“Pravova derzhava”. Issue 37 (2026), pages 3–20.
DOI: 10.33663/0869-2491-2026-37-3-20
Skrypniuk Oleksandr
Independent Ukraine: Stages, Achievements, and Lessons of the State-Building Process (On the 35th Anniversary of the Restoration of Ukraine’s State Independence)
The article provides an analysis of the thirty-five-year advancement of the Ukrainian state under conditions of independence. By peaceful means, Ukraine acquired the legal foundations for building a sovereign, democratic state governed by the rule of law. The state-building tradition of the Ukrainian people of the 1990s of the twentieth century and the first quarter of the twenty-first century was continued. An important step in consolidating independence was the change of the state’s name from the Ukrainian SSR to Ukraine and the approval of new state symbols — the State Flag, the State Anthem, and the State Coat of Arms. A significant milestone in the statebuilding development was the holding of the All-Ukrainian referendum aimed at confirming the Act of Proclamation of Ukraine’s Independence. On 1 December 1991, 90,92 % of the citizens of Ukraine who participated in the referendum voted in favour of independence. This demonstrated the will of the Ukrainian people to live in an independent and united Ukrainian state. The state-building process began in the absence of a scientifically grounded model of state construction and amid the insufficient preparedness of the then political elite for state-building, which led to a loss of strategic reference points for a certain period and contributed to the development of a profound political, economic, and social crisis, inter alia. The primary task of independent Ukraine was state construction and the formation of new public administration bodies. Over the thirty-five years of its existence, Ukraine has consistently changed forms of government: from parliamentary to presidentialparliamentary, and subsequently to parliamentary-presidential. Under V. Yanukovych, the presidential-parliamentary form was entrenched unlawfully, and in practice became de facto super-presidential. Following the Revolution of Dignity, the last change took place–to a parliamentary-presidential form. An important stage of the state-building process was the adoption of the Constitution of independent Ukraine in 1996, which brought to an end the period of uncertainty in state development. The Fundamental Law laid the constitutional and legal foundations for building in Ukraine a democratic, rule-of-law, social state and civil society. State-building progress was characterised by the implementation of basic political, economic, and social reforms, as well as reforms in the humanitarian sphere, aimed at the development of democracy, the creation and development of a market economy, ensuring the population’s standard of living, and the cultural and spiritual development of society. The article outlines a periodisation of the formation and development of independent Ukraine (five periods from the proclamation of independence to the present day) and analyses each stage. It emphasises the principal achievements and successes of our state in the political, legal, economic, social, cultural and spiritual, and foreign-policy spheres. At the same time, attention is devoted to analysing and characterising the problems and mistakes of the state-building process. It is noted that among the most significant were delays in reforming state authorities and local self-government, which allowed the communist nomenklatura to remain in power for a prolonged period and to restrain radical democratic reforms; the unpreparedness of the then elite and the lack of a strategic vision for Ukraine’s development; the failure to carry out decommunisation after the Communist Party acted as the organiser of the unconstitutional coup attempt of 1991; persistent political confrontation and struggle between branches of power; the absence of a fair privatisation process, the emergence of oligarchy and its fusion with the authorities, the flourishing of corruption, and the criminalisation of many spheres of life; the lack of conditions for the development of small and medium-sized business and, accordingly, the hindering of the formation of a middle class; imperfections in shaping a democratic political system and the underdevelopment of political parties on an ideological basis; the lack of unity in society and its consolidation around the realisation of a national idea; errors of the state leadership in pursuing policies aimed at ensuring the state’s defence capability and security; the conduct of an often proRussian multi-vector policy and inconsistency in pursuing a Euro-Atlantic foreignpolicy course, which prevented Ukraine from becoming a member of NATO and the EU together with other European post-communist countries; the overt activity in Ukraine of pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian, anti-state forces and Russian agents, which consistently weakened state security and created vulnerability to aggressive external foreign-policy factors; a certain regionalisation of the country; and the split of Ukrainian society, which became critical challenges to the existence of an independent state. Most of the aforementioned state-building problems gave rise to the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity, which became locomotives of Ukraine’s development along the path of democracy, the rule of law, and Euro-Atlantic integration. Ukraine’s steady peaceful development was interrupted first by the hybrid war (2014–2022) and, since 2022, by Russia’s full-scale invasion. In defending sovereignty and territorial integrity, Ukraine has undertaken reforms since 2014 in the political and economic spheres, within the judiciary, created anti-corruption bodies, introduced amendments to the Constitution that enshrined the state’s Euro-Atlantic integration course, and, in effect, built from scratch the most powerful combat-capable army in Europe. Our state and people are waging a just–indeed, a truly patriotic–war for freedom and independence under the current conditions.
Keywords: Ukraine, independence, state power, Constitution, state-building process, stages, reforms, political system, war, sovereignty.
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Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 24.02.2026
Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 03.03.2026
Дата публікації: 24.03.2026