See also: Ukraine: The Bumper Sticker
We think of Ukraine as frequently being the subject of Russian domination, but it bears mentioning that they used to get the gears on their western flank as well, and not just from the Germans, but also the Poles!
Today it’s a little different. Poland is an essential partner nation-state for the European future of Ukraine. As long as they don’t Make Lviv Lwów Again (on our maps), Poland can be Ukraine’s best buddy in terms of becoming Yet Another Slavic Nation State on the Increasingly-Eastern European Bloc(k), although I suggest they each not get too crazy with the biweekly name changes that plague Eastern Europe, which even Turkey1Stewards of the State housing the Sacramentarium Sophianum, bien sûr seems to be catching, and they’re not even Slavs!
Poland, unless they’re aching to get the Commonwealth back together, is not currently having an existential issue with Ukraine being A Thing. Ukraine’s problem is with the edifice of “governance” headed by the other of Two Great, Gustofill’d Slavic Peoples Who Why Yes Actually Have Had A Lot To Do With One Another. (Club Cyrillic et Orthodoxe et Stalin, eh? Pardon my notional French.)
Ukraine on the map was its own Soviet Socialist Republic. Moscow even took its seat in the United Nations, and as the succeeding entity of the Soviet Union (of which Ukraine was its own, distinct, albeit somewhat less territorially expansive, top-level constituent), they should be held to their own precedent. Consequently, in the post-Soviet world Ukraine is now simply her own goshdarned govermenty state thing among the peaceably prospering nations of the world, simple as.
Russia in “Federation” form is a failed2To recall a little early 90s optimism, perhaps reforms from Soviet ways were sometimes heartful in the early going, maybe occasionally venturing upon the meaningful, and I have heard tell there is a great procedural artifice which still obtains there. attempt to establish a democratic nation state on (a goodly chunk of) the Soviet foundation, and it is painful to see the hopes of the Europeanising of the Russian State Entity, itself now its own Gathering of Nations Formerly Sovietly Federated, be so thoroughly dashed.
It is now time, like has happened for the Baltic Republics, for Ukraine’s own rule in her own right to be absolutely secure, as a distinct Slavic nation, Cossack-appreciating cousins of the Muscovian-Aligned Eastern Slavs.
And they are also the Custodians of Old Kiev! Yes, this city is called Kyiv when reflecting Ukrainian, but the place is about more than just Ukrainians, just as Mecca is about more than just Saudis. Kyiv is Ukraine’s beautiful capital city, one très belle ville indeed, and it is now up to Russians to find a way to deal with it being now also the Stately home of what is now the House of the Ookraiiniian Volk in Thingamajig Assembled.
Notwithstanding that Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians may have a certain privilege in a country called Ukraine, Ukraine needs must be a country that aspires to European norms regarding non-ethnolingual Ukrainians in Ukraine, such as (but not limited to!) Crimean Tatars, and other peoples I could name, as perhaps too often goes without saying, political exigences being what they are in a State where Ukrainian is the langue unique de l’État.
“Maybe it’s hard for Russians to get used to the idea of not dominating other peoples” – not only is there the old imperial propaganda where Ukraine and Belarus are simply Little Russia and White Russia, but Russia Today is basically still an empire:
I guess I would just say to any of my readers that happen to be Russian that some of us in the world have come to do without Red Square parades, and we are none the worse for it.
Also, Belarus exists.