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Category: Issue 3 2025

Issue 3/2025: Negotiating peace?

To anyone who observes the situation in Ukraine and ongoing Russian attacks it is unfortunately crystal clear that the main obstacle to peace is the unwillingness to end the war by the Russian Federation. Read in the latest issue of New Eastern Europe.

May 6, 2025 - New Eastern Europe

Collectively, we are losing this war

An interview with Serhiy Sydorenko, editor of European Pravda. Interviewers: Adam Reichardt and Iwona Reichardt, New Eastern Europe

May 6, 2025 - New Eastern Europe Serhiy Sydorenko

Russia’s war is undermining the world order

Since 2014, Moscow has been transforming global affairs in the interests of international revisionism. This has already caused considerable damage to international law and the global rules-based order. In fact, the political implications of Russia’s attack reach far beyond Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

Going into its 11th year of war against Ukraine, the results of Russia’s attack on its alleged “brother nation” are ambiguous for the Kremlin. On the one hand, its image as a supposed military superpower has suffered greatly. Since 2022 the war has become an international embarrassment for the Russian leadership, army and weapons industry. Moscow’s campaign in Ukraine also led to the loss of western partners, markets and investors.

May 6, 2025 - Andreas Umland

Trump’s new political technology

It’s bad enough that Trump lives, to use Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s words, “in this disinformation space”. Countries like Ukraine have to cope with Trump imposing his virtual reality on the rest of us.

In 2023 I finished my book Political Technology: The Globalisation of Political Manipulation (see: www.politicaltechnology.blog). While the phrase is well known in Russia and throughout the post-Soviet world, which is my area of interest, it is not so much heard in the West. However, when properly defined – and my definition is “the supply-side engineering of the political system for partisan advantage” – plenty of examples can be found in the West. Spin doctors do more than spin the mediatization of politics.

May 6, 2025 - Andrew Wilson

Will Trump’s peace-making efforts increase the likelihood of a bigger war?

While the US tries to present itself as an honest broker engaged in shuttle diplomacy, it is difficult not to perceive its efforts as favouring the Russian side. Even before negotiations with Russia had started, the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Ukraine’s NATO membership and the possibility of recapturing territories occupied by Russia were off limits.

After two months of botched peace-making efforts, the administration of Donald Trump has made little progress in bringing the war in Ukraine closer to an end. Simultaneously, the new US government has sought to disengage from Europe and exposed its weakness. If Trump decides to put pressure on Ukraine to end the war on terms that favour Russia, it will make a bigger war in Europe practically inevitable.

May 6, 2025 - Yulia Kazdobina

Where do Ukrainians find the strength to stand?

Hope and anxiety are the two feelings that Ukrainians are experiencing the most during the current war. A recent survey shows that for 55 per cent of Ukrainians, the strongest feeling that they were experiencing at the end of 2024 was hope. Anxiety came in second with 45 per cent.

The winter of 1948. Europe is returning back to normal life after the years of the Second World War. European nations are preparing to conclude the Brussels Pact. Formally known as the Treaty of Brussels, this agreement was signed on March 17th 1948 by Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. In other words, these were the members of the Western Union, which operated as an expansion of the Treaty of Dunkirk.

May 6, 2025 - Olha Vorozhbyt

Anti-colonial hybrid defence: how Ukraine’s resistance fights in the occupied territories

Between 2022 and 2025 Ukraine’s resistance managed to inflict persistent losses and disruption on Russian forces in the occupied territories. The kinds of operation – from bombs and bullets to spies and sabotage as well as raids and ambushes – show a comprehensive guerrilla strategy aimed at eroding the occupier’s control. Ukrainian partisans first blunted the occupation through fear and attrition and later became an integral part of Ukraine’s broader hybrid defence strategy to reclaim its territory.

“Join the ranks of Atesh – we call on every conscious person who is ready to help us defeat the occupiers to join our ranks,” reads a leaflet from Ukraine’s partisan movement. The leaflet was not distributed in Crimea, where Atesh – meaning “Fire” in the Crimean Tatar language – originated. Nor was it distributed in Mariupol, Berdyansk, Donetsk or Luhansk, where Atesh’s partisans have struck and continue to strike.

