The Subaltern Strikes Back, or How Ukraine is Claiming Agency from Russia and the European Union

This is an open-access article.

Using the concept of liminality in combination with ontological security through an overarching postcolonial lens, this article shows how Ukraine as a liminar on the East–West spatial-ideological axis has successfully claimed agency from the European Union (EU) and Russia in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion. We argue that the latter has acted as a critical juncture for Ukraine, to the point that agency has emerged from a state of ontological anxiety. Provoking the need to fight for the survival of the Self, Russia’s invasion has strongly accelerated the transformation of Ukraine’s liminal identity, uniting the country around a new asserted Self. Russia’s aggression has pushed Ukraine to definitively reject the narrative of a common identity promoted by Russia and claim its rightful belonging to Europe, thereby unleashing unprecedented agency vis-à-vis its significant Others, i.e. Russia and the EU. From the EU’s side, Ukraine has finally been embraced within the European family by receiving candidate status. From Russia’s side, Ukraine’s successful application for EU candidate status has consolidated Ukraine’s departure from Russia’s perceived sphere of influence. Along with Ukraine’s nationwide resistance against the invasion, this destabilises Russia’s projected identity discourse around the Slavic brotherhood and the “Russian world”.