Ukraine has always been projected as a wounded yet proud nation.
Even the national anthem says Ukraine’s “glory and will aren’t dead yet” and that the country is ready to put up a fight against its enemies to defend its independence.
This idea of Ukraine being on its knees and getting ready to stand up and fight has been a national myth for many generations. But that myth has become a reality. After years of oppression by Russia, Ukraine is now indeed fighting its enemies in a real bloody war in Donbas to preserve its independence.
The country still has its will, its glory is becoming greater and it’s fighting off enemies — exactly like it is said the anthem.
But even though the anthem is here to stay, the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution that got rid of Prseident Viktor Yanukovych has started to shift this seemingly rigid national myth.
Today, young Ukrainians don’t perceive Ukraine as a country on its knees, oppressed but proud. Their homeland is an independent country that stands on its own, that has its own affairs and isn’t dependent on anyone.
Young Ukrainians don’t say “rubles” when referring to the Ukrainian hryvnia anymore and they don’t say they are from Russia to make it simpler for foreigners to understand. And people abroad have started to understand that Ukraine isn’t part of Russia, too.
As we take stock of EuroMaidan more than six years later, it is clear that the results of the revolution were much greater than anyone could have imagined in 2014. The main change Maidan made is that it showed Ukrainians that they are not limited in their choice of friends. Russia isn’t the only option. Ukraine understood that it could make friends outside the post-Soviet bloc — in Europe, the United States, and beyond.
The country started to globalize and is now becoming more and more cosmopolitan. And as Ukraine’s interest in others grows, the world is learning more about Ukraine. International companies like Uber, Spotify, Netflix, Amazon have entered Ukraine since 2014, opening the country up for another culture — not just post-Soviet.
Of course, it would be unreasonable to abandon international ties with neighbors like Georgia and Turkey and focus solely on the West. Ukraine should enjoy a good rapport with everyone it can.
But Ukrainians have stopped thinking of the U.S. and the European Union as countries that live in another distant world with smiling people and good roads. Ukrainians now want to build that same world here at home.
