Ukraine’s Agency in the Eyes of Its Overseas Partners

Abstract

The article deals with the attitude of Ukraine’s overseas partners to its independence, attempts of external influence on the making of Ukrainian elite, and the Russian position on Ukraine’s international agency. The author also analyses the phenomenon of agency in the context of Ukrainian-Belarusian, Ukrainian-Slovak, Ukrainian-Moldovan, Ukrainian-Polish, Ukrainian-Hungarian, Ukrainian-Romanian relations, the attitude to Ukraine’s agency by the major powers, the US and China, as well as the characteristic features of Ukraine’s agency in its relations with the EU. The author contends that an appropriate understanding of agency is made possible by due regard for a range of economic, political, and sociocultural aspects of globalisation. The first two decades of the 21st century brought to the surface the strategic problems shared by all nations, to wit: climate change, technological disproportions, demographic and food issues. The aforementioned factors are a game changer on the international arena. Additional challenges for Ukraine’s international agency are caused by the implementation of the law on the opening of the country’s internal agricultural land market. As far as national food security is concerned, the scenario of market monopolisation in this field by transnational capitalists and its exploitation not in the national interest is unacceptable. In order to restore full-fledged agency, it is necessary to reach a prior national consensus on the development strategy. It is emphasised in the article that the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic is the most suitable time for rethinking the situation and adapting to the new world. The agency and status of the nation-state will now depend on its own capabilities and real policies and not on the imitation of life through ideological myths. Keywords: Ukraine’s agency, strategic problems, European integration, international arena.