This book investigates the making of Ukraine¿s foreign policy towards the European Union and
Russia between February 2014 and February 2015. To contextualize the events of the first year
of the Russian-Ukrainian War Nychyk lays out the history of the EU-Ukraine-Russia triangle
since 1991 and draws lessons relevant for the 2022 Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The
book is based on her doctoral research and rests on a game-theory-inspired approach to foreign
policy analysis. It relies on 38 elite interviews official documents and media reports.
Nychyk uncovers various mutual misperceptions in EU-Ukraine-Russia relations. Looking at
Ukraine¿s ¿side of the story¿ her analysis shows how Russian assertiveness and the EU¿s
passivity but also Ukrainian leaders¿ limited crisis management experience and erroneous
policy decisions contributed to worse outcomes for Ukraine. The latter included poor analysis
of foreign interlocutors trust in their good intentions and corruption. After 2015 a
persistence¿although with certain changes¿of some of these pathologies left Ukraine in a weaker
position in the face of Russiäs full-scale invasion in February 2022.
