Indeed, Ukraine has been a democratic country since achieving independence in 1991. There have been a number of major challenges to that political reality, but if President Zelensky can improve on his predecessor’s legacy, he may just succeed in furthering Ukraine’s economic growth and drawing the country still closer to the West. This forecasst also depends on whether democracies confront on a firm footing the hegemonic and expansionist ambitions of Putin's Russia. In fact, Ukraine isn’t a failing state or a hopeless Potemkin democracy — it’s a country, though war-torn, firmly on the path of making good on the 2014 Maidan Revolution."
The Naftogaz Maneuver: Ukraine’s Twilight as a Western Country? 
How the ouster of a reform-oriented energy sector CEO is a microcosm of Ukraine’s battle to become a Western country.
Kiev, May 16.– Following the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, Ukraine began the slow process of extracting itself from the claws of Russia after 300 years of enforced subservience.
Much more than just a corporate firing
It is against that backdrop that the recent firing of Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev matters so much.
Could the real purpose of this corporate maneuver have been to end any prospect of Ukraine’s pivot toward the West?
Working hard for modernity and progress
After Ukraine gained its independence, it took a good long while for the required reforms to take shape. The changes that eventually materialized were slow and hard won, but they represented real progress.
This includes the 2014 Association Agreement with the European Union; visa free travel to Schengen countries; the passage of critical legislation to combat corruption and increased transparency; the break-up of Soviet era monopolies and the creation of an Anti-Corruption Authority.
Russia’s eternal backbiting
But as the world also knows, Russia has engaged in endless efforts, including military ones and cyberattacks, at undermining and destabilizing Ukraine.
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