KYIV, Aug 24: As Ukraine marks 34 years of independence, early activists and lawmakers say Russia’s efforts to maintain control never truly ended.
Oleksandr Donii, a leader in Ukraine’s 1990 student protests, believed the struggle for sovereignty would take decades—but independence came swiftly in 1991 after the Soviet collapse.
Still, Donii says Ukraine failed to remove Soviet-era leaders from power, allowing Russia’s influence to persist politically and socially.
He and others argue that the lack of immediate political reform in the 1990s allowed pro-Russian forces to remain entrenched, paving the way for future aggression.
Former MP Oleksandr Nechyporenko recalls a divided society, with many still supporting Soviet rule.
He believes Ukraine’s tolerance of Russian influence was a critical mistake: “We should have been more firm, more radical.”
Another key moment was Ukraine’s decision to surrender its inherited nuclear arsenal—the world’s third largest at the time.
Politician Yurii Kostenko led early disarmament talks and envisioned US support to convert warheads into nuclear fuel and a path to NATO membership.
But under Russian pressure, Kostenko was removed, and Ukraine handed its warheads to Russia in exchange for limited fuel and gas—worth only a fraction of the arsenal’s value.
Instead of NATO protection, Ukraine received the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which offered non-binding security assurances from Russia, the US, and the UK.
Russia later violated the agreement by annexing Crimea in 2014 and launching a full-scale invasion in 2022.
For many, these early decisions continue to shape Ukraine’s current struggle.
With war ongoing, independence-era figures say Ukraine is still fighting the same battle it began in the 1990s—this time, with higher stakes and greater urgency for lasting sovereignty and Western integration. (AP)
