UCRAINA: EUROPENIZAREA CA STRATEGIE DE SUPRAVIEȚUIRE
UKRAINE: EUROPENIZATION AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the evolution of Ukraine-European Union relations as a long-term process shaped by geopolitics, conditional economic integration, and an identity-based turn toward Europe. It argues that European integration has operated simultaneously as (1) a strategic reorientation away from Russian coercive influence, (2) a modernization project anchored in democratic governance and rule-of-law benchmarks, and (3) a societal identity marker consolidated under existential threat. The analysis traces key milestones – especially the Eastern Partnership (2009) and the 2014 Association Agreement with the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) – while highlighting persistent constraints linked to systemic corruption, oligarchic networks, and uneven administrative capacity. It also synthesizes neorealist, constructivist, and liberal-institutionalist perspectives to show how power politics, norm diffusion, and institutional “lock-in“ jointly structure Ukraine’s trajectory. Empirically, the article uses recent opinion data and comparative indicators (including the 2025 Eastern Partnership Index and EU reporting) to show resilient support for EU accession during war, alongside pragmatic skepticism about external security guarantees and a growing emphasis on self-reliance. The article concludes that Ukraine’s “Europeanization under existential constraint“ tests the credibility and design of EU enlargement and the Union’s ability to stabilize its Eastern neighborhood in a contested security environment.

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