Building a Ukraine worthy of EU membership will not be easy, cheap, or fast. But, like the union itself, it will be built and it will be done. We know the challenge is great, but the prize is worth the struggle, and Europe should know that this is our goal.
Part of the work of renewing Ukraine is a creative battle to put an end to a nightmarish century during which fascism and communism -- ideologies born in the heart of Europe -- battled for mastery. Only a few months ago, in cities throughout Ukraine, our children and our parents confronted armed troops, snarling dogs and even death. Only a few years ago, a young journalist, Georgi Gongadze, seeking to inform the public about our old regime's corruption, was brutalized and beheaded by that regime's thugs.
But our Orange Revolution last winter shows that Ukraine's people prevailed. So, despite today's doubts and difficulties, I retain an abiding faith in Europe. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities and horrors of Ukraine's history. I refuse to accept the view that Ukraine is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of communism's legacy that we can never see the bright daybreak of peace and true European unity.
When the EU's citizens ponder Ukraine's place in Europe, they should look both beyond and more closely at the face they see. They should look beyond the ravaged wastelands that communism inflicted, beyond the poverty, and beyond the social divisions through which our discarded ex-leaders sought to prolong their misrule.
Instead, they should look closely at the face of our president, Viktor Yushchenko, ravaged by poison during last year's election campaign, and recall the words of the great Frenchman Andre Malraux, for whom "the most beautiful faces are those that have been wounded."
Yuliya Tymoshenko is prime minister of Ukraine.
Copyright: Project Syndicate
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