Three years of war, as conflict has changed Ukraine

The Ukrainian conflict – which “has not lasted for three years, but from 11” with the war in Donbass and the Russian annexation of Crimea – has come to a “turning point”, whose direction is still difficult to predict but which is certainly marked by the deep fracture consumed between Kiev and its main ally, Washington. That 2025 would have opened a new chapter He was quite clear to those who, like Simone Attilio Bellezza, dedicated his life to Ukrainian studies and the post-Soviet area.

Teacher of Contemporary History at the University of Eastern Piedmont, beauty is a co-corar of the volume released for Scholé “The Ukrainian war of independence. How the conflict changed the country (2014-2024) “ten years in which the war comparison has deeply influenced and transformed Ukrainian society, culture and politics. The volume reflects on these changes with the essays of 12 Italian scholars and scholars and Ukrainians who aim to interpret the war in the medium-long period to try to understand what the future of Ukraine will be.

The greatest changes that occurred in this period of time, explains the same beauty in an interview, “are basically three: a greater “ukrainization” of the countrywith the populations that mixed because of the internal emigration driven by the war “. This, continues the scholar, “made it possible to create A more cohesive nation That we know more and that speaks this time a single language, the Ukrainian, while the Russian is perceived as the language of the invader “.

The other great transformation is that of a “democratization” of the country, with a “progressive marginalization of oligarchs from the power and affirmation of the primacy of politics”. On the issue of rights, it points out beauty, just remember that “the convention of Istanbul on gender rights was approved during the war at first reading by the Ukrainian Parliament “; Putin, that is, that of western democracies “.

Finally, it is Daily life to have changed a lot: “Violence and destruction are widespread, Ukraine is a country where almost everyone has had a victim in the family, curfews, bombs, restrictions on energy supplies”. Today, the Ukrainian report has also changed towards President Volodymyr Zelensky: he underwent a decline of popularitybut to say that his consent is 4%, as the US president Donald Trump recently did, seems to be an attempt to “delegitim him” it together with the appeals to indirect new elections, declares the teacher.

Zelensky’s mandate expired last year, but “it should not be forgotten that it is the only legitimate president and this also know the Ukrainians,” explains beauty, “because the Constitution provides that in the event of a war you cannot go to urns “. By reporting recent surveys, which give Zelensky to 57%, the expert admits that the Ukrainian leader “has been estimated part of the popular consensus for various reasons, including some choices in the management of the conflict and government officials more linked to his club collaborators, who to a logic of competence “.

“But this time he does the United States,” continues beauty, “he is doing nothing but bringing together the nation around the president again: the Ukrainians feel betrayed by the United States and the West, by those who were the first i their allies and who have married Putin’s theses at any moment ”. Now Zelensky’s future depends on how this international game will be able to close On a possible respite, it says beauty, according to which “it is not obvious that one can really come to a truce, because I believe that Zelensky has the possibility, if it was supported by a strong popular consent, not to accept a respite that is one complete yield “.

The red line on which Kiev will not give up are the guarantees of safety, rather than territorial integrity: “How to prevent Russia from launching a new attack on Ukraine Maybe in a year or two, when it has already been established that he will not have to be part of NATO? ” Bordate of Trump.