Case Study:The border
between Russia and Ukraine
Krysenko Oleksiy, Associate Professor, Political Science
Department, School of Philosophy,V.Karazin Kharkiv National
University
Research focus
1. Euroregions whose mission is to support and to develop, to
renew partnership, to turn the border into a "zone of growth
and development" has turned (formed) into the tools of
Russia’s influence on Ukrainian politics
 2. The beginning of Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2014 marked
the beginning of a new European geopolitical conflict.
Neighbouring regions of the Russian Federation and Ukraine
have become bridgeheads of military and political threat.
 3. Russian-Ukrainian border has become a space of geopolitical
confrontation. 
for WP-7 we contribute with our case in a way not so
mach how CBC contributes conflict amelioration but
how arisen conflict affects CBC

Kharkiv region location
Belgorod - "the capital of the People's Republic of Kharkov (HNR)"

Belgorod - the capital of Russian “Slobozhanshina” has become a center of
anti-Ukrainian separatist activities

According to official information from law enforcement agencies, terrorist
attacks committed in Kharkiv region are coordinated from Belgorod
(Kharkiv region there was 47 terrorist attacks, 11 of them - in 2015)

On the territory of the Belgorod region there is a constant concentration
of military units of the Russian Federation
Round table "Kharkiv-2015: how to prevent socio-economic and
humanitarian disaster in the region?" February 20, 2015 Belgorod,
Russian Federation
Construction of the border
Activists found military "cold war" equipment for anti-tank ditches digging . As the facility consumes
lot of fuel it was transferred into Kharkiv center where social fundraising activities were organized to
raise funds for fuel. Within a few days the budget was compiled and equipment went to dig anti-tank
ditches along Russia and Kharkiv region border.
Kharkiv citizens went out to dig
trenches
Border arrangement inspection
"European rampart / Wall"
The geopolitical conflict and destruction of CBC regional cooperation

Euroregion "Slobozhanshina" - Euro-region in the north-east of Ukraine
and southwest Russia, created on November 7th, 2003 as a form of
international integration, based on the close cooperation of territorial
formations located in the border regions of neighboring countries in
Europe.

It was created in Kharkiv by the heads of the executive authorities and
local government of Kharkiv and Belgorod regions of Ukraine and the
Russian Federation as the highest form of cross-border cooperation in
order to harmonize the interaction between the parties for the
implementation of basic social and economic functions of the borderland,
eliminate unnecessary barriers to the contacts of the population and
attracting investment to stabilization and growth as well as activation of
inter-regional economic cooperation.

4.3 million people live on the territory of the Euroregion.
2 research dimensions:
Expert-interviews analysis (10 interviews/
round-table analysis)
 Media-discourse analysis

Methodological and practical issues of the research
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1. Inability/difficulty to work "on the border” as it is now a zone of
increased securitization.
2. Barriers/impossibility of interviews with officials as this topic is more
than a “sensitive” topic for them.
3. Despite the fact that Euroregion exists for more than 10 years and
there is a cooperation on everyday level (but not as a part of Euroregion
"Slobozhanshina" – on personal level) the topic of CBC of Belgorod and
Kharkiv regions "has not had time to catch" the mass consciousness, i.e
average Kharkiv citisen knows practically nothing about the Euroregion
"Slobozhanshina".
4. Key Ukrainian experts in European regional cooperation in Kharkiv and
Belgorod regions serve as executive bueurocrats and this makes their
opinion biased.
5. Disourse analysis of the press is very complicated since Russian and
Ukrainian media are in a state of "information war."
6. According to the Ministry’s of Education decision Ukraine is not allowed
to have scientific and technical cooperation with Russia.
Developing CBC on this border segment in 2011 5 strategic
tasks of Ukrainian-Russian cross-border cooperation were
outlined which required a joint solution within the framework
of Euroregion "Slobozhanshina".

Activation of cross-border scientific, industrial cooperation and trade by removing of
unnecessary border and customs barriers.

Improvement of transport and logistics infrastructure of the Euroregion for the efficient use of
its transit position. It involves the reduction of cross-border Kharkiv-Belgorod highway load by
creating a circuitous transport routes, building logistics terminals etc.

Development of a coherent environmental policy (planning of rehabilitation projects on
Seversky Donets and Lopan river Basins).

Overcoming of social asymmetry of frontier that primarily reflects the labor market. Appeared
inconsistencies in the level of wages and social protection in favor of Russian regions are
leading today to the one-way flow of labor migration to Russia. This requires a coherent policy
on the general labor market.

Creation of a regional market information system Euroregion "Slobozhanshina” in order to
attract investments in projects through the use of marketing tools to increase awareness and
improve the image of its territory, the orientation of regional policy to the real needs of their
markets.
(Черномаз П. А. Еврорегион «Слобожанщина»: этапы формирования и перспективы развития //
Международное сотрудничество приграничных регионов: история, экономика, политика, культура.
Материалы международ. науч.-практ. конф., Курск, 19-20 сент. 2011 г. — Курск: Изд-во VIP, 2011. — С.
160—165. )
Russian "Novaya Gazeta" is known for its sensational journalists’
investigations has published some information which was used in the first
half of February 2014 in the Russian Federation President Administration

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«The Constitution of Ukraine is in any case unable to
provide a mechanism with the help of which you can
start the integration of eastern Ukrainian territory as
well as Crimea into the state-legal field of the Russian
Federation in a legitimate way».
«… for Russian-Ukrainian integration process the law
framework system of Russian-Ukrainian Euroregions,
which are the members of Association of European
Border Regions (which, in turn, is a member of the
Assembly of European Regions) is already established.
Thus, Euroregion "Donbass" includes Donetsk, Lugansk,
Rostov and Voronezh regions, Euroregion
"Slobozhanshina” - Kharkiv and Belgorod region,
Euroregion "Dnepr“ - Bryansk and Chernihiv regions
etc.».
Instrumental function of Russian-Ukrainian
Euroregions

«Russia, using the legitimate instruments of Euroregions, from the
point of view of EU, should achieve the contracts making on crossborder cooperation and then establish direct public-contract
relations with those Ukrainian territories where there are stable
pro electoral sympathies».

«… it seems correct to play on the centrifugal aspirations of
different regions of the country with the aim, in one form or
another, to initiate its accession to the eastern regions of Russia.
The dominant regions for making efforts must become the Crimea
and Kharkiv region, where there are quite strong groups of support
of the idea of maximum integration with Russia».
Confrontation discourse
(description of the visit of the Head of Kharkiv school to Belgorod)
1. «Head of Kharkiv school went to
Russia "to learn the experience" and
"to swallow fresh air "» (Ukrainian
newspaper«Glavnoe»)
 2. «Despite the borders» (Russian
newspaper «Our Belgorod»)
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Confrontation discourse
(description of the checkpoint opening on Russian-Ukrainian border, 16.05.2015 )
1. «RF has opened “the prospect” of
crossing point on the border with
Ukraine » (Ukrainian News Agency
“Liga”)
 2. «Dmitry Rogozin: Today we are
working for the future, the nearest
future» (Information Agency “Bel.ru”)
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