Ukraine has never been a "liberal democracy"
A quick rundown on Ukrainian politics and government in the post-Soviet era
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from its inception in 1922 until its dissolution in 1991. The Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 24th, 1991.
A referendum was held on this declaration of independence on December 1st, 1991, which passed with overwhelming support from the Ukrainian people. A presidential election was held on the same day, with Leonid Kravchuk winning a landslide victory over five other candidates. Kravchuk was the de facto incumbent; he had been the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (and a Communist Party member) until August 24th, when he seamlessly transitioned into his new position as Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine until December 5th (four days after the presidential election), when he took office as the first President of Ukraine.
There was no real transfer of power, peaceful or otherwise. Political power in Ukraine remained in the hands of the same guy post-independence.
The next presidential election was held in 1994, which was earlier than originally scheduled because the Verkhovna Rada was about to hold a referendum that would have acted as a motion of no confidence in President Kravchuk, and as a compromise the parties agreed to early elections instead. Kravchuk lost the election to Leonid Kuchma, a “former” Communist who won with the support of Communists. Kuchma became the second President of Ukraine.
Earlier in his political career Kuchma had been a Communist Party Chief and a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. So although his election can be considered a peaceful transfer of power, it is worth noting that power merely changed hands between men who had been loyal Communist Party members in the old USSR.
The next presidential election was held in 1999. Kuchma won reelection, but it was hardly a free or fair election. (The runner-up, Petro Symonenko, was a candidate of the Communist Party.)
The next presidential election in Ukraine was in 2004. Pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych defeated the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko in an election that was widely viewed as rigged. In the aftermath of this hotly-contested election, there was a color revolution (dubbed the Orange Revolution) that led to the Supreme Court of Ukraine ordering a revote, which was subsequently won by Yushchenko.
Yushchenko took power on January 23rd, 2005 and became the third President of Ukraine. He had worked in banking for most of his career and was appointed as Ukraine’s central banker shortly after independence. He also had been a member of the Communist Party during the days of the Soviet Union.
During his term in office, Yushchenko attempted to dissolve parliament two times. He became wildly unpopular with the Ukrainian public, and he suffered a disastrous defeat in his reelection bid, winning just over five percent of the vote and failing to qualify for the second round.
The 2010 Ukrainian presidential election was another close contest, this time won by the runner-up from the previous election, Viktor Yanukovych. This election was widely viewed as being relatively free and fair. Yanukovych took office as the fourth President of Ukraine on February 25th, 2010. He, too, had been a member of the Communist Party during the days of the USSR. Still, this was perhaps the first time in Ukraine’s history where there had been a semi-normal democratic process and transfer of power.
But it didn’t last long.
Yanukovych rejected closer ties with the European Union in 2013, and instead pursued a closer relationship with Russia. This led to the so-called Euromaidan protests that began in November of 2013 and eventually resulted in the violent revolution that overthrew his government in February of 2014. Yanukovych fled to Russia, Russia annexed Crimea, and the Russo-Ukrainian War began.
With Yanukovych forced out of power, Arseniy Yatsenyuk (another central banker) became head of the interim government and almost immediately signed the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement which placed Ukraine in the thrall of the European Union.
A snap presidential election was held on May 25th, 2014. Petro Poroshenko (another banker, and a billionaire) won easily, and became the fifth President of Ukraine. In August of that year, Poroshenko called a snap parliamentary election with the stated purpose of purging the Verkhovna Rada of Yanukovych’s remaining supporters.
The most recent presidential election was held in 2019. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the current president (at least at the time of this writing) was elected in a landslide over the incumbent Poroshenko. Zelenskyy was a comedian and actor before becoming the sixth President of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy’s tenure has seen him push for censorship, shut down private media outlets, move to destroy the independence of the judiciary, and arrest political opponents.
And that brings us to the present day. So when Western politicians and journalists shout at you about the importance of defending Ukrainian “democracy”, this is what they are demanding you make sacrifices to defend. Just FYI.