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What’s Wrong with the Donbas? The Challenges of Integration Before, During and After the War

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Abstract

Based on the data from Ukrainian Society survey, the author challenges the Donbas myth of mismatch within Ukraine as an independent state. She traces the tendencies of public opinion with a focus on different aspects of national-civic integration before and during the war and investigates the turning points fuelling the idea of uniqueness and split that led the region into political limbo and humanitarian catastrophe. She suggests that feudal-type regionalism under the control of strong local oligarchs challenged the Donbas integration and deterred its post-industrial development, specifically its emancipation from the Soviet legacies and further modernization of value orientations. Finally, the author stresses the current urgency of the inclusive national development project as a new much-needed paradigm to embrace all regions evenly and facilitate future Ukrainian transition.

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Ivaschenko-Stadnik, K. (2020). What’s Wrong with the Donbas? The Challenges of Integration Before, During and After the War. In: Veira-Ramos, A., Liubyva, T., Golovakha, E. (eds) Ukraine in Transformation . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24978-6_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24978-6_10

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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