Mission Ukraine: The 2012-2013 Diplomatic Effort to Secure Ties with Europe

ISBN-13: 9781476669380 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 184 str.

Maciej Olchawa

Opis

On a frigid February night in Kyiv in 2013, former president of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski turned to his friend Pat Cox, the former president of the European Parliament, and said: "Don't worry, Pat. They've got a lot of empty space on this square--an ideal location to put up statues of you and me." Over a year and a half, Kwaśniewski and Cox visited Ukraine 27 times, spending total of 80 days there negotiating the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which would allow Ukraine to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union. The Cox-Kwaśniewski mission was part of the EU's final, all-out effort to save the Agreement and give millions of Ukrainians the hope of a European future. After an intricate political game of chicken between the European Union and Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president, Yanukovych swerved at the last second. Ukrainians took to the streets and the wave of civil unrest was born.