By Tamar Jacoby
The Ukrainian counteroffensive is drawing most of our attention right now. But there’s a second, more subtle, reorganizing of lines happening: the reimagining of Europe as a political community spurred by Ukraine’s impassioned, ideals-driven demands to join.
Very few Americans would use the word “inspiring” to describe the European Union. If we think about the EU at all, most of us share something like the dyspeptic view that prompted many Britons to want out: It’s a many-tentacled, meddlesome regulatory bureaucracy, useful in its way, perhaps, as an economic umbrella. But hardly inspirational.
But the EU looks different from Ukraine, where the idea of joining is freighted with hope and deeper meaning. In 2013, just as the Brexit debate began in London, pro-Russian Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych rescinded the country’s application for EU membership, bringing nearly a million people into the streets of Kyiv, shouting “Ukraine is Europe.” Later that winter, more than 100 protesters died for the idea. Today, polls show upward of 90 percent of Ukrainians wanting to join.
