Category: Eurasia Center

Ukraine must not forget fight against corruption while battling Russia

With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now in its eighteenth month, the courage of the Ukrainian army and the resilience of the Ukrainian people have inspired the world, generating enormous amounts of international sympathy and goodwill. Audiences everywhere are rooting for Ukraine to win the war and succeed in its postwar reconstruction efforts. However, while Ukraine

Ukraine’s digital revolution is proving vital for the country’s war effort

What is it like living through the nightmare of war in the twenty-first century? For most people, this would conjure up images of devastated cities, collapsing economies, and a desperate rush for survival. However, Ukraine’s experience over the past year-and-a-half is proof that life can go on, even in the most challenging of circumstances. Despite

Rebuilding efforts should prioritize the key pillars of Ukraine’s democracy

There is currently no end in sight to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the debate over Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction is already well underway and continues to gain momentum. Attention is focused primarily on the challenge of physically rebuilding the country’s shattered infrastructure, with war damage currently estimated at over $400 billion. At the same

Dispatch from Odesa: Russia escalates its naval war against Ukraine

In recent days, the front line of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine appears to have shifted south toward the Black Sea—placing major port cities such as Mykolaiv and Odesa directly in the crosshairs of a Russian naval buildup that began just before its full-scale invasion in February 2022. While exact numbers are difficult to come by,

Ukraine’s tech sector is playing vital wartime economic and defense roles

The Ukrainian tech industry has been the standout sector of the country’s hard-hit economy during the past year-and-a-half of Russia’s full-scale invasion. It has not only survived but has adapted and grown. Looking ahead, Ukrainian tech businesses will likely continue to play a pivotal role in the country’s defense strategy along with its economic revival.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was never about NATO

Sweden is poised to become the thirty-second member of the NATO Alliance and Russia does not appear to be at all concerned by the prospect. The breakthrough moment for the Swedes came ahead of last week’s NATO summit in Vilnius, when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to end months of opposition and back the

Putin’s biggest mistake was believing Ukrainians were really Russians

Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was based on a series of disastrous miscalculations. The most significant of these was his belief that Ukrainians are really Russians. Putin has long insisted Ukrainians and Russians are “one people” who have been artificially separated by the fall of the USSR. For Putin, this

After Wagner: Could the Russian army now turn against Putin?

The Wagner mutiny in late June was a brief affair, but it is casting a long shadow over Putin’s Russia. In less than forty-eight hours, Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin and his troops succeeded in shattering the carefully constructed myth of Putin the strongman, while exposing the weakness at the heart of his regime. Although the