Promoting Democracy or Overcoming the Crisis: Poland’s Political and Ideological Influence on Ukraine in its Crisis

Abstract

The article deals with Poland’s political and ideological influence towards Ukraine in the conditions of its crisis, emphasizing the question whether these efforts have been made due to reasons of democracy promotion, mainly of European origin, or Ukraine crisis overcoming. The article consists of two parts: 1) Polish political and ideological influence on Ukraine during the development of Ukraine crisis 2013-2014, which took place in the conditions of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity and in the context of the EU democracy promotion endeavors towards Ukraine; 2) Poland’s efforts to prevent spreading of Russia’s authoritarianism in the context of hybrid war between Russia and Ukraine during 2014-2020. The Ukrainian crisis is closely linked to the spread of democracy, the EU integration and Russian ideological influence. Terminologically, we support the research position in the interpretation of the Ukrainian crisis as a socio-political unrest, which began in late November 2013. The main hypothesis implies that the external democracy promotion could be more effective in the case of domestic crisis in the recipient country. Therefore, the Ukrainian crisis of 2013-2020 is an interesting case to determine the capabilities of the main donors for the external democracy promotion for the target countries, in our case, Ukraine. Poland took an active part both in promoting democracy towards Ukraine and in overcoming Ukraine crisis, using its own political and ideological resources. We consider the Ukrainian crisis and the post-crisis process as an important motivating factor that plays an important role to strengthen the democratic aspirations of Ukrainian society. Moreover, the participation of external forces, especially of the consolidated West is a significant factor in this process.