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Ukraine’s border regions have been long associated with the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity, but also with political cleavages and alternative geopolitical orientations. The annexation of Crimea by Russia and the military conflict in Donbas violently reshaped Ukraine’s eastern borderlands and led to alienation between the two countries. At the same time, the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement and visa-free regime facilitated the growing reorientation of Ukrainian society toward Europe. The 2022 Russian invasion, occupation of further Ukrainian territories and mass displacement intensified these trends. While the war is forging the country together, it is experienced in very different ways in its regions, and these collective experiences will matter for postwar Ukrainian politics.
Tatiana Zhurzhenko (Wed,) studied this question.