Kiev’s Two-Front War

Following the Euromaidan revolution, Ukraine is engaged in a two-pronged fight that integrates domestic and foreign components. The first battle is Russia’s desire to dismember Ukraine, halt its European integration, and return it to the Russkii Mir (Russian World) sphere of influence. The second battle is to begin to effectively fight the scourge of high-level corruption and abuse of office, and bring to justice those who were guilty of bankrupting Ukraine and murdering protesters. Both of these battles affect Ukraine’s national security in many ways, and they cannot be divorced from one another.

The first battle has been largely a successful people’s war that was fought with the assistance of military and civil society volunteers who halted Putin’s plans to separate eastern and southern Ukraine, his so-called NovoRossiya (New Russia). The Ukrainian state inherited following the Euromaidan protests was financially bankrupted by the outgoing regime that had stripped the armed forces and destroyed its operational capabilities, while Russian military and secret services thoroughly penetrated Ukraine’s military intelligence and security agency. The Ukrainian state and security forces therefore barely existed during the crucial first year of war, and the defense of Ukraine’s eastern regions was left to Ukrainian volunteers, many of who had joined from the Euromaidan protests. Ukraine’s leaders continue to be corrupt and rely upon old guard senior generals heavily indoctrinated by Soviet training. The central authorities do not reach out to eastern and southern Ukraine or provide assistance to Internally Displaced People; this is left to civil society volunteers.

The second battle, which always required political will from the president and government, has proven to be a failure, and a majority of Ukrainians are sceptical of President Petro Poroshenko and the central government. ‘Until they start putting officials who steal millions behind bars, we can’t say that this fight is effective,’ Daryna Kalenyuk, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, said.

Ukraine’s second battle requires visible action and results in 5 areas:

1. Euromaidan: Justice for the victims who were politically repressed, wounded, and murdered during the Euromaidan revolution. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told Ukrainian lawmakers that the sacrifice of the “heavenly hundred” –the name given to those killed during the protests--“to put it bluntly is now your obligation.” Not a single person has been criminally charged.
2. Ancien Regime: Yanukovych and his political and business allies being brought to justice at home and internationally for massive abuse of office, political repression, and ordering the use of live rounds during the Euromaidan. Yanukovych and his allies committed treason for: facilitating the degrading of Ukraine’s armed forces and the Russian penetration of Ukraine’s intelligence services; calling for Russian forces to annex the Crimea; and not preventing or colluding with the separatists in the Donbas. No criminal charges have been made, and the prosecutor’s office has sabotaged cooperation with Interpol, the FBI, and other Western law enforcement agents.
3. Corruption: End corruption in the central government. Biden called upon the Ukrainian authorities to fight ‘the cancer of corruption’ in a reference to high-level corruption among the elites. Political corruption scandals have continued to grow among President Poroshenko’s allies, Prime Minister Arsen Yatsenyuk’s government, and the Euromaidan parliamentary coalition.
4. Oligarchs: An end to business as usual for oligarchs and a demonstrative reduction in their political influence and financial power. As The Economist wrote, “Building a nation means putting plutocrats in their place.” Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, reminds us that “At present, Ukraine stands out as the last post-communist outpost where tycoons wield substantial political power” and “big business has captured the state in Ukraine, more than any other post-communist country.” Ashland adds, “The power of the oligarchs has to be broken.”
5. War: Accountability for senior officers guilty of treason or incompetence, whose orders led to a large number of Ukrainian casualties at Illovaysk and Debaltseve. An August 2015 parliamentary report found that Russia had reneged on its promise to permit a corridor for Ukrainian forces to escape from the ambush at Illovaysk and had killed 366 soldiers and volunteers. Another 29 were wounded, 128 were taken prisoner, and 158 were missing. The investigation into the de facto Russian massacre has been as incompetent and indifferent as that into the Euromaidan murders and May 2014 Odessa deaths.

The success of the first battle in stemming Putin’s Russian imperialism was not without cost. The official military casualty figures underestimate the number of Ukrainians who died, because they do not include volunteers, and Ukrainian forces do not have dog tags identifying them. Many others were wounded and disabled. Understandably, military veterans and the Ukrainian public as a whole, are angry at the lack of progress in Ukraine’s second battle against corruption, which is already leading to political instability.

Ukrainian patriots overthrew a kleptocratic, murderous traitor and thwarted the imperial ambitions of a Russian sociopath and imperialist. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s ruling elites have failed to fulfill the aims and objectives of the Euromaidan Revolution of Dignity. Ukraine is a country where the average citizen is more European in his or her values than the so-called ‘elites.’