Explaining Ukraine

In our new episode of the Explaining Ukraine podcast, we look at developments in and around Ukraine in September 2021. Last month, the Verkhovna Rada passed an anti-oligarch bill; its chairman Dmytro Razumkov was ostracized by his own party; President Zelensky delivered an impassioned address to the UN; Ukraine was embroiled in a yet another diplomatic row with Hungary over its new gas contract with Moscow; and President Zelensky faced backlash and public scrutiny following revelations from the Pandora Papers.

In our new episode of the Explaining Ukraine podcast, we look at developments in and around Ukraine in August 2021. Last month, the country celebrated the 30th anniversary of the restoration of its independence; the launch of the Crimean Platform gathered representatives from 46 countries and institutions for its inaugural summit in Kyiv; President Zelensky traveled to Washington for his long-awaited meeting with Joe Biden, and Angela Merkel traveled to Kyiv weeks before her retirement as Germany’s Chancellor.

Ukraine celebrated the 30th anniversary of the restoration of its independence last week. How is this independence perceived outside of Ukraine and, what is more importantly, inside Ukraine? Our guest on the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast is Peter Pomerantsev, a famous author and expert, as well as the director of the Arena think tank. Mr. Pomerantsev recently directed a research project called “Ukraine at 30: From Independence to Interdependence. What unites Ukrainians and what divides Ukrainians after 30 years of independence”

In our new episode of the Explaining Ukraine podcast, we look at developments in and around Ukraine in July 2021. Ukraine’s longest-serving Minister of the Interior, Arsen Avakov, resigned from office; Putin published an article about the supposed “historic unity of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples”; the US and Germany struck a deal on Nord Stream-2 as the construction of the pipeline is being finalized; Ukraine is stepping up cooperation with China, but the political price may be worrisome. Hear about more events and trends in our monthly review.

UkraineWorld and the Kyiv Security Forum are holding a joint online event on recent major security and political challenges in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus, other Eastern Partnership countries, and the Black Sea region.

In this episode of our “Explaining Ukraine” podcast, host Volodymyr Yermolenko talks with prominent Ukrainian public intellectual Yevhen Hlibovytskyi. We try to reflect on what makes Ukraine interesting to the world, what global processes and trends are being reflected in Ukraine, and how Ukraine's case can be essential to understand some other parts of the world as well. Subscribe to our podcasts on Soundcloud, Google podcast or Apple, follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, and stay with us.

In our new episode of the “Explaining Ukraine” podcast, we look at developments in and around Ukraine in June 2021. Ukraine has shocked the European football world by reaching the Euro-2020 quarterfinals; Biden meets Putin to decrease US-Russia tensions, including around Ukraine; the NATO summit in Brussels reluctantly confirms Ukraine’s aspirations to join; judiciary reform gets a new boost; and the land market has begun operating. UkraineWorld chief editor Volodymyr Yermolenko talks with UkraineWorldanalyst Maksym Panchenko.

Ep. № 48 - Ukrainian journalism: where is it headed? by UkraineWorld

Ep. № 47 - Ukraine in May 2021: Totalitarian Belarus; Medvedchuk; Nord Stream-2; WWII anniversaries by UkraineWorld

Tune in for our conversation with Serhii Plokhy, a famous Ukrainian historian and director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. We talk about Ukraine’s special experience as a culture of both dialogue and conflict between settled cultures and nomadic cultures; between Christianity, Judaism and Islam; between various forms of Christianity; between East and West, North and South; and between republican and imperial forms of politics. We also focus on Ukraine in the 20th century (World War II, totalitarianisms) and after its 1991 independence.