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by Maciej Olchawa (Author)
On a February night in Kyiv in 2013, former president of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski turned to his friend Pat Cox, the former president of the European Parliament, and joked, "They've got a lot of empty space on this square--an ideal location to put up statues of you and me." Over a year and a half, the two visited Ukraine 27 times, negotiating the release of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, which would allow Ukraine to sign the Association Agreement with the European Union.
The Cox-Kwaśniewski mission was part of the EU's final effort to save the Agreement and give millions of Ukrainians the hope of a European future. All the while, Russia was using a trade embargo to draw Ukraine into the Eurasian Union. After an intricate game of lies, bluffing and blackmail, Viktor Yanukovych backed out of closer relations with Europe. Feeling betrayed, Ukrainians took to the streets and a wave of civil unrest was born.
Author Biography
Between 2008 and 2014, Maciej Olchawa served as a policy adviser on Ukraine in the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly. His articles have appeared in several academic journals as well as in The Diplomat, Kyiv Post, New Eastern Europe, and The Huffington Post. He lives in Palos Hills Illinois.
