The reflections of the war in Ukraine on EU-Russia relations and the Eastern Partnership’s dynamics

Abstract

Russia’s attack on Ukraine at the end of February 2022, which escalated into the Russian-Ukrainian war, led to significant changes in contemporary international relations. This article explores how the war changed the European Union and Russia’s relationship and affected the Eastern Partnership’s dynamics. The goal is to contribute to the ongoing dialogues about the complexity of the conflict and its profound implications for regional security and stability through the afore-mentioned aspects of the analysis. The main findings indicate that the events in Ukraine triggered in 2014 created a more complex security environment, significantly changing the previous dynamics of EU-Russia relations and increasing tensions. Tension culminated after Vladimir Putin’s bold proposals from December 2021, presented as a kind of ultimatum that should have ensured Russia a fair place in the new European security architecture, were left without a response from the West. After the Russian attack on Ukraine, in an effort to achieve security and broader European stability, there was a need for a redesign and change of focus in the European security architecture. However, not in the way that Russia demanded. Furthermore, the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s subsequent attack on the country have raised concerns among the EU’s eastern neighbours about their security and sovereignty. That is why, despite the challenges of implementing political and economic reforms, these countries received increased support from the EU through the Eastern Partnership. Moreover, although the previous forms of cooperation did not provide a possibility for the membership of these countries in the EU, Ukraine and Moldova also received the status of membership candidates. The war in Ukraine also highlighted the limits of the EU’s normative power, underscoring the importance of hard power, further enhancing defence cooperation at the EU level, and cooperation with NATO as a collective defence mechanism. Thus, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has had a profound and lasting impact on the security dynamics of Europe, reshaping the interactions of key regional actors. Russia-Ukraine war, EU-Russia relations, Eastern Partnership

Keywords

• russia-ukraine war
• eu-russia relations
• eastern partnership