These two cities are outwardly so disparate that they could conceivably belong to two entirely different civilizations. The divisions underpinning the ‘two Ukraines’ thesis are often said to be most evident in the two opposing ‘poles’ of the Ukrainian geopolitical spectrum – the cities of Lviv in the west (Eastern Galicia), and Donetsk (Donets Basin) in the east. Rather than serving as a dividing line, the Dnieper constitutes a symbolic backbone of Ukraine. The Dnieper River (Ukr.: Dnipro, Russ.: Dnepr’), that runs through the middle of the country and its capital Kyiv, serves more to unite than to divide Right Bank Ukraine ( Pravoberezhna Ukraina, West) from Left Bank Ukraine ( Livoberezhna Ukraina, East). However, the perception of ‘one State, two countries’ does not imply that Ukraine can be divided along a clear geographical demarcation line, as the renowned Ukrainian author Mykola Riabchuk remarked. Ukraine is perceived by many in the international community as a divided country. One state – two Ukraines: “Post -Soviet schizophrenia”? Ukraine. Writes Andrew Wilson of University College London: Russia’s President Putin has thus become the midwife of the Ukrainian nation. It strengthens the formation of a national Ukrainian identity – and also makes the process irreversible. Russia’s military aggression reinforces Ukraine’s nation-building process. Russia’s undeclared war has forced Ukrainians to take up arms and defend their country’s independence militarily – something which had not been necessary during the relatively peaceful transition in 1990-1991. This decision came as a shock to many Ukrainians: “The Russian part of me died…” – MacFarquhar quotes, in The New York Times, young economist Aleksey Ryabchyn who has become a member of the parliamentary bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party. On March 1, 2014, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation authorized President Putin to deploy Russian troops in Ukraine – according to the amended Article 10 of the Federal Law on Defence of 1996 ( Zakon “Ob oborone”). In the eyes of many Ukrainians, Russia maintained its status as cultural lodestar even after Ukraine became independent. For most Ukrainians, the idea of war with Russia was unimaginable until 2014.
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