Ahead of the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyi declared Russia to be “the biggest anti-European force of the modern world” in a speech to the European Parliament.
By “European”, Zelenskyi was referring to the continent’s “way of life”, which was, he said, “steeped in rules, values, equality and fairness”. Europe, he added, was “a place where Ukraine is firmly at home”.
It was a prominent example of how Ukraine has come to focus on its relationship to ‘Western civilisation’ in its wartime public diplomacy. Other examples include popular rhetoric about Russia becoming “more Asian” as a result of its illegal war on Ukraine, or that Ukraine’s struggle for national survival amounts to “extending Europe’s borders eastwards”.
