After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the escalating rivalry between the EU and Russia in their shared neighbourhood created major economic, political and security challenges for the two states that border them: Belarus and Ukraine. Both countries were made integration offers by the EU and Russia. Their responses, and the consequences of these choices, were driven by a complex range of domestic and foreign policy factors. Drawing widely on extensive empirical research, Dr Leukavets shows how the EUs and Russias rival integration projects challenged the leaders of Belarus and Ukraine to make major strategic choices while aiming to ensure the independence and sovereignty of their countries. The study sheds important light on the genesis of the 2020 Belarus crisis and the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war.

Dr. Alla Leukavets has an interdisciplinary background and holds several postgraduate degrees. After studying law at the Belarusian State Economics University, she pursued an MA programme in Human Rights at the University of Manchester. She received her second MA degree in EU international relations from the College of Europe and did a PhD in political science at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences. In addition, Alla Leukavets completed several traineeships, inter alia, at the European Parliament in Brussels and the UK Parliament in London. She has published in, among other outlets, Belarus-Analysen and Russian Analytical Digest.