Ukraine – European Union: a New Phase of Relations in the Context of the 2014 – 2022 Russia – Ukraine War

Against the backdrop of Russian aggression against Ukraine and its global consequences, the paper analyses the evolution of relations between Ukraine and the European Union throughout 2014-2022 and the prospects for Ukraine's European integration. It highlights the peculiarities of the formation of Ukraine's European policy as a strategic direction of foreign policy and a factor of its decisive civilizational choice. The main stages and problems in the implementation of Ukraine's European choice are analysed. The focus is on investigating key events and phenomena in the relationship between Ukraine and the European Union at a fundamentally new stage, from the signing of the Association Agreement in 2014 to granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership in 2022. It analyses the attitudes of individual European Union member states towards Ukraine's European integration prospects, the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the positive change in the EU and its member states' attitude towards Ukraine and its European aspirations, and concrete measures and actions by the European Union aimed at providing moral and political support as well as economic, financial, humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine in its heroic resistance to Russian aggression. It is emphasised that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 not only united Europe and improved the perception of the EU in member states' societies, where the positive image of the European Union reached its highest level in decades, but also maximised Ukrainian support for European integration, which has become the key to Ukraine's resilience in the fight against Russian occupiers