Ukraine began its first stages of post-quarantine opening over the week of May 25, 2020. As the country continues to ease restrictions, we can begin to assess Volodymyr Zelensky’s government’s response to the pandemic and identify issues in the healthcare system and its governance.
Vladimir Putin’s coronation year just hasn’t gone to plan. Even in the absence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Kremlin’s 2020 energy strategy has been a central factor leading to this reality. Right out of the gates, the Kremlin inverted the longstanding ‘oil for revenue, gas for influence’ scheme it has relied on to coerce its neighbors, and create global turmoil.
TCUP Director Emily Channell-Justice attended the first annual Taras Shevchenko Conference on Ukrainian Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, March 6-7, 2020. The conference brought together a diverse group of researchers in various disciplines in social sciences and the humanities for two days of engagement and discussion. Additionally, organizers took advantage of a special event: Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch received the Richard G. Lugar Award on behalf of Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.
On Saturday, January 25, 2020, TCUP Director Emily Channell-Justice attended “Activism Rising: Ukraine at a Turning Point,” a conversation between Ukrainian film director and former political prisoner Oleg Sentsov and scholar Nina Khrushcheva in New York City. As part of a speaking tour in North America, Sentsov discussed his writing and filmmaking alongside the current political issues facing Ukraine today.
On December 9, 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris for a Normandy Format summit brokered by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Here, HURI affiliates present critical commentary on the Normandy Format summit and offer some speculations about where these meetings will lead in the future.
