Ukraine is a misfit among post-communist states being neither a respectable stable democracy
nor an autocracy. Nor does it sit well as a patronal political system like other post-Soviet
regimes since the Euromaidan Revolution. This study examines the presidencies of Petro
Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy focusing on their common tendency to subordinate the legal
system and use it as a political instrument. It finds that this pattern of power struggle
concentrated in the president's office was contrary to the theory of patronal politics more
dominant than clientelism. The second theme of this book is each president's handling of
relations-largely meaning the war-with Russia in the wake of the annexation of Crimea in 2014
and culminating in the invasion of 2022 as the key challenge to the nation's survival. One way
or another unable to reform itself or to withstand the Russian assault post-Euromaidan
Ukraine will have come to an end. An important contribution to the literature! There is a lot
of interest in Ukraine and the focus . . . on the past decade or so is so important. -Yasmeen
Abu-Laban Professor of Political Science University of Alberta