May 6, 2025 - Omar Ashour

Why the Trump-Putin negotiations on Ukraine might bury the Eastern Partnership

Since 2009 the main EU instrument of engaging and integrating with the region of Eastern Europe has been the Eastern Partnership programme. However, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the evolving geopolitical situation have forced the EU to rethink its approach towards the aspiring states in the region. The new administration in the United States has added a new dimension to this complex dynamic. Where do these states stand in their bid for EU membership today?

With Donald Trump's return to the White House, the geopolitical dynamics surrounding the war in Ukraine have undergone significant shifts. Trump's rhetoric emphasizes the necessity of ending the war, whereas Ukraine’s priorities are not limited to the cessation of hostilities but also include the terms under which the conflict concludes, i.e. the provision of security guarantees.

May 5, 2025 - Tatevik Hovhannisyan

How Central and Eastern Europe perceives the Russian threat

The war in Ukraine has brought back debate on possible new aggression from Russia. But for Central and Eastern Europe, the risk of being annexed and erased from the map is centuries old. Without a doubt, the lessons of history are essential for forming judgments about today's events.

According to a pattern that was somewhat predictable, but with a completely unexpected impact, Donald Trump's return to the White House is upsetting the dynamics of international politics, creating insecurity and fuelling instability. It is also bringing back into focus a topic that periodically emerges in European public debate and was already discussed during the first term of Trump’s presidency: the need to establish a common European defence.

May 5, 2025 - Andrea Pipino

A time for unconventional leaders: Croatian assistance to Ukraine

With its remarkable post-conflict transformation, Croatia may have something unique to offer Ukraine at this critical juncture for European security. The Croatian government is punching above its weight in terms of humanitarian assistance, but the country will need to overcome serious domestic rifts and manage the failures of its transition to become a true geopolitical leader.

The first months of Donald Trump’s second term as US president have already put Ukraine’s existence and Europe’s prevailing security architecture at great risk. Trump’s style of foreign policy, including his undermining of long-held alliances and major international institutions, is creating a vacuum that may have to be filled by leaders in unlikely places. Croatia has the potential to be one of those leaders if Prime Minister Andrej Plenković wins out in a domestic political battle that exposes deep-seeded deficiencies in Croatian democracy.

May 5, 2025 - Alexandra Karppi

North Macedonia’s US pivot raises questions about its EU ambitions

North Macedonia has emerged as one of NATO’s most committed supporters of Ukraine, consistently ranking among the top military contributors. However, recent shifts in its foreign policy suggest a recalibration of its strategic priorities.

For the past three years North Macedonia has ranked among the top four NATO countries in military assistance to Ukraine. Despite its small size and a population of fewer than two million, this country has remained one of Kyiv’s top military contributors, supplying tanks, helicopters, attack aircraft, ammunition and other critical equipment. Its unwavering support has solidified its role as a key ally in Ukraine’s resistance against Russian aggression.

May 5, 2025 - Bojan Stojkovski

Fire in a Macedonian nightclub. A tragedy forged in corruption

On March 16th in the small town of Kočani in North Macedonia, a massive fire erupted in a well-known nightclub, killing 59 and injuring 196 young people. Soon it became clear that the fire at the club was a disaster waiting to happen. The nightclub had a forged licence and there were no alarms, no sprinklers, and no emergency exits – it was a death trap that had been allowed to exist. The deadly fire became not only a national tragedy, mourned by the whole of Macedonian society, but a rallying point for answers, similar to what is happening next door in Serbia.

The fire at the Pulse nightclub in the city of Kočani in North Macedonia did not begin with a spark. It began long before, in the quiet exchanges of power and with the ink of fraudulent permits. It began in the silence of bribed officials and the indifference of those who were meant to be protected. It was nurtured by a system where sometimes backroom deals carry more weight than laws, where safety can be just an afterthought, and where lives are measured against profit. On the night of March 16th 2025, the lives of 59 young people were swallowed by the flames of this corruption that had been growing for years.

May 5, 2025 - Jovan Gjorgovski

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