The 2008 russo-georgian war through the prism of the ukrainian politicum

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to characterize the Ukrainian political community’s reaction to the armed conflict in Georgia (2008) comprehensively, to determine the range of problems that were most often raised by the Ukrainian political elite in the public discourse in the context of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War. The methodology of research is based on general scientific and special historical methods (a complex of problems related to the vision of the Ukrainian political community of military events in Georgia (2008). The methodological basis of the article consists of the principles of historicism, consistency, scientific pluralism, objectivity, systematicity, and comprehensiveness. In the research there have been widely used a number of theoretical methods, in particular (comparative, dialectical, structural and functional), which allowed to reconstruct the historical process as a symbiosis of facts in their integrity and historical connection. The scientific novelty of the research: the position of the President of Ukraine and the “democratic coalition” regarding the 2008 Russo-Georgian War have been critically analyzed; the suggestions of the opposition political forces (the Party of Regions, the Communist Party of Ukraine) regarding the situation settlement in Georgia at the height of the hostilities have been considered; the efficiency of Parliament’s actions and the attitude of the leading factions to the events in Transcaucasia have been determined. The Conclusion. The unprecedented actions of the Russian Federation in relation to Georgia, which in 2008 carried out a full-scale invasion of the territory of a sovereign state, caused a heated discussion among the Ukrainian politicians. Pro-government political parties led by the President of Ukraine V. Yushchenko criticized Russia’s actions sharply and called on the world public to help resolve the military conflict. Political parties that were in opposition to the authorities after the Orange Revolution limited themselves to theoretical calls to stop the bloodshed, criticized the authorities for involving the state in the military conflict, taking into account the latter's critical attacks on the Russian Federation and the aggravation of the problem of the aggressor’s Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula. After Russia’s invasion of Georgia, many politicians predicted further escalation in the Russian-Ukrainian relations and the inevitability of the Russian-Ukrainian war.