Interview with Oleksandr Butkevych, the father of Maksym who collected the National Human Rights Award in the name of his son whose whereabouts are unknown. Interviewers: Claudia Bettiol and Francesco Brusa.

It goes without saying that Ukraine is full of Jewish history. Writing about Jewish experiences before and during the Nazi occupation, the author Zvi Preigerzon crafts a narrative that also resonates with events today.

While fighting continues on the front lines of Ukraine, people attempt to rebuild their lives in recently liberated territory. This is especially true in the case of the village of Dovhenke, which has changed hands more than ten times during the conflict.

Peace and democracy are not a given, but a result of political action. This is a lesson from Ukraine to the world.

Debate has grown regarding Beijing’s relations with Russia and its war against Ukraine. While China has offered support to Moscow, it is important to remember that the rising power has other wider interests. Overall, it seems that China will always put its own interests first with regards to the ongoing conflict.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent shockwaves throughout the international community, raising concerns about regional stability, human rights violations and global security. As the world grapples with finding solutions to the invasion, the role of key actors like China has come under scrutiny. Exploring China's strategic interests, economic ties, role in the balance of power and diplomatic leverage can shed light on the complex dynamics of the invasion. It can also reveal potential paths toward resolving the war and dealing with Russia and its allies.

In the evolving landscape of international relations, it has become increasingly clear that the US and Europe must join forces to address China's growing influence in Eastern Europe. The recent Russian aggression against Ukraine has reshaped regional dynamics and intensified the global struggle for power and influence.

The Russian full-scale aggression against Ukraine had an evident impact on regional and global ties in Eastern Europe. While Russia was seeking opportunities to attract more allies in its war of aggression, like Iran and North Korea, its major objective internationally was to create an alliance with China. However, China sees the Russia-Ukraine war as an opportunity to change the status quo and raise the stakes to outlast the United States economically and militarily.

The Russian war against Ukraine has substantially changed perceptions of conflict and crisis in the European Union. As a recent comparison study shows, the conflict has encouraged fears of war, awareness of developments in Ukraine, questions concerning the broader frame of this war, and the involvement of the respective countries in it.

The war in Ukraine is encouraging geopolitical change across the world. This is particularly true with regards to the Korean Peninsula, with Russia growing closer to its traditionally quiet ally in Pyongyang. Both North and South Korea are now faced with navigating an uncertain geopolitical climate with no end to the war in sight.

“Akin to identical twins” is how one academic expert in Seoul described the Korean Peninsula and Ukraine in 2022, as both occupy locations on the Eurasian landmass where the geopolitical interests of great powers intersect. Other Korean commentators have noted similarities between the 1950-53 Korean conflict and the current war in Ukraine insofar as battle lines have barely moved throughout much of the fighting. Yet while parallels between Korea’s yesterday and Ukraine’s today abound, the arc of geopolitics runs directly between Kyiv and Korea.

In October 2022, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced a “peace formula” to overcome the Russian threat during a meeting of the G7. Since then, it has become the guiding principle in Ukraine’s international diplomacy and efforts to end Russia’s aggression once and for all.

As the war continues in Ukraine, claiming lives, destroying infrastructure and undermining the economy, the Ukrainian authorities and people are united by a common desire to stop Russian aggression, the associated daily horrors and suffering as soon as possible. In order to make its own position clear before the international community and within the framework of demonstrating readiness for a peace process, the Ukrainian side has submitted a basic set of principles and approaches which has formed the basis of a “peace formula” – or “Zelenskyy Formula” as it is often called.

Throughout almost the entire period of Ukraine’s independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, the idea of NATO membership remained a contentious topic with little support among both society and politicians. It was not until the Russian aggression in 2014 and full-scale invasion of 2022 that Ukraine's perspective on its place in the transatlantic Alliance decisively changed.

During the Cold War, there was often a risk that tensions could escalate into a “Third World War”. The presence of nuclear weapons on both sides of the confrontation, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively, as well as the creation of NATO in 1949 and the Warsaw Pact in 1955, were meant to act as deterrents to this escalation and successfully avoid direct confrontation.

Civil society organisations are major drivers of democratic reforms in Ukraine. Underestimating the potential of this resourceful sector to impact and co-shape both internal reform and the EU integration agenda would be a strategic mistake for the EU and Kyiv’s other international partners. What can the international community do to maximise the capacities of civil society in Ukraine?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s phenomenal rise to power is now becoming the subject of academic research. Such works are beginning to show how the leader’s experiences ultimately represent just one story in a country united in defence of its young democracy.