European Integration of Ukraine in the Context of Geopolitical Contrasting «Russia-West»

Abstract

The article considers the European integration of Ukraine as its important strategic foreign policy priority. This is an even more urgent task, since Russia’s unfolding hybrid war against Ukraine has already led to the widespread use of armed forces, violation of the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of a sovereign state, the erosion of its will regarding its own civilized choice. The increase in the volume and intensity of aggressive actions against Ukraine is being advanced by Russia to the practice of state terrorism. The ideological sabotage that preceded and followed Russia’s armed aggression was aimed at discrediting the state system of Ukraine and weakening its central government control, creating problems for the security and economic sectors of our state, and legitimizing the separatist movement of the southeastern Ukraine in the eyes of the international community. In the unstable hybrid war, the policy of historical memory is one of the central places. Practice shows that in the information field of the Ukrainian-Russian confrontation with the policy of memory there is far not all historical knowledge, but the most valuable, meaningful, productive, suitable for the creative life-support of the nation. In this sense, historical memory should be considered as a kind of intellectual and psychological equipment of the spiritual immunity of a national community or an individual as a necessary (though not sufficient!) Matrix-sieve, which serves to sift the flow of historical events, phenomena and facts. An analysis of the formation of the pro-European identity of Ukraine in the context of the events of the last four years (Crimean annexation, Russian hybrid warfare, European integration course) has been analyzed. It was concluded that just after the events of EuroMaydan, Ukraine had an incentive to more consciously identify itself with the European community.