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Tag: Ukraine

Russian war on the environment: the Danube delta, Romania and Ukraine

The environmental impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can be seen in many areas. This is clear with regards to the country’s coastline, where damage is now being countered by dedicated efforts at conservation and rewilding.

May 23, 2025 - Anna Romandash Marine Leduc

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

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

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

Fico’s precarious balancing act in Slovakia

Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, is now in a precarious position. He cannot overly offend his country’s partners and Brussels as he depends on European funding. At the same time, he has promised his electorate a hard-line approach to Ukraine and a more confrontational approach to the West. As he floods the media space with misinformation to distract the society, he may find in the end that this balancing act is more difficult to maintain than he realizes.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has had a tough time balancing his efforts to keep his hold on power, all while grappling with contradictions in his policies: sending military assistance to Ukraine, despite campaigning on the promise to “not send another bullet”; travelling to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin; keeping his nationalist coalition allies satisfied; and managing his pro-EU image in Brussels.

May 5, 2025 - Jakub Ferenčik

The faces of resilience

Ukrainians are reclaiming their roots and identity, flooding cultural venues in defiance. This highlights a disconnect the West fails to understand. War here is not just about soldiers and weapons: it is a rallying cry for the entire society.

My trip back home to Germany, after visiting Kyiv and Lviv, awaits. But before leaving, I meet Olga Myrovych, head of the Lviv Media Forum. This non-profit organization champions media independence and public dialogue in Ukraine. In a warm Lviv café, the contrast to the weight of our conversation is stark. After a week of intense reporting, I ask the question that has grown ever more urgent: how can the world truly grasp Ukraine’s fight for survival?

May 5, 2025 - Isabelle de Pommereau

Peace, not surrender: under these conditions Ukrainians will return home

According to Ukraine’s ministry of national unity only 30 per cent of those who are abroad have said that they were ready to return home immediately. Another 40 per cent are waiting for the official end of the war and long-term security guarantees. The remaining 30 per cent have now said they would build their lives abroad.

Many Ukrainian refugees who are now spread around the world fear that even after a ceasefire the war could flare up again, putting their families at risk one more time. Diplomatic pressure without guarantees of a just and lasting peace that takes into account Ukraine's interests is perceived as something akin to surrender. Such a peace would not provide what Ukrainians need most: certainty that their lives will not be turned into rubble again.

May 5, 2025 - Halyna Khalymonyk

Overcoming the crisis of hope

An interview with Agnieszka Holland, a Polish film director. Interviewer: Joanna Mosiej, editor in chief of the Sestry magazine

JOANNA MOSIEJ: You once said that your biggest dream is for the world to wake up and for us to have a future. Are we now living in a reality that resembles the Weimar Republic in its final days? Meaning, there is no hope and no return? That history needs to repeat itself?

AGNIESZKA HOLLAND: I am worried that it will be difficult to reverse from this path, unless there is a true will to do so. Of course we know that hope is what dies last, but this hope needs to be a collective, and not individual, experience. At this moment, when I am observing those who decide on our fate, I see that they neither have any ideas, nor will. And there is no courage.

May 5, 2025 - Agnieszka Holland Joanna Mosiej

Fossil fuels are a geopolitical weapon

An interview with Svitlana Romanko, founder and director of “Razom We Stand”. Interviewer: Aureliusz M. Pędziwol

AURELIUSZ M. PĘDZIWOL: Can you tell me a bit about your organization, which is called Razom We Stand?

SVITLANA ROMANKO: In Ukrainian razom means together. In the very first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine I initiated an international campaign called “Stand with Ukraine”. Its goal was to end the global fossil fuel addiction that feeds Vladimir Putin’s war machine. Our organization developed from this initiative and today we are made up of 15 brilliant individuals who reside in Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk, but we also have staff spread across in Europe, especially in Germany.

May 5, 2025 - Aureliusz M. Pędziwol Svitlana Romanko

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