Beware interpreting Ukraine’s current political landscape with traditional European values, says Volodymyr Yermolenko: Kremlin-backed zoopolitics, upholding the survival of the fittest, uses liberal discourse against the democratic world.
Volodymyr Yermolenko
Ukrainian philosopher, writer and journalist. Author of four books and numerous articles on philosophy, history of ideas, geopolitics, Ukrainian politics and society. Doctor of political studies (EHESS, Paris). Editor-in-chief at UkraineWorld.org, director for analysis at Internews Ukraine, journalist at Hromadske.ua, lecturer at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. His writing has been published in Ukrainian, English, Russian, French, German, Czech, Danish, Norwegian and other languages. His latest book, Liquid Ideologies, won Sheveliov Prize of the Ukrainian PEN Club (2018), Book of the Year in political studies (2018), and Book of the Year in non-fiction (2018) in Ukraine.
Articles
Violence and anti-violence
Ukraine between Russia and Europe
Western Europe’s culture of anti-violence continues to exert a magnetic pull on Ukrainian society. But will that be enough to resist Russia’s twenty-first century politics of dog-eat-dog? The answer depends on the strength of Europe’s own conviction, argues philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko.
A majority of almost two-thirds opposed the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine in a referendum in the Netherlands on 6 April. As the public debate surrounding the referendum gained pace, the Ukrainian independent TV channel Hromadske became an important forum for associated discussion. Now that the results are in, Hromadske journalist Volodymyr Yermolenko assesses the implications for EU-Ukraine relations, and European politics in general.
The silence of the lambs
Why the West should stop being angelic towards Putin
For Vladimir Putin, the West’s tolerance is weakness and dialogue is failure to impose force. Because KGB-styled Russia believes that either you devour, or you are devoured. Europe’s “silence of the lambs”, writes Volodymyr Yermolenko, is not a proper response to Russia’s war.
There are two Europes, writes Volodymyr Yermolenko: a Europe of rules and regulations, and a Europe founded upon faith in the European idea. And of course, as recent events in Ukraine show, the European idea extends well beyond the formal frontiers of the European Union.
