The paper examines the common and peculiarities in the political modernisation of Ukraine and Russia. The authors assume that the peculiarity of Ukraine's political modernisation is due to a number of factors: 1. The absence of Ukraine's historical statehood; 2. The policy of the top leadership; 3. The political split into West and East; 4. The geopolitical position of Ukraine. The new political elite decided that the state independence of Ukraine means first of all independence from Russia, first of all, and unitarity, secondly. If independence from the states of Western Europe should be relative, independence from Russia should be absolute in internal, primarily economic and foreign policy, so the interests and ideology of Western Ukraine should be the basis of state policy. The authors show that in addition to the internal confrontation on the political development of Ukraine was greatly influenced by the geopolitical position of Ukraine, the rivalry between the United States and Russia in its influence on Ukrainian politics.