Українознавство (Mar 2020)
Constitutional Foundations of the Unification of Ukraine: Unity vs Federalization
Abstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of constitutional foundations of the Ukrainian statehood. The focus of consideration is put on the nature of the Ukrainian form of government. The Constitutions of the Cossack State of Pylyp Orlyk, the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, modern independent Ukraine have been observed. It is proved that the strategic vector of all Ukrainian basic laws consisted in orientation towards the unified and unitary order of a democratic republic. This orientation is conditioned by the ontological continuity of the Ukrainian ethnos both in time and space, democratic foundations of civic life. The rights of national minorities were to be considered by granting citizens with national and personal autonomy. All attempts to legislatively impose on Ukraine the federal system were caused by the external forceful interference. The creation of autonomous structures in its territory had the purpose of destabilizing and dismembering Ukraine. This is testified by the destructive designation of such “autonomies” as Donetsk-Kryvyi Rih, Taurida, and Bessarabian “Soviet republics” in the time of the UPR; the Moldavian ASSR within the USSR; the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of modern Ukraine. They all served as a foothold for unfolding the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The modern Russian hybrid warfare against Ukraine uses in its aggressive arsenal the idea of federalization or internal “autonomization” of Ukraine as one of the main means for achieving its goal. In this context, any changes to the basic law of Ukraine should not call into question its unity and unitarity.
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