Ever since Ukraine gained its independence from the USSR in 1991, the country has faced multiple challenges in order to define its identity, its security as well as to stabilize its economy. Therefore, Ukraine’s choices were done in the realm of these three factors. Due to its modern history, Ukraine’s decisions were mainly guided by their will to pursue their european integration , and at the same time to restrict as much as it could its participation in the newly formed CIS (p.3).However, these actions were never expressed as clearly in order to preserve their relation with their bellicose eastern neighbor, Russia. For Russia, Ukraine appeared as a key element in its strategy of reforming its renewed sphere of influence. This imperative of Ukraine remaining in its sphere of influence was motivated by legitimacy issues as well as for its security ties. This is due to the old perception of Russia being a constantly assaulted fortress by its neighbors especially the EU. This perception is nonetheless a paradox knowing that the EU never considered itself as a security actor but mainly as an economic actor.

Regarding Ukraine’s identity, there is often a misconception that tends to perceive the country as a former Russian province as it is alleged that Kiev would be the cradle of the slavic nation (p.88). However, Ukraine’s history has as much to do with Central European powers that it has with Russia. Parts of the country had been previously controlled by Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, the Russian Empire  as well as the Ottoman Empire. Ukraine’s contemporary borders had only been settled up after the second world war. Therefore, the concept of an Ukrainian identity remained  vague. Moreover, Ukraine literally means “borderland” as to better reflect its torn notion between the different influences that has prevailed within the country. As a consequence of the broad identity of the country, Ukraine has often been overlooked throughout it’s neighbors identity and this situation has prevailed until the recent country’s crisis. Indeed, today’s crisis tends to be interpreted nearly exclusively on either Russian or European views and neglects the most important one which is the Ukrainian view.