaviour, draws attention to a crucial aspect overlooked by the popular viewpoint in making sense of this particular conflict and the Russia-Ukraine crisis: Russia's identity issues with the West and Ukraine. Built upon the theoretical framework of critical geopolitics, this thesis seeks to manifest the impact of Russia's "identity crisis" within the context of the war in the Donbas by analysing the official statements of Russian and Ukrainian leaders from 2014 to 2022.

Subject Keywords

War in the Donbas, Russia-West Confrontation, Neo-Realism, Critical Geopolitics, National Identity

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/107763

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis