An initiative led by the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center in partnership with the US Department of State continues to focus on facilitating greater constructive exchange among multisectoral thought leaders and government leaders as they work to implement commitments made at the ninth Summit of the Americas. This readout was informed by a private, information-gathering roundtable and several one-on-one conversations with leading experts in the digital space.

Executive summary

At the ninth Summit of the Americas, regional leaders agreed on the adoption of a Regional Agenda for Digital Transformation that reaffirmed the need for a dynamic and resilient digital ecosystem that promotes digital inclusion for all peoples. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the digital divide globally, but these gaps were shown to be deeper in developing countries, disproportionately affecting women, children, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable and/or marginalized individuals. Through this agenda, inclusive workforce development remains a key theme as an avenue to help bridge the digital divide and skills gap across the Americas.

As part of the Atlantic Council’s consultative process, thought leaders and practitioners evaluated progress made in the implementation of the Regional Agenda for Digital Transformation agreed on at the Summit of Americas, resulting in three concrete recommendations: (1) leverage regional alliances and intraregional cooperation mechanisms to accelerate implementation of the agenda; (2) strengthen public-private partnerships and multisectoral coordination to ensure adequate financing for tailored capacity-building programs, the expansion of digital infrastructure, and internet access; and (3) prioritize the involvement of local youth groups and civil society organizations, given their on-the-ground knowledge and role as critical indicators of implementation.

Recommendations for advancing digitalization and workforce development in the Americas:

Report

May 31, 2024

PACC 2030 objectives: The road to implementation

By Wazim Mowla, Charlene Aguilera

The Atlantic Council organized a PACC 2030 Working Group and worked closely with governments, the business community, and civil society organizations to support the implementation of PACC 2030’s objectives.

Caribbean Climate Change & Climate Action

Report

Apr 16, 2024

Advancing health and resilience policies in Latin America and the Caribbean

By Isabel Chiriboga, Martin Cassinelli, Diego Area

During an off-the-record private roundtable, thought leaders and practitioners from across the Americas discussed how to further enhance access to and finance for health services and products in the region.

Coronavirus Latin America

Summit of the Americas

Amid global uncertainties and new challenges, the ninth Summit of the Americas is a renewed opportunity to bring about hemispheric cooperation and consensus to reach regional prosperity and security.

Staff

Isabel Chiriboga

Assistant Director

Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center

Colombia Corruption

Staff

Maite Gonzalez Latorre

Program Assistant

Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center

Americas Education

Staff

Diego Area

Deputy Director, Strategic Development

Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center

Crisis Management Democratic Transitions

The Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center broadens understanding of regional transformations and delivers constructive, results-oriented solutions to inform how the public and private sectors can advance hemispheric prosperity.

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The post The future of digital transformation and workforce development in Latin America and the Caribbean appeared first on Atlantic Council.

While African athletes that year had won thirty-seven medals, including eleven golds, it is expected that they will rake in much more—about fifty—in Paris. There is a lot expected of several stars, including Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge (considered the greatest marathoner of all time), Botswanan sprinter Letsile Tebogo, Burkinabé triple jumper Hugues Fabrice Zango, Senegalese tae kwon do champion Cheick Cissé Sallah, and Moroccan breakdancer Fatima El-Mamouny (who competes as Elmamouny). Some athletes are already meeting these expectations, with South African swimmer Tatjana Smith having already won a gold medal and Tunisian fencer Fares Ferjani having earned the silver. Beyond individual athletes, there is also optimism about various teams: For example, the Bright Stars of South Sudan were the object of great attention after giving the US team a wake-up call in a shockingly close exhibition game earlier this month (but on Wednesday, they lost to the United States).

There are also athletes who, in search of better training conditions, have migrated from Africa to countries in the West and will compete under those countries’ flags.

It is a challenge to be a high-level athlete in Africa. The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) initiatives in Africa, which fund projects to support sports on the continent, do not solve the structural problems that push African athletes to leave the continent. Usually, these expatriates blame the lack of African infrastructure and mentoring programs, in addition to the costs of training and other professional challenges. While some of the African athletes who train in the United States are still competing under the flags of African countries—such as Ivoirian sprinter Marie-Josée Ta Lou or world-record-holding Nigerian hurdler Oluwatobiloba “Tobi” Amusan—time away from the African continent can easily turn into a permanent departure and end with a change of citizenship.

With that being the case, the Olympic performances of African countries don’t fully reflect the true power of the continent in sport.

As a former French deputy minister of sports, I see a paradox in Africa’s sports sector: the youngest continent in the world (70 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under thirty years old) is a place where people aren’t engaging as much in physical activity such as sports. Plus, a recent survey highlighted that the sports sector is “underdeveloped” with key deficits in data, public strategy, and private investments.

Sports are much more than hobbies for personal fulfillment or ways to improve health. They are also powerful tools for development, major business opportunities, and pivotal ways to exercise soft power.

The opportunity at hand

According to the United Nations (UN), sports play a role in achieving many of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals, including goals such as eradicating poverty and famine, securing education for all, supporting victims of disasters or emergency situations, and fighting diseases. Sports can also help promote gender equality, as taking part in sports is associated with getting married later in life. The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization runs a flagship initiative called Fit for Life, which uses sports to not only improve youth wellbeing and empowerment but also support more inclusive policymaking. The African Union (AU) has recognized the role that sports can play, as a driver of the cultural renaissance outlined in its Agenda 2063; the AU proposed a Sports Council to coordinate an African sports movement.

But the international recognition of the role sports play in development has come late—and there are issues that have yet to be sorted out. Olympic Agenda 2020, adopted by the IOC in 2014, outlines recommendations for countries to make the most of sports’ impact on society, encouraging them to align sports with economic and human development, build climate-friendly infrastructure, promote gender equality, protect the rights of children and laborers, acquire land ethically and without causing displacement, improve security, and protect the freedom of the press.

At previous global sport gatherings (notably the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar) human-rights communities have raised these issues. Their voice over many years has pushed organizations, such as FIFA and the IOC, to adopt various human-rights policies and frameworks. In considering the host nation for the 2026 World Cup, FIFA for the first time required bidding countries and cities to commit to human-rights obligations. Such requirements could have an impact in Africa, although that remains to be seen; an African country has only once hosted a global sport gathering (South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup), while Egypt currently has its eye on the 2036 Summer Olympics, over a decade from now.

Beyond development, sports are major business opportunities. South Africa has continued to argue that hosting the World Cup was worth it, as the billions it spent went toward much-needed infrastructure that has supported an increase in tourism—and thus, economic activity—that lasted for more than a decade. The global sports industry was worth $512 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $624 billion in 2027. 

In Africa, the contribution of sports to the continent’s gross domestic product is more limited (0.5 percent) than it is for the world at large (3 percent). And while North America has the largest share of the sports market, Africa’s share is growing at a rate of 8 percent each year. The National Basketball Association’s investment in the Basketball Africa League is a signal to other investors of the positive outlook for African sports and the new ecosystem of opportunities. With Africa’s middle class estimated to reach 1.1 billion by 2060, and with the continent urbanizing and growing more connected, Africa is a premier market for ventures in the sports industry.

If this business opportunity is harnessed, there is reason to be optimistic that African talent will no longer have to seek earnings abroad and that African markets will see added value, including in the form of new infrastructure, hospitality offerings, merchandising, and content/media. Upcoming major sports events on the continent are slated to generate such growth, with Senegal organizing the 2026 Youth Olympic Games and Morocco co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

Well-structured and adequately supported sports are also tools of soft power, and countries around the world, notably Saudi Arabia, are investing in them. In Africa, the Olympic Games have always been an opportunity for African countries to speak more loudly than in the UN fora. For example, African countries boycotted the 1976 Montreal Olympics, protesting New Zealand’s participation after the country’s national rugby team played several matches in South Africa (which had been banned from the Olympics because of its apartheid policy). At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, as apartheid came to an end, the finalists of the ten-thousand-meter race—Derartu Tulu, a Black athlete from Ethiopia, and Elana Meyer, a white athlete from South Africa—hugged each other to celebrate South Africa’s return.

A new sports agenda

Africa had a late introduction to global sport competition. No African country has ever hosted the Olympic Games. The first Black African athletes—South African runners Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani—didn’t get the opportunity to compete until 1904, eight years after the first modern Olympic Games were held. It wasn’t until the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome that the first Black African athlete took the gold: Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the marathon running barefoot. Since then, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa have been the leading Olympic teams from Africa.

To be able to compete with the best teams today and to hold onto its talents, Africa needs a more robust agenda that covers all dimensions of sports.

First, it is essential to address youth education. Governments should include sports in education systems, and sports federations should organize regular competitions within local leagues for youth. Governments should also consider making their funding of training centers contingent on the number of enrolled athletes; it has been shown that sports help improve enrollment and attendance at school, and thus sporting excellence can lead to academic excellence. Of course, in addition to investing in sports facilities at schools, it is crucial to also invest in infrastructure that helps underserved populations access these facilities, thus easing regional inequalities.

However, the financing of African sports cannot be too dependent on governments’ budgets (as it currently is) seeing as national budgets are limited. African governments should provide a fiscal and regulatory framework that supports the work of the private sector. Rather than abandoning the athletes to themselves, governments should consider creating national centers of excellence or institutes for training—similar to France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance—which would allow athletes to access better training conditions on the continent, hopefully keeping them in Africa.

Governments should also ensure that foreign clubs and teams that continue to host the greatest African athletes financially support the development of the African sports industry, which would not only help cultivate more star talent but also foster job creation in advertising, sports medicine, journalism, and fitness.

Sports have much greater geopolitical significance than many decision makers realize. Moving forward, they should integrate sports into their foreign policy, both bilaterally and multilaterally.

For Africa, the surge in athletic talent is evidence that its people are committed to a new era for the continent. Leaders should harness this opportunity to supercharge Africa’s transformative sports movement.

Rama Yade is the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center. She was formerly the French deputy minister of sports and also served as the ambassador of France to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

The post Dispatch from the Paris Olympics: The African sports movement is about to take off, if leaders help fuel it appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The 2003 US-led invasion, which led to the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, presented an opportunity to rebuild Iraq’s educational system. While there were initial efforts to revitalize schools and universities, the ongoing violence and political instability hindered sustained progress. Corruption, sectarian strife, and the absence of coherent education policies exacerbated the challenges. The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) severely disrupted the educational system in areas under its control. Despite these hurdles, there were pockets of progress, particularly in the autonomous Kurdistan region, which began to chart its course for educational reform.

Today, with 60 percent of Iraqis under the age of twenty-five, the nation’s education system is at a critical juncture. The young population represents both a tremendous opportunity and a daunting challenge. High unemployment rates and inadequate educational facilities threaten to undermine the potential of youth contributing to the country’s rebuilding efforts. The lack of investment in modern educational infrastructure and the disconnect between educational outcomes and labor-market needs are stark.

For instance, according to a 2021 IREX report, only 22 percent of university graduates find jobs in their field of study within three months of graduating. This highlights the critical need for a more responsive education system that meets the market’s needs. According to the World Bank, 2 million Iraqi children are deprived of education, presenting a significant challenge for their future prospects. In addition, literacy rates remain alarmingly low, especially among women.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has recognized the urgency of addressing these issues. The cabinet has developed Vision 2030, which prioritizes enhancing and adapting education to support economic diversification. This unprecedented framework aims to align Kurdistan’s educational system with international standards, while fostering a workforce capable of driving economic growth across sectors. A key element of this vision is establishing the Kurdistan Accrediting Association for Education (KAAE), a national accreditation body designed to bridge the educational gap and propel the region into the twenty-first century.

Because standardization can serve as leverage for reform, the KAAE seeks to establish standards to ensure that educational institutions in Kurdistan and Iraq meet rigorous quality-assurance requirements. By promoting best practices and fostering a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement, the KAAE, as a twelve/fifteen-year project, aims to support the government in establishing sound policies for educational quality, making it more relevant to the needs of the economy and society. This initiative is crucial for modernizing Kurdistan’s education system and enabling it to catch up with global advancements, as it is for Iraq and the broader region when used as a model.

Strategic investment in education

Effective implementation of the KAAE’s quality-assurance standards necessitates leveraging the expertise and experience of the international community in building the capacity of academic institutions. The United States and Iraq have a framework agreement that identifies education as a cornerstone of bilateral relations as part of the broader cultural cooperation between the two countries. It is now time to translate this agreement into action. Strengthening this partnership can have far-reaching reverberations beyond education, fostering economic development, political stability, and social cohesion. While the United States has invested significantly in Iraq’s reconstruction, this has been disproportionately allocated to the security sector. According to the Military Times, the United States has spent nearly $2 trillion on military operations in Iraq. Even a fraction of this amount, 1 percent, would have a transformational impact if directed toward educational initiatives.

Investing in Iraq’s education system offers a unique opportunity for the United States to not only support a key ally but also address the root causes of instability in the region. The United States can help build the foundation for a stable and prosperous Iraq by directing resources toward educational reform. This investment would both strengthen US public diplomacy and promote the values of democracy and human rights, which are integral to long-term peace and security. Such support includes establishing partnerships between US schools and universities and their Iraqi counterparts to implement the quality-assurance standards the KAAE sets. These partnerships could focus on building capacity and mentorship, embedding student-centered learning in curricula, and creating continuous assessment and evaluation strategies. Because the Kurdistan region has already established the KAAE, this could serve as a pilot model for Iraq as a whole, with the goal of replicating the body in other parts of Iraq.

Countries like Singapore and South Korea provide valuable lessons in how education can drive national development. Both nations have transformed their economies through substantial investments in education, focusing on skills development and innovation. For example, South Korea’s emphasis on technology and vocational training has made it a global industry leader. Similarly, Singapore’s education system, known for its rigor and focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), has produced a highly skilled workforce that drives the country’s ongoing economic success.

By supporting similar models in Iraq, the United States can help foster an education system that not only equips young Iraqis with the skills and qualifications the local market and economy need, both today and in the long term, but also cultivates critical thinking and innovation. This approach aligns with the US strategy of promoting regional stability through economic development and education.

The role of education in peace and security

Enhancing education in Iraq is not just about economic growth; it is a crucial element of peacebuilding. Education fosters understanding, tolerance, and critical thinking, which are essential for mitigating conflict and promoting social cohesion. A well-educated populace is better equipped to participate in democratic processes and contribute to the nation’s development. By investing in education, Iraq can build a more inclusive society in which young people are empowered to contribute positively to their communities.

For Iraq, education is more than a policy priority; it is a pathway to peace and prosperity. The United States can play a critical role in achieving such prosperity. By leveraging initiatives like the KAAE and drawing on successful global models, Iraq can transform its education system, paving the way for a brighter future. This investment is not just about building schools; it is about building a nation with a capable and empowered citizenry.

The United States and the international community can seize this opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to a stable and prosperous Iraq, promoting a region where education empowers young people as agents of positive change.

Dr. Honar Issa is the secretary of the Board of Trustees at the American University of Kurdistan (AUK). He also serves as chair of the Middle East Peace and Security Forum.

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In line with this legislation, a wide range of Ukrainian government officials will now be expected to reach a degree of English language fluency, while various state services will be made available in English. The law also envisages expanded English language educational opportunities, and support for the screening of English language movies featuring subtitles rather than dubbing.

Ukraine’s recent decision to grant the English language elevated official status reflects a much broader national transformation that has been underway since the country first regained independence more than three decades ago. This historic process has helped transform the Ukrainian linguistic landscape.

In 1991, Ukrainian was officially recognized as the only state language of the newly independent country. In practice, however, Ukraine remained deeply embedded within a Russian language culture inherited from the Soviet era. This informal empire extended from schools to popular culture, with generations of post-independence Ukrainians growing up in an information space that was still dominated by Moscow.

While old imperial ties remained strong, only the privileged few could afford to travel to most Western countries. Strict visa regimes acted as an additional barrier to engagement with the Western world until Ukrainians finally secured visa-free travel to the EU in 2017. Despite these obstacles, the popularity of English language studies in the decades following 1991 reflected Ukraine’s growing openness to the outside world.

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Research indicates that demand for English language learning has increased significantly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. This interest in language skills may at first glance appear somewhat unexpected, given the enormous challenges facing Ukrainian society over the past two years. For many Ukrainians it makes perfect sense. In wartime Ukraine, studying English is an attractive route toward greater personal development that can also provide opportunities to boost the country’s defense and support integration into the wider European community.

The war with Russia has dramatically underlined the importance of the English language as a tool for international communication. At the most immediate and practical level, knowledge of English has been a huge asset for Ukrainian soldiers and commanders learning new skills and encountering new weapons systems for the first time. Indeed, it was striking to see English language fluency specifically cited as a key requirement during discussions with Western partners over plans to train Ukrainian pilots.

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The same linguistic logic has applied to non-military engagement with international partners at the governmental and nongovernmental levels. As Ukrainians have sought to develop new relationships and address complex wartime issues with officials and volunteers from dozens of different countries, English language skills have proven absolutely crucial.

This deepening dialog is very much a two-way street. While greater English language proficiency is proving important for Ukrainians in their engagement with the international community, it is also allowing foreign partners to learn more from the Ukrainian side. In the military sphere, for example, no other country is currently able to match Ukraine’s experience in modern warfare. Speaking the same language makes it far easier to share this experience and pass on important lessons to allies.

As Ukraine moves closer to the rest of Europe and continues to make progress toward the goal of EU membership, the role of the English language within Ukrainian society will only increase. The recently adopted law on the status of English reflects this reality, and should help create an environment that supports the country’s broader Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations.

For centuries, Russia has used language as a tool to suppress Ukrainian independence and impose an artificial imperial identity on Ukrainians. By officially embracing English as the language of international communication, Ukrainians now aim to support their country’s historic pivot away from Moscow and return to the European community of nations.

Oleksiy Goncharenko is a Ukrainian member of parliament with the European Solidarity party.

Further reading

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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Ukraine officially embraces English as historic westward pivot continues appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Factor Druk owner Serhiy Polituchy said the loss of the plant could reduce Ukraine’s overall printing capacity by as much as forty percent. Around one-third of all new books published in Ukraine last year were printed at the Kharkiv facility. “We are now trying to figure out what we can do in the short term to prevent the book publishing industry from collapsing,” commented Polituchy.

Thursday’s bombing followed a number of similar air strikes on publishing houses and print facilities in Kharkiv, which serves as the unofficial capital of Ukraine’s publishing industry. The Kharkiv printing presses accounted for more than eighty percent of new Ukrainian books on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion just over two years ago. The city remains the primary source of new books in wartime Ukraine.

As Russia has escalated its air war against Kharkiv since the beginning of 2024, the publishing industry has been repeatedly hit. In a single March attack, Russian missiles destroyed another of Kharkiv’s largest print facilities and a publishing house, killing five. Mykhailo Khrypak, who serves as commercial director at one of Ukraine’s biggest printing plants, says Russia is systematically attempting to destroy the country’s book publishing industry, and warns that production capacity will be difficult to restore.

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With Kharkiv desperately short of air defenses and located dangerously close to advancing Russian troops, the city’s remaining publishers are taking steps to ensure the safety of staff. Oleksandr Popovych, director of the Unisoft printing plant, has established a bomb shelter for his more than three hundred employees. Despite the recent escalation in attacks, he says he currently has no plans to relocate, pointing to the extreme difficulty of moving bulky printing equipment and relocating his highly skilled staff along with their families.

Ukraine’s domestic publishing industry has flourished over the past decade following the onset of Russian military aggression against the country in 2014. With the Kremlin openly weaponizing the Russian language to justify the invasion of Ukraine, demand for Ukrainian-language literature has risen to unprecedented levels. A new generation of Ukrainian authors has emerged, becoming part of a broader cultural renaissance that has also had a profound impact on the country’s music, fashion, and art scenes.

This trend has not proved popular in Russia, to say the least. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has made no secret of the fact that he bitterly opposes the consolidation of an independent Ukrainian national identity, which he views as a direct threat to Russia’s own imperial identity.

Putin is notorious for insisting Ukrainians are in fact Russians (“one people”). He published an entire essay in July 2021 denying Ukraine’s right to an independent existence. On the eve of the full-scale invasion, Putin called Ukraine “an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” More recently, he declared that “no Ukraine ever existed in the history of the world.” According to Putin, occupied regions of Ukraine are “historically Russian lands.”

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Many believe Russia’s recent attacks on the Ukrainian book publishing industry are part of a coordinated Kremlin campaign to erase Ukrainian national identity that qualifies as genocide. Responding to the latest bombing, Yale historian Timothy Snyder said the targeted missile strikes were “an example of a larger genocidal policy.”

The evidence of Russia’s intention to extinguish Ukrainian national identity is overwhelming. In virtually every area of Ukraine occupied by Russia since February 2022, strikingly similar reports have emerged of efforts to eradicate all traces of Ukrainian nationality. The Ukrainian language has been outlawed in schools and public spaces, with all symbols of Ukrainian statehood dismantled and removed.

Meanwhile, Russian occupation forces work with local collaborators to detain community leaders and anyone deemed pro-Ukrainian, including elected officials, journalists, civil society activists, military veterans, and cultural figures. Thousands of people detained in this manner are unaccounted for. Those who remain are pressured into accepting Russian citizenship and threatened with the loss of access to essential services such as healthcare.

Throughout occupied Ukraine, the Kremlin is going to great lengths to indoctrinate Ukrainian children and rob them of their Ukrainian heritage. Large numbers of Russian teachers have been brought to occupied regions to manage the indoctrination process in Ukrainian schools, while tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia and sent to reeducation camps. This is a textbook act of genocide, according to the UN’s own 1948 Genocide Convention.

The actions of Putin’s army in Ukraine are very much in line with Russian imperial tradition. For centuries, generation after generation of Russian rulers sought to suppress Ukraine’s statehood aspirations and prevent the emergence of a separate Ukrainian nation. This insistence that Ukrainians be made to accept an imperial Russian identity was perhaps best expressed in a notorious mid-nineteenth century tsarist decree stating that the Ukrainian language “never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist.”

Kharkiv’s Slovo Building is a particularly striking symbol of these efforts to eradicate Ukrainian culture. Designed and constructed in the 1920s to host prominent Ukrainian writers, it was home to many of the country’s leading authors and poets who were later killed by the Soviet authorities. Today, they are known as the “Executed Renaissance.”

The efforts of successive Russian tsars and Soviet commissars failed to extinguish the Ukrainian desire for a country and an identity of their own. Putin’s own war on Ukrainian national identity is now proving similarly counter-productive. From poetry to pop music, contemporary Ukrainian culture is experiencing a golden age amid the horror and trauma of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Indeed, as news of Russia’s recent air strikes spread, it was no surprise to see various fundraising initiatives quickly emerge in support of the country’s beleaguered publishing industry. Putin may be able to burn Ukrainian books and bomb Ukraine’s printing presses, but his imperial crusade to erase Ukrainian identity is destined to fail.

Maria Avdeeva is a Kharkiv-based Ukrainian security analyst and strategic communication expert.

Further reading

UkraineAlert May 16, 2024

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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Russia is bombing book publishers as Putin wages war on Ukrainian identity appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The Kremlin’s goal is to make Kharkiv “unlivable” and force a large percentage of its approximately 1.3 million residents to flee. Moscow hopes this will demoralize Ukraine and pave the way for the city’s capture by Russian forces during a widely anticipated summer offensive in the coming months.

Putin is not relying on missiles and drones alone to do the job of depopulating Kharkiv. In recent months, Russia has also unleashed an elaborate information offensive that aims to fuel panic and uncertainty among the city’s embattled population via a combination of aggressive propaganda and destabilizing disinformation.

Kharkiv has been on the front lines of the war ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Situated approximately half an hour by car from the Russian border, the city was one of the initial targets of the invading Russian army and witnessed heavy fighting in spring 2022. Following Ukraine’s successful September 2022 counteroffensive, which liberated most of Kharkiv Oblast and pushed Russian troops further away from the city itself, the Kharkiv population rose from a wartime low of around 300,000 to well over a million.

With delays in US military aid creating growing gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, Russia has intensified the bombardment of Kharkiv since early 2024. A series of strikes in March destroyed the city’s main power plants, creating an energy crisis that has led to widespread blackouts. In mid April, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov warned that the city was now at risk of becoming a “second Aleppo,” a grim reference to the Syrian city partially destroyed almost a decade ago following heavy bombing by Russian and Syrian government forces.

The extensive use of highly destructive glide bombs has further exacerbated the situation and added to the psychological strain on the Kharkiv population, with many attacks on residential districts taking place in broad daylight. One of the most recent blows was the destruction of Kharkiv’s iconic television tower, a city landmark and also an important element of local communications infrastructure.

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Russia’s escalating bombing campaign has been accompanied by a major information offensive. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is one of numerous senior Kremlin officials to encourage a mood of mounting insecurity among Kharkiv residents by publicly speaking of a coming campaign to seize the city. In April, Lavrov noted Kharkiv’s “important role” in Vladimir Putin’s plans to create a demilitarized “sanitary zone” inside Ukraine.

This message has been reinforced throughout Russia’s tightly-controlled mainstream media space. During a revealing recent lecture to Russian students, prominent Kremlin propagandist Olga Skabeyeva argued that patriotic journalists should portray the bombing of Kharkiv region not as evidence of Russian aggression, but as part of efforts to establish a “sanitary zone” along the Ukrainian border with Russia.

Statements from Russian establishment figures on the need to destroy and depopulate Kharkiv have been accompanied by a steady stream of similar chatter on social media. Since January 2024, there have been growing signs of a coordinated campaign to flood the online information space with intimidating and alarmist posts pushing the idea that Kharkiv will soon become an uninhabitable grey zone.

The role of social media in Russia’s information offensive against Kharkiv cannot be overstated. Platforms like Telegram, TikTok, and X (formerly known as Twitter) have become battlegrounds for competing narratives and serve as platforms for carefully choreographed Russian propaganda. Groups of pro-Kremlin accounts frequently engage in the intensive promotion of key propaganda messages. These include the alleged hopelessness of Ukraine’s military position, the inability of the Ukrainian state to protect its citizens, and the likelihood of Kharkiv suffering the same fate as Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city with a prewar population of around half a million that was largely destroyed by the invading Russian army during the first months of the war.

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

Conflict Russia Security & Defense Ukraine

Russia’s information offensive features a strong disinformation component. This includes the distribution of fake statements supposedly released by the Ukrainian authorities. On one occasion, Kremlin accounts spread disinformation that the Ukrainian government was calling on residents to leave Kharkiv urgently in order to avoid imminent Russian encirclement. In a separate incident, Russian sources pushed fake Ukrainian government reports stating that Kharkiv was on the brink of a humanitarian collapse.

These elaborate fakes are typically presented in a convincing manner and closely resemble official Ukrainian government communications. They have even been accompanied by detailed information about “safe evacuation routes.” Inevitably, many Kharkiv residents are fooled by this disinformation and become unwitting accomplices in the dissemination of weaponized Russian fakes.

Russian accounts have also taken genuine news reports and distorted them in ways designed to mislead the public and maximize panic. For example, a series of planned evacuations from specific front line settlements was repackaged by Kremlin trolls as a complete evacuation of entire Kharkiv region districts.

In addition to fake government announcements and deliberate distortions, Kremlin-linked social media accounts are also actively spreading misleading video footage. One widely shared recent video purported to show long lines of cars evacuating Kharkiv while proclaiming that an “exodus” of the “ruined” city was underway. However, this video was later debunked as archive footage shot during the early days of the invasion in spring 2022.

Russia’s disinformation campaign seeks to sow fear and confusion among the Kharkiv population, says local resident Nataliya Zubar, who heads the Maidan Monitoring Information Service. “Disinformation clouds people’s judgment, leading to emotional reactions and stress,” she notes. “This fuels instability and places additional strains on the limited resources that are needed for the city’s defense and to address the growing humanitarian crisis Russia is creating.”

Kharkiv officials and civil society organizations are well aware of Russia’s ongoing information offensive. Work is currently underway to debunk false information and reduce the city’s vulnerability to information attack. These efforts include methodically exposing false claims, while also informing city residents of Russian information warfare tactics and educating them on ways to detect and counter disinformation. The stresses and strains of the emotionally charged wartime environment in today’s Kharkiv make this is a particularly complex task.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities are developing a draft law to target the spread of deliberate disinformation via social media. This initiative mirrors similar undertakings in a number of other countries, but skeptics question whether legislative measures will prove effective against sophisticated state-backed information operations conducted across multiple media platforms.

Russia failed to take Kharkiv in the early weeks of the invasion more than two years ago. As the city braces for the possibility of a new Russian offensive in the coming summer months, local residents are equally determined to defy the Kremlin once again. In order to do so, they must withstand unprecedented aerial bombardment, while also guarding against the demoralizing impact of relentless Russian disinformation.

Maria Avdeeva is a Kharkiv-based Ukrainian security analyst and strategic communication expert.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Mar 31, 2024

Ukraine urgently needs air defenses as Russia decimates power grid

By Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti

A new Russian air offensive has destroyed much of Ukraine’s civilian energy infrastructure in a matter of days and threatens to spark a humanitarian catastrophe if Ukraine does not urgently receive enhanced air defenses, writes Suriya Evans-Pritchard Jayanti.

Conflict Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert Apr 25, 2024

New US aid package is not enough to prevent Russian victory in Ukraine

By Peter Dickinson

This week’s US aid package for Ukraine provides the country with a vital lifeline in the fight against Russia but Western leaders must adopt a more long-term approach if they want to stop Putin, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Drones

UkraineAlert Apr 24, 2024

A decentralized power grid can help Ukraine survive Russian bombardment

By Yuri Kubrushko

Russia is attempting to depopulate large parts of Ukraine by bombing the country’s power grid. Ukraine’s best chance of survival may lie in a more decentralized energy sector, writes Yuri Kubrushko.

Conflict Geopolitics & Energy Security

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Bombs and disinformation: Russia’s campaign to depopulate Kharkiv appeared first on Atlantic Council.

On April 23, Forward Defense nonresident senior fellow Marc Polymeropoulos wrote a book review for The Cipher Brief of Hala Gorani’s “But You Don’t Look Arab and Other Tales of Unbelonging.”

The review covers the story of Emmy Award-winning international journalist Hala Gorani, from her time as a globe-trotting correspondent and anchor with her own lifelong search for identity as the daughter of Syrian immigrants.

Fellow

Marc Polymeropoulos

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Forward Defense Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security

Afghanistan Europe & Eurasia

Forward Defense, housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, generates ideas and connects stakeholders in the defense ecosystem to promote an enduring military advantage for the United States, its allies, and partners. Our work identifies the defense strategies, capabilities, and resources the United States needs to deter and, if necessary, prevail in future conflict.

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The post Polymeropoulos book review of “But You Don’t Look Arab and Other Tales of Unbelonging” in The Cipher Brief appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Putin’s preoccupation with history has become increasingly evident as his reign has progressed, and is closely linked to his deep-seated resentment over the perceived historical injustice of the 1991 Soviet collapse. As early as 2005, Putin was lamenting the breakup of the USSR as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”

This sense of injustice has helped fuel Putin’s obsession with Ukraine, a neighboring country that many Russians still regard as a core part of their own nation’s historical heartlands. The existence of an independent Ukraine has long been resented by Putin as a symbol of modern Russia’s retreat from empire. Since the early years of his reign, he has made the subjugation of Ukraine one of his foreign policy priorities.

During the initial stages of the Kremlin campaign to reassert Russian authority over independent Ukraine, considerable effort was made to undermine the historical legitimacy of the Ukrainian state among Russian audiences and inside Ukraine itself. As Russian aggression against Ukraine escalated, the Kremlin’s war on Ukrainian history also expanded, with Ukrainians demonized as “Nazis” and dismissed as an “artificial nation.”

Years of increasingly hostile rhetoric paved the way for military aggression. When Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in spring 2014 with the seizure of Crimea, he began referring to southern and eastern Ukraine as “Novorossiya” (“New Russia”). His decision to revive long-forgotten imperial terminology from the Czarist era was the clearest indication yet that Putin intended to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and reverse more than a century of European history.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Putin formalized his denial of Ukrainian statehood in a controversial history essay published in July 2021. Entitled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” this remarkable document laid out Putin’s rejection of Ukraine’s right to exist, while arguing at length that Ukrainians are actually Russians (“one people”). Putin’s essay laid the ideological groundwork for the full-scale invasion that commenced months later.

Over the past two years, history has remained a key front in the struggle to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the first summer of the war, Putin directly compared himself to Peter the Great and likened the invasion of Ukraine to the eighteenth century Russian Czar’s wars of imperial conquest.

A year later, Putin ordered the launch of new history textbooks for Russian schoolchildren along with curriculum changes with the apparent aim of legitimizing the ongoing military campaign to destroy the Ukrainian state and nation. This was part of a broader trend within Russia to bring the country’s official historical narrative into line with Putin’s increasingly radical brand of revisionism.

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Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

Conflict Russia Security & Defense Ukraine

Strikingly, Putin chose to use his high-profile February 2024 interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson as a platform to frame the war in Ukraine as a quest for historical justice. While Carlson clearly wanted Putin to blame NATO and the US for the invasion, Putin himself preferred to embark on a rambling half-hour history lecture explaining the ancient roots of Russia’s claim to Ukraine.

Other senior Russian officials have taken their lead from Putin’s weaponized version of history. The most prominent example of this trend is former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who regularly employs historical references in his frequent attacks on Ukraine and the wider Western world. “One of Ukraine’s former leaders once said Ukraine is not Russia. That concept needs to disappear forever. Ukraine is definitely Russia,” he declared in March 2024.

With the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine now in its third year, Putin’s historical motivations are becoming more and more apparent. He regularly declares that major Ukrainian cities such as Odesa and entire regions of Ukraine are “historically Russian,” indicating that his imperial ambitions are still far from satisfied.

Many are now asking how far Putin intends to go. He has often expressed his belief that the Soviet Union was the Russian Empire under a different name. If Putin takes his crusade to reclaim “historically Russian lands” further and expands the definition to include all of the former Czarist domains, this would place more than a dozen additional countries at risk of suffering the same fate as Ukraine.

Putin has weaponized history to justify the genocidal invasion of Ukraine and dehumanize the entire Ukrainian nation. Unless he is stopped in Ukraine, the Russian dictator will use the same bogus historical arguments to launch new imperial adventures.

Nicholas Chkhaidze is a Research Fellow at the Baku-based Topchubashov Center.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Feb 20, 2024

Outgunned Ukraine bets on drones as Russian invasion enters third year

By Mykola Bielieskov

As Putin’s invasion passes the two-year mark, tech-savvy Ukraine is betting on drones as the best way to overcome Russia’s increasingly overwhelming advantage in traditional firepower, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Mar 14, 2024

Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary: The West is still in denial over Russia

By Peter Dickinson

Western leaders have yet to grasp the true scale of the threat posed by Putin’s Russia and are in danger of suffering an history defeat, warns the Secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Mar 7, 2024

Vladimir Putin is losing Russia’s long war against Ukrainian identity

By Danylo Lubkivsky

Vladimir Putin is the latest in a long line of Russian rulers who have attempted to erase Ukrainian national identity and force Ukrainians to identify as Russians, writes Danylo Lubkivsky.

Conflict Disinformation

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Vladimir Putin’s history obsession is a threat to world peace appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The divergences caused by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV) situations are particularly stark, as the incidence of conflict events has increased 40 percent since 2020, to the highest number of events since World War II. Half of the world’s poor live in FCV-affected countries and that number is expected to rise to 60 percent by 2030, in part as the duration of conflicts extends—to now an average of twenty years. In addition to the death, destruction, and disruptions they cause, conflict and fragility are disincentives to investment and further undermine economic growth. One-fifth of International Monetary Fund member countries are considered fragile and conflict-affected situations (FCS) and twenty of the most climate-vulnerable economies are also on the World Bank’s FCS list.

According to the most recent Women, Peace, and Security Index: “In 2022, approximately six hundred million women—15 percent of women in the world—lived within fifty kilometers of armed conflict, more than double the levels in the 1990s.” These numbers don’t lie, but they also don’t necessarily tell the whole truth. And the truth is that women and girls are disproportionately impacted by fragility and conflict economically, socially, and politically. The impacts are well-documented. The data show, for example, that women and girls are more likely to see their educations disrupted, are more vulnerable to gender-based violence, and are more likely to be displaced or become refugees.

Women often face much greater economic hardships than men in conflict-affected areas, as well. Notably, six out of ten of the World Bank’s FCS countries are in the lower quartile on the “Economic Participation and Opportunity” subindex on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, indicating wider gender gaps and more challenges facing women in conflict contexts. Similarly, a majority of FCV countries can be found in the bottom of the latest Women Business and the Law rankings released on March 4. These impacts also further undermine economies: The World Bank estimates that gender-based violence costs some countries up to 3.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and a 1 percent increase in violence against women lowers economic activity by 9 percent.

The roles women hold during conflict and reconstruction

But there can be opportunities for women’s economic empowerment in conflict and reconstruction, as well. Women are experiencing these outcomes despite the important role they play in economies during conflict, in post-conflict reconstruction, and in efforts to sustain peace.

Most of today’s FCV economies are characterized by low female labor force participation. For example, in 2022, the United Nations estimated that closing gender gaps in women’s labor force participation in Yemen would increase the country’s GDP by 27 percent. War has historically created windows of opportunity for women to fulfill workforce shortages—including in male-dominated fields—since men make up a majority of combatants. War—often coupled with crippling inflation—makes finding paid work more acceptable and, importantly, this openness tends to continue as income generation changes women’s economic value and power in society. In the United States, for example, women took to manufacturing and government administration for the war industry and beyond during World War II, with nineteen million women entering the US workforce during this period. Today, women continue to join or rejoin the workforce—including in the informal sector—at higher rates amid conflict and take on more culturally nontraditional jobs. For instance, Ukrainian women have joined the mining workforce, filling the gaps left by conscription after Russia’s invasion.

Like most economies worldwide, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises dominate the market landscape of fragile and conflict-torn countries.

Even though these smaller businesses face more start-up and operational constraints, they provide a key pathway for women’s economic participation during conflict and on the road to recovery. A study in Syria estimated that the proportion of female entrepreneurs increased from a low base of 4.4 percent in 2009 to 22.4 percent by 2017. This includes women-owned and -led businesses engaging in supply chains; including in the logistics, information, and communication technology, infrastructure, and public works sectors, all of which are critical to reconstruction.

And as women workers and their businesses earn more, especially in the formal economy, they can mitigate the otherwise dampening domestic resource mobilization associated with reduced economic activity, investment, and government administration during conflict or destabilization. Women’s greater participation in the economy during conflict and reconstruction can also increase consumption and income utilization (including from cash transfers or other social protection mechanisms) as women recirculate their earnings with spending on their families.

How to wield prosperity and peace dividends with and for women

Gender inclusion cannot be an afterthought. Policymakers must address the immediate economic security and income needs of women during conflict, while empowering them to contribute to and benefit from recovery, reconstruction, and growth. This means providing context-specific, targeted social protections and addressing the issues that undermine women’s economic participation. It requires mitigating and responding to gender-based violence, as well as improving accessibility and affordability of child and elder care. It also means supporting women entrepreneurs and women-led small businesses, closing education or skill gaps, and addressing social and cultural norms that limit career choices or workforce participation with conflict or fragility-sensitive knowledge, design, and delivery mechanisms.

Depending on the type, level, and stage of FCV, as well as the economic landscape, certain FCV-specific interventions can also make a difference in women’s economic empowerment. These include, for example, enabling women’s earning, employment, and entrepreneurship by expanding opportunities in gig and home-based economies and increasing safe and reliable transportation to and from work or school. Policymakers should also take steps to improve access to education and training with attention to language, as well as the demand for and portability of skills and certifications. In addition to addressing persistent systemic and policy hurdles, women business owners and entrepreneurs need targeted support with more risk financing, knowhow, and market entry and development.

This includes leveraging sizable development and humanitarian assistance and procurement. The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), for example, bought over $1.8 billion worth of goods and services in 2022 from suppliers worldwide, with 56 percent local spending. Aligned with system-wide UN gender-responsive procurement initiatives, UNOPS is piloting and beginning to scale programs to train and prepare women business owners to successfully bid and execute their tenders. These women can then use the investment, experience, and credibility gained from working with UNOPS to obtain other public and private sector contracts and optimize supply chain opportunities.

Increasing digital inclusion can be transformative for women’s financial inclusion and economic participation, as well; including by training women for information and communication technology jobs in the digital economy, like the World Bank-Rockefeller Foundation’s Click-On Kaduna project in Nigeria. Policymakers should prioritize increasing women’s access to and utilization of digital tools and platforms, including digital money and financial services, as well as remote learning and government technology. Digital mechanisms can also serve as useful aspects of larger initiatives that empower women’s participation and leadership, which is critical for conflict mitigation and durable peacebuilding. 

The evidence that expanding economic opportunities for women is intertwined with building inclusive and sustainable growth, as well as peace and social progress, is only accruing with time, experience, and data. On this International Women’s Day, aptly themed “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress,” it is incumbent upon all leaders, investors, and policymakers to heed this call. Public and private sector actors would do well to invest and enable increased women’s economic participation to catalyze prosperity and peace.

Nicole Goldin is a nonresident senior fellow at the GeoEconomics Center.

The post Investing in women accelerates prosperity and peace appeared first on Atlantic Council.

On February 21st, the Atlantic Council’s WIn Fellowship, in collaboration with United States Embassy to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and ADGM, held a workshop exploring how women entrepreneurs in the UAE can integrate innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) to their small and medium enterprises (SMEs).  

The panel, which was moderated by Sarah Saddouk, Director of Innovation at Entrepreneur Middle East IMPACT, featured three successful executives with backgrounds in finance, healthcare, and tech; all have harnessed cutting-edge AI and digital advances to drive their companies forward. Speakers included Abir Habbal, Chief Data and AI Officer at Accenture Middle East; Amnah Ajmal, Executive Vice President for market development for EEMEA at Mastercard; and Salim Chemlal, Director of Product at AI71. Tanya Cole, Senior Commercial Officer at the United States Embassy to the UAE, provided the opening remarks. 

Tanya Cole opened the event with welcome remarks, noting that partnerships like the WIn Fellowship encourage innovation and sustainable growth and undergird the rich commercial exchange between the United States and UAE. She observed that one of AI’s principal benefits for SMEs is enhancing operational efficiency, allowing small teams to allocate time and resources to higher-level work like business strategy. Cole acknowledged initiatives by the United States government to promote greater global representation of women in tech but noted that stronger efforts were needed to promote gender equality in the AI sector. She concluded by encouraging the audience to continue breaking down barriers to women in STEM fields and ensuring that women continue to steer and benefit from the growth of AI. 

The panelists leveraged their experience working with AI to cover several areas of concern for entrepreneurs, such as risk, regulation, scalability, and equity. They identified key trends in its uses across the private sector and provided guidance for SMEs hoping to improve their workflow with AI. The speakers also emphasized the need for women to shape the future of the field. 

Main Takeaways

Amnah Ajmal pushed back on skepticism that recent advances in AI are overestimated, asserting that the increasing accessibility and efficiency of computing power make the technology commercially viable. She highlighted the relevant challenge posed by AI adoption in the private sector: the burden of unlearning and relearning technologies as they evolve and integrate into new fields. Ajmal spotlighted two trends in AI usage she observed among SMEs: risk management centered on combatting scams and fraud, and personalized marketing communications. She stated that the critical edge provided by AI is best understood in terms of scalability and speed, freeing up human capital for other tasks.  

Abir Habbal explained that by keeping abreast of AI advances and integration, actors can actively shape the future of policy and governance around the technology. She distinguished between “narrow AI” capable of single tasks versus “generative AI” capable of multiple tasks at once. The latter is expected to be heavily disruptive; research conducted by her firm indicated that most professions can expect 40 percent of their working hours to be affected by AI. Habbal added that financial services have particularly high potential for AI automation, but opportunities exist in every sector. 

Salim Chemlal mentioned that AI innovation should be propelled forward alongside regulation, rather than waiting for regulation before research continues, as experts have proposed. However, he also advocated for stronger international coordination to ensure AI safety, with a special emphasis on adaptability given the many variables in the field. Amnah Ajmal also offered her thoughts on regulation, proposing that businesses should gather industry stakeholders and experts, define the problem they wish to solve, and build the regulation themselves rather than waiting for a regulator to act. She added that regulators perform a service to society and governments will often embrace the suggested frameworks. Ajmal concluded by noting that traditional financial institutions have failed to uplift SMEs and women entrepreneurs, with all-women teams receiving a maximum of 2.7 percent of global VC funding. 

Abir Habbal turned to the risks of AI and how regulation can help mitigate them. She explained that risks in the field include both structural issues, such as systemic biases and inaccurate results, as well as intentional misuses. With fast-evolving technologies such as AI, regulation may stifle innovation, creating a need for “sandboxes” for advanced testing. The industry’s appetite for regulation stems from a desire to effectively govern AI to manage these risks— and fear of financial and reputational harm if they are not mitigated. Salim Chemlal added that different societies should have their own AI systems, arguing that AI deployed outside of the context it was trained in (such as Western products now used in the Middle East) lack context to adequately serve their current users.  

Amnah Ajmal emphasized that women must challenge the status quo in the AI field. She suggested that women are sometimes apprehensive about engaging deeply with new technologies, and she consequently urges other women in the field to be confident in their abilities. AI is trained on old data, which inherently introduces biases against women. Ajmal gave the example of office thermostats, which when adopted in the 1960s were calibrated for men; women, who radiate 35 percent less body heat, are now often left—literally—in the cold. Women should feel empowered to confidently steer the future of AI to prevent further inequity. Abir Habbal highlighted the coalescence of different skillsets in the AI field, which requires expertise in data science, engineering, business, and design. AI democratization is also on the rise, allowing users from outside the field to access and experiment with AI tools. Ajmal urged novices to utilize publicly available tools to experiment and learn more about AI.  

The Way Forward

There has never been a better time for entrepreneurs in the Emirates to integrate AI into their businesses, owing to the UAE’s growing role as a global hub for AI and the country’s booming SME sector. AI adoption will remain a powerful force in the national economy in the near future, with some forecasts expecting close to 14 percent of Emirati GDP to stem from AI by 2030. Meanwhile, government initiatives continue to promote the growth of small and medium enterprises, with a set target of 1 million SMEs in the country by 2030.  

AI has huge transformational power across sectors, particularly in facilitating speed and scalability. Technology may best serve entrepreneurs by freeing up human input otherwise spent on labor-intensive tasks, such as customer service or targeted marketing. However, adopters should ensure that they have defined a problem that AI can solve, as not all facets of business require automation. The risks inherent to AI, such as biases, malfunctions, and privacy concerns should also be evaluated when considering integration.  

Large scale adoption of AI could worsen global gaps in digital skills between men and women, creating an imperative for women to steer the future of the technology in their country and abroad. Currently only 25 percent of AI specialists and 14 percent of cloud computing specialists are women, demonstrating that much work remains to be done to create a more inclusive field. However, the democratization of AI and the UAE’s SME boom represent an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to both capitalize on the business potential of AI and gain expertise that could positively shape the field. Since AI reflects the input and biases of its maker, better systems will require both diverse architects and inclusive design principles. Women at the helm of successful AI-augmented enterprises will be well positioned to advocate for these changes, resulting in a more equitable future for all.  

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Table of contents

Evolution of freedom

How troubled is the United States? The Freedom Index shows modest long-term decline, which sharply contrasts with the growth of freedom in the European Union (EU). The Prosperity Index illustrates stasis, while again the EU shows improvement. But to understand the path of the United States, it is important to differentiate between three aspects of American society: (1) public discourse and debate, (2) formal political and civil institutions, and (3) the state of the economy as a whole. The first element—public discourse—has experienced a terrible downward trend, at least relative to what we would expect in a stable democracy. The second aspect—formal institutions—is more stable; while there is little evidence of improvement, there is also no evidence of catastrophic change. The third element—the economy—is far more robust.

The negative trend in the Freedom Index, and especially in the political subindex, is largely driven by the downturn in civil politics. The United States has simply gotten more combative and polarized. For example, consider the significant drops in both civil liberties and legislative constraints on the executive branch since 2016. There have been no significant constitutional changes over this time period, but there has been language used—about political opponents, immigrants, and minorities—that would have been exceptional not too long ago. The institutional framework of the USA has not moved as fast as public discourse, so we can think of it as a second level in which change is much slower and gradual.

There have been small institutional changes in different parts of the country, the direction of which typically depends on whether the state is largely Republican or Democratic, but there is no generalized movement towards reform. This claim seems to be supported by the relative stability of the legal subindex. As the graphs above show, clarity of the law, informality, bureaucracy and corruption have seen little change over the last three decades.

Moreover, the economy has been remarkably robust. The US economic system is highly unequal, and that surely adds to political polarization, but that has not changed substantially over the past twenty years. We are not as confident as we used to be about the benefits of free trade, perhaps because the downsides of such a policy have become more salient. However, the economy has continued to hum, albeit with the help of massive fiscal stimulus.

The economic freedom subindices display a series of surprising trends. Trade freedom and property rights protection show a clear negative trend from around the turn of the century. The ratio of trade to gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States increased between 2000 and today, but at the same time the very positive view towards free trade, embodied in the Washington Consensus of the 1990s, has ebbed. Regardless of what specific metrics (like trade-to-GDP ratios) may point to, the decline in the trade freedom indicator accurately reflects the fact that the United States is much less committed to trade than it was twenty-five years ago. Economists, including myself, are at least partly to blame for this shift in attitudes towards free trade. Most of us were once unalloyed boosters of free trade, and we did a poor job of predicting and acknowledging that there would be significant losers from the entry of China into world trade. We did not pay enough attention to the potential for social dislocation of particularly vulnerable communities, or the other costs of trade openness that have now been well documented. This has provided the political backdrop for politicians to move towards protectionism. As both parties have a tepid—at best—commitment to trade freedom, it does not seem that the trend of the last couple of decades will be reversed anytime soon.

The decline in property rights protection is probably not related to an increasing risk of expropriation, which is certainly low in the United States, but rather because it is less clear what you can do with your property, and especially with land. The United States has increasingly become more invasive in its land-use regulations, and there is also more legal uncertainty about the ability to develop land. The fall in property rights protection seems to be capturing a cultural movement away from a sentiment—widespread in the United States before 2001—that property is sacrosanct, to something more nuanced, rather than any objective change in legislation.

Investment freedom is relatively high in the United States, but the indicator also shows some ups and downs. The first bump shown in the graph (2006–12) is somewhat surprising, as it coincides with the increased regulation of financial institutions embodied in the Dodd-Frank Act. It also goes in the complete opposite direction to what I would have expected. At the onset of the great recession (2006–2009), it is not very plausible that investment freedom was improving in the United States. The second shift, starting in 2016, likely reflects the positive view of investment under the Trump administration. There were also laws which may have moved the indicator, such as the introduction of “opportunity zones.” These zones created tax incentives to encourage investment in low-income areas, and while my own research did not find significant links between this policy and housing prices, nevertheless these zones embody the administration’s pro-investment zeitgeist.

Finally, the sharp increase in women’s economic freedom in 2018 is somewhat misleading. This indicator is based on World Bank data that examine legislative changes in a country’s biggest city. For the United States, this is New York City, which introduced paid maternity leave in 2018, driving the large rise in the score. Among Democratic states, there is certainly enthusiasm for moving closer to the EU’s model on these issues, but this is hardly a universal trend across the country.

Political freedom presents two clear periods of democratic backsliding since 1995. The first occurred right after the 9/11 attacks of 2001, driven by the resulting decline in civil liberties. Certainly, US’s leaders thought that giving up a little bit of freedom was a small price to pay for maintaining the country’s safety. Many, and probably most, Americans agreed with them, although there were certainly civil libertarians who did not. While the indicator recovers during the Obama administration, it again drops after Trump’s 2016 electoral victory. The post-2016 drop seems more likely to reflect the president’s negative rhetoric with respect to immigrants, Muslims, and other minorities, rather than any legal change in civil liberties.

The sharp overall drop in political freedom that starts in 2016 reflects the fact that all four indicators of this subindex fell simultaneously: political rights, legislative constraints on the executive, elections, and civil liberties. The highly confrontational political atmosphere of the Trump years may have had a chilling effect on free speech in some places. Many people—on both sides of the political spectrum—may have feared that politically “incorrect” statements would be penalized, either by peers or by prospective employers. But this perception, even if it is widespread, did not translate in any meaningful way into specific legislative changes that would limit political or civil rights. The significant drop in the legislative constraints on the executive picks up the clear erosion of traditional norms around restraints on the executive, but the system did not break. Despite a small uprising and a modest attempt to overturn the results of an election, power still changed hands.

The legal freedom subindex is steadier than those for economic and political freedom, with the exception of the security indicator. This indicator shows a negative overall trend, which is not only capturing the 9/11 terror attacks, the subsequent “war on terror” and the protests around it, but continues up until today. This seems to be more reflective of media headlines than of people’s actual lives as, from 2001 through 2019, murder rates in the United States were declining. Politically motivated insecurity (i.e., perceptions of the likelihood of political instability or violence driven by political motives, such as terrorism) may be greater than in the past, even if there is no change or an improvement relative to the ordinary insecurity that affects people on a daily basis. We have had more political insecurity, as indicated by the Occupy movement, mass protests of police shootings, and violence in the Capitol Building itself, and it seems likely that this is driving this indicator.

The United States’ relatively low score on clarity of the law may partially reflect the ambiguity present in all common law systems that rely on case precedence rather than a civil code, as this empowers sometimes unpredictable juries. The mild but sustained deterioration of the score on judicial independence seems more likely to reflect the increasingly political process of appointing judges rather than of a lack of judicial independence post-appointment. There were certainly loud verbal attacks on the judiciary by the executive during the Trump administration, and that may explain the 5-point decline in this indicator between 2016 and 2020.

From freedom to prosperity

The Prosperity Index score starts at a high base for the United States, and does not move a lot over the period of analysis. That stasis, in my view, correctly reflects the relative strength of the American economy. Despite political sturm und drang, our economy has been working for decades without major disturbances. The American economy is not recession-proof, but over the past forty years, despite enormous technological changes, it has been stable, and typically more so than many others—especially other developed economies. The prosperity of the United States is illustrated best by the income indicator, which moves steadily upward, except for transitory drops in 2008 and 2020.

The health indicator shows the United States’ shortcomings. First, the long trend of health is worse in the United States than in the EU, despite the fact that we spend a vast amount on healthcare. Second, the plummeting of the score in 2020 fairly reflects the United States’ relatively dismal handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, recent research has provided evidence that the crisis struck Americans who were not as well educated much more severely than more educated Americans, reflecting both preexisting conditions and the ability to shift to remote work. In May of 2020, 68.9 percent of Americans with advanced degrees were working remotely, compared to only 5 percent among high school dropouts. This translated into mortality rates that were four times higher in America’s least educated metropolitan areas. Instead, in some highly educated metropolitan areas like Seattle, more people died from opioid overdoses during the pandemic than died from COVID-19.

The health indicator should be an alarm bell for the United States. Our healthcare system is significantly led by the public sector through Medicare and Medicaid, yet it is failing to keep Americans healthy and it is costing an extraordinary amount. This seems like an important area for reform.

The worsening trend in the US score on inequality is unsurprising. The United States has never particularly embraced a wholesale fight against inequality. Even Democratic administrations feel constrained in how far they can raise taxes on the rich. Moreover, the significant expansion in the Federal debt over the past five years will make further attempts to use Federal spending to combat inequality even more difficult.

But the sharpest change within the Prosperity Index is the significant decline in the minority rights indicator, which occurred during the Trump administration. The minority rights indicator uses religious freedom as a proxy, and it is certainly true that President Trump said many combative things about Muslims. But this measurement is based on perceptions, and political statements can clearly shift perceptions. It seems unlikely that there has been a substantial real change in religious freedom in the United States. The Bill of Rights, which protects religious freedom, continues to be upheld and enforced to this day. The formal political institutions have, at least so far, been relatively robust to the political rhetoric.

The final two indicators – environment and education – show mild improvements, but the United States should take relatively little comfort from these changes. America’s public school system continues to terribly fail the most vulnerable children, and these problems are not going away. Major risks to the environment remain, and the environment appears to be causing at least as much damage—through wildfires, floods, and storms—as in the past.

The future ahead

Over the past fifteen years, US public debt has increased massively and that poses significant threats for the future. That adverse change is probably underweighted in the Freedom and Prosperity Indexes. It is a sign of where the government has gone wrong. The United States is spending a great deal, and it is acting as if debt just does not matter at all. I am not a macroeconomist, but there are good reasons to be skeptical about the idea that debt is free. We are likely to pay a significant cost for all of this borrowing, both in terms of economic freedom and for the economy as a whole.

Nonetheless, I continue to expect that, by and large, the American economy will deliver more of the same: little change in inequality, the traditional bumpiness of recessions and recoveries, but also a lot of dynamism mixed into that. Overall, the country is likely to continue on the path of the last fifty years.

Yet there are many things that the United States should be doing to ensure sustained economic growth and prosperity: We should regulate small businesses less. We should improve our procurement processes, especially related to healthcare and infrastructure. We should improve our urban school systems. Most importantly, we need to recover a rational and policy-oriented political discourse.

I particularly worry about the increasing regulation of occupations, property, and small businesses at the local level. These effects seem to suggest that the United States does more to protect insiders than to empower outsiders. A robust national reform movement for economic freedom would be exciting, but as of now I only see small demands for reform related to property rights and housing. The “Yes, in my backyard” movement can be interpreted as an incipient effort in that direction. There are places like Los Angeles that have modestly liberalized their land-use regulations, especially by increasing the number of units that can be built without a lengthy planning process. Clarifying the rules for building new homes would make it easier to deliver affordable homes in
high-cost areas.

Moreover, while the United States is the richest large country in the world, our public sector has great room for improvement. Continual reform of the public sector should be a national priority, but the need to make government better is frequently ignored because of fractious political fights. There are pressures for local governments to improve, and there are reasons to be cautiously optimistic that at least some of these local governments may figure out how to improve procurement.

Finally, finding a way to fix civil discourse in the United States feels like an enormously hard task, and it is difficult to be hopeful about that. The disappearance of a small number of contentious individuals from the political arena might move us towards more civilized discourse going forward. But the path towards a less polarized political environment seems unclear to me. As long as identity politics plays an important role, the more that we will argue about “us versus them” rather than how to improve a public sector that serves us all.

Edward Glaeser is the Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics and the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, where he has taught microeconomic theory, and occasionally urban and public economics, since 1992.

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Jun 15, 2023

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The interview began in predictable fashion with Carlson inviting Putin to blame NATO and the US for the ongoing invasion. However, it was soon apparent that the Russian leader had something very different in mind.

Sidestepping Carlson’s opening question, Putin launched into a rambling half-hour lecture covering more than a thousand years of Russian and Ukrainian history that placed the roots of today’s war firmly in the distant past. His core message was chillingly simple: Ukraine has no right to exist and he is fully justified in waging a war of aggression to reclaim historically Russian lands.

Carlson admitted to being initially shocked and annoyed by this monologue, but eventually concluded that Putin’s insistence on articulating his historic claims to Ukraine was actually “a sincere expression of what he thinks.” This seems a fair assessment. Putin’s obsession with history is well known, as is his conviction that Ukrainians are in fact Russians. Indeed, anyone who has listened to Putin’s many public statements on the topic of Ukraine or read his 2021 essay on the “historical unity” of Russians and Ukrainians will have been more than familiar with the content of his latest lecture.

While Putin has often been accused of weaponizing history, it was nonetheless revealing that he should choose to prioritize his historical grievances in such a setting. After all, this was the Russian president’s first major interaction with the Western press since the start of the Ukraine invasion almost two years ago. Tucker Carlson had been handpicked for the occasion, having won the trust of Moscow officials via years of pro-Kremlin messaging in the US media.

The interview was viewed by many within the Putin regime as a rare chance for Russia to make its case on its own terms to a truly global audience. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, things did not go according to plan. Rather than coming away convinced by the rationality of Putin’s arguments, many viewers were left bewildered by his arcane references to medieval princes and seventeenth century diplomatic correspondence.

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Needless to say, much of Putin’s lecture was complete nonsense that echoed longstanding Russian imperial myths while conveniently overlooking Ukraine’s centuries of documented history. In his traditional manner, Putin ridiculed Ukraine as an illegitimate and artificial state. He dismissed the entire notion of a separate Ukrainian nation, calling it an anti-Russian conspiracy involving everyone from the Poles and the Pope to the Austrian General Staff.

These claims owe more to Kremlin propaganda than any actual academic rigor. In reality, the term “Ukraine” first appeared in the twelfth century, while Ukraine’s statehood struggle can be traced back more than three hundred years. As long ago as 1731, French thinker Voltaire was moved to write, “Ukraine has always aspired to be free.”

Putin’s insistence that southern and eastern Ukraine are historically Russian is similarly unsupported by the available evidence. The 1897 census conducted by the Czarist authorities, which provides the most reliable guide to the demographic makeup of the Russian Empire, identified Ukrainian-speaking majorities throughout much of today’s southern and eastern Ukraine, as well as in a number of regions that are now part of Russia.

Likewise, Putin’s assertion that Lenin and Stalin created modern Ukraine ignores the inconvenient fact that the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic had already existed for a number of years before the early Bolsheviks were finally able to extinguish this fledgling Ukrainian state and impose Soviet rule.

Many more of Putin’s statements have since been comprehensively debunked by everyone from the BBC and TIME magazine to the diplomats of the Polish Foreign Ministry, who were understandably outraged by the Russian leader’s attempt to justify Adolf Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Poland. As Carlson himself showed little interest in challenging Putin, these fact-checking efforts are particularly important.

At the same time, the real takeaway from the interview was Putin’s apparently genuine belief that his antiquated historical arguments could serve as plausible justification for a major war in twenty-first century Europe. This is perhaps the clearest indication yet of the dangerous delusions and imperial ambitions that led Putin to invade Ukraine.

Putin is no stranger to openly imperialistic rhetoric, of course. For years, he has subjected domestic audiences to long sermons detailing Russia’s historic grievances and the injustices of the post-Soviet settlement. Ukraine has always been the main focus of this revanchist zeal.

As his grip on power has tightened, Putin has grown increasingly fixated with the idea of reasserting Russian authority over Ukraine, and has come to view this as his historic mission. On the eve of the full-scale invasion two years ago, he described Ukraine as “an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.” In summer 2022, Putin directly compared the current war to the imperial conquests of eighteenth century Russian Czar Peter the Great and claimed to be “returning” historically Russian lands.

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Unless Putin is defeated in Ukraine, it is fanciful to imagine that he will voluntarily abandon his increasingly aggressive brand of historical revisionism. On the contrary, it is far more likely that other countries will also fall victim to the Russian ruler’s expanding imperial ambitions. Naturally, Putin assured Tucker Carlson that he has no such intentions, but he has issued similar denials prior to each new stage of his escalating Ukraine invasion. At this point, the most logical conclusion is that he will not stop until he is stopped.

How far could Putin go? Throughout his reign, he has consistently lamented the fall of the USSR, which he has referred to as the demise of “historical Russia.” After the events of the past two years, it should be painfully apparent that anywhere Putin regards as “historical Russia” is potentially at risk.

In theory, at least, the same bogus historical arguments that have been used to justify the invasion of Ukraine could easily be applied to other parts of the former Soviet Union, or to the Russian Empire of the Czarist era. This would create an array of possible targets for Russian aggression including Finland, Poland, the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Alaska, and the whole of Central Asia. A maximalist interpretation could even see all of Central Europe’s former Soviet satellite states besides Poland added to the list.

In today’s increasingly unstable geopolitical climate, talk of further Russian invasions can no longer be dismissed as alarmist. Mounting signs of Western weakness in Ukraine have visibly emboldened Putin, and may yet tempt him to test NATO’s resolve in a more direct manner. He has already succeeded in shifting the Russian economy onto a war footing, and is cranking up arms manufacturing at a rate that far outpaces the West. Even now, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine still very much undecided, it is all-too-easy to imagine waking up to social media posts labeling Kazakhstan an “artificial country” or proclaiming Estonia “historically Russian” as Putin’s tanks roll across the border.

As the tenth anniversary of Russia’s war in Ukraine draws close, Putin’s interview with Tucker Carlson should serve as a wake-up call for the collective West. A decade ago, Putin began his attack on Ukraine by occupying Crimea. At first, he acted with a degree of caution, officially denying any role in the military takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula and orchestrating a fig leaf referendum to disguise the crime. Ten years on, Putin now feels confident enough to sit down with one of the world’s most famous journalists and defend the invasion of a major European country by claiming it is rightfully his. Anyone who still believes he would not dare attack NATO is only fooling themselves.

Putin’s history obsession would be comical if the consequences were not so tragic. Using ancient dynasties and long forgotten treaties to justify the biggest European conflict since World War II is indeed farcical, and has duly inspired a flood of memes mocking the Kremlin dictator as a man completed detached from reality. But as we chuckle at Putin the ultimate history bore, he will continue distorting the past to shape the future. At present, there is a very real danger he will have the last laugh.

Peter Dickinson is editor of the Atlantic Council’s UkraineAlert service.

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The post Putin’s history lecture reveals his dreams of a new Russian Empire appeared first on Atlantic Council.

For years, Vladimir Putin has made a habit of rewriting the past in order to deny Ukraine’s right to exist and justify his ongoing invasion of the country. However, his claims rely on centuries of Russian imperial propaganda that bear little resemblance to the historical reality.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in spring 2014 with the seizure of Crimea, Putin has resurrected the old Czarist era administrative term of “Novorossiya” (“New Russia”) to refer to the regions of southern and eastern Ukraine that he claims are “historically Russian lands.” He has frequently dismissed Ukrainian claims to these regions, while insisting they were erroneously handed to Ukraine by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution.

Such arguments have long circulated in Russian nationalist circles. Indeed, one prominent advocate was celebrated Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who opposed Ukrainian independence and openly questioned the country’s claims to its southern and eastern regions. Solzhenitsyn’s troubling legacy of support for Russian imperialism illustrates why many Ukrainians continue to believe Russian liberalism ends at the border with Ukraine.

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Putin laid out his historical claims to Ukraine in a 5000-word essay published in July 2021 that read like a declaration of war against Ukrainian statehood. Many now see this chilling document as an ideological blueprint for the full-scale invasion that was to follow just seven months later.

When speaking to domestic Russian audiences, Putin has not shied away from describing the invasion in overtly imperialistic terms as a war of conquest. In summer 2022, he directly compared his invasion to the imperial conquests of eighteenth century Russian Czar Peter the Great. More recently, he has referred to the areas of Ukraine currently under Russian occupation as “conquests.”

Putin’s stubborn refusal to recognize Ukraine’s right to exist has sometimes led to instances of selective blindness. In May 2023, he was filmed examining a seventeenth century map of Eastern Europe before declaring “no Ukraine ever existed in the history of mankind,” despite the fact that the word “Ukraine” was clearly marked on the map in front of him.

The term “Ukraine” can actually be traced back much further than the seventeenth century. Indeed, as Harvard University Professor Serhii Plokhy and others have noted, “Ukraine” has medieval origins and was first used by twelfth century chroniclers, around six hundred years before Peter the Great rebranded Muscovy as the Russian Empire.

Putin’s claims regarding Russia’s ancestral ties to southern and eastern Ukraine are equally historically illiterate. Throughout the Middle Ages, these regions formed the sparsely populated “Wild Fields” that served as an informal boundary separating the Mongol and Turkish empires from Ukraine and the rest of Europe. Early records show a Ukrainian presence including Cossacks and agricultural communities.

Even as Russian imperial influence spread southward toward the Black Sea, most of the territory Putin now refers to as Novorossiya continued to have a majority Ukrainian population. The only official demographic data from this era, the Czarist census of 1897, creates a picture of highly cosmopolitan urban populations, including significant French and Italian contingents in Odesa and a prominent Greek community in Mariupol. Meanwhile, the rural population throughout today’s southern and eastern Ukraine remained predominantly Ukrainian. In other words, Putin’s assertion that modern Russia has some kind of ancient claim to these regions is complete nonsense.

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Zelenskyy is now signalling to Putin that Ukraine has historical claims of its own. The Ukrainian leader’s recent decree does not indicate Kyiv’s intention to annex Russian territory, but it does send a clear message to Moscow that Ukrainians have a proud national history and will defend themselves against Russian attempts to deny their existence or extinguish Ukrainian identity.

Zelenskyy’s decree also serves as a not-so-subtle reminder that Russia’s own borders are extremely vulnerable to the kind of reckless historical revisionism being pushed by Putin. As the leader of the world’s largest country, which has expanded for centuries to encompass more than ten percent of the planet’s entire landmass, Putin is particularly unwise to argue in favor of reinstating old borders. If taken to its logical conclusion, Putin’s revisionist stance would see Russia cede land to everyone from Finland and Germany to China and Japan. It would also destabilize the wider world, leading to endless border disputes throughout Europe, Africa, and beyond.

Putin’s weaponization of bad history has helped fuel the bloodiest European conflict since World War II. His claims to Ukrainian land are based on an outdated imperialistic mythology that has no place in the twenty-first century and poses a grave threat to global security. The Russian dictator believes he can distort the past to justify the crimes of the present. Unless he is stopped, other countries will suffer Ukraine’s fate.

Taras Kuzio is a professor of political science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and an associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. He is the author of “Fascism and Genocide. Russia’s War Against Ukrainians.”

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The post Zelenskyy gives Putin a long overdue history lesson appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Ukraine has already achieved what many regard as a decisive moral victory in the war against Russia. While Kremlin propagandists deny Ukraine’s right to exist and Putin insists Ukrainians are actually Russians (“one people”), the outpouring of Ukrainian national pride since February 2022 has been instrumental in fueling the country’s remarkable resilience and spirit of resistance.

As the invasion approaches the two-year mark, it is now obvious that Putin and other Russian leaders seriously underestimated the strength of Ukrainian national identity. Nevertheless, there is ample evidence that eradicating all traces of Ukrainian identity remains a core Russian war aim. Speaking to the New York Times in December 2022, UN rapporteur for cultural rights Alexandra Xanthaki explained that Russia sought not merely to capture Ukrainian territory, but to achieve the gradual destruction of Ukraine’s cultural life. “One of the justifications of the war is that Ukrainians don’t have a distinct cultural identity,” she noted.

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Russia’s assault on Ukrainian cultural identity can be seen in everything from the widespread looting of national treasures to the targeted destruction of historic sites including museums, theaters, libraries, and monuments. These attacks are evidence of an intentional Kremlin campaign to eradicate Ukraine’s distinct culture and heritage.

Prominent targets have included a museum dedicated to Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko in Kyiv region, the Sviatohirsk Monastery in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, the Transfiguration Cathedral within the UNESCO-listed historic city center of Odesa in southern Ukraine, and a Kharkiv museum dedicated to eighteenth century Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda. In recognition of the growing threat posed to Ukraine’s cultural heritage, UNESCO has placed a number of historic Ukrainian landmarks on its list of endangered sites.

Russia’s invasion is not only destroying the physical manifestations of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. It is also claiming the lives of Ukrainians at the forefront of shaping the country’s contemporary cultural landscape. One prominent victim was Victoria Amelina, an award-winning 37-year-old novelist and poet who was killed by a Russian missile in July 2023 while dining in a restaurant in eastern Ukraine.

At the time of her death, Amelina was attempting to preserve the works of other Ukrainian artists and poets killed or exiled during Russia’s invasion. “My worst fear is coming true: I’m inside a new Executed Renaissance. As in the 1930s, Ukrainian artists are killed, their manuscripts disappear, and their memory is erased,” she wrote in the foreword to the published diary of another author, Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was murdered during the 2022 Russian occupation of Izium.

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The Putin regime’s attempts to suppress Ukrainian national culture and identity are part of a Russian imperial tradition stretching back hundreds of years. This is most immediately apparent in the long history of restrictions imposed on the use of the Ukrainian language. Russian attempts to ban the Ukrainian language began in the early seventeenth century and include over 100 separate measures adopted by successive imperial administrations throughout the Tsarist and Soviet eras. The chilling end goal of this linguistic imperialism can be seen in a mid-nineteenth century Tsarist decree stating that the Ukrainian language “never existed, does not exist, and shall not exist.”

So far, the Putin regime’s efforts to erase Ukraine’s cultural identity appear to be backfiring. Indeed, amid the death and destruction of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians are embracing their culture, history, and identity in unprecedented ways.

Since February 2022, millions of Ukrainians have adopted the Ukrainian language in their everyday lives. Ukrainian historical narratives that were suppressed for generations by the forces of Russian imperialism are now being rediscovered and are transforming perceptions of what it means to be Ukrainian. From poetry to pop music, contemporary Ukrainian culture is experiencing a golden age.

It is imperative that this consolidation of Ukrainian identity is embedded in the country’s recovery agenda, both at the ministerial level and via the National Council for the Recovery of Ukraine. While numerous similar heritage preservation initiatives are currently underway, it makes sense to prioritize the protection of cultural identity within broader national recovery efforts. Supporting individuals and institutions as they continue to engage with the essence of “being Ukrainian” is vital for the country’s future. It is also the perfect response to Russia’s dreams of wiping Ukraine off the map altogether.

Martha Holder is a board member at the Foundation to Preserve Ukraine’s Sacral Arts and a member of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. She previously worked in international development at the World Bank (1994-2016).

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The post Russia’s invasion aims to erase Ukrainian cultural identity appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Ukraine’s story is straightforward, unlike the tall tales promoted by the Russian authorities. Contrary to the Kremlin’s claims, Ukraine is a democratic, unified nation with a distinct and varied history stretching back more than a thousand years. In no way is modern Ukraine Russia’s “younger sibling.” In fact, it could easily be argued that the opposite is true. According to its own origin story, Russia emerged from the medieval Kyivan Rus state centered on the Ukrainian capital city. Christianity and European culture came to Russia via Ukraine.

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The many different puzzle pieces that make up Putin’s official version of the deeply troubled historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine simply don’t add up. His claims of a common past and shared identity conveniently ignore centuries of oppressive policies and forced russification imposed on Ukrainians by the Russian imperial authorities throughout the Tsarist and Soviet eras.

Nevertheless, Putin has deployed his distorted vision to argue that the two countries are one nation and that, in essence, there is a civil conflict currently underway among the people of Ukraine. This is a people that voted 92 percent in favor of independence in 1991, with majorities in every single region of the country. It is also a people that staged two revolutions since becoming independent in order to remain both free and democratic.

Recent polls consistently indicate that Ukrainians do not want to surrender a single inch of occupied land to Russia in exchange for an end to what Putin euphemistically calls his “special military operation.” Ukrainians and global audiences overwhelmingly recognize this “operation” as a war of aggression that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives over the past twenty-one months, in addition to the thousands killed during the previous eight years of hostilities following Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Despite Putin’s insistence that Ukrainians are actually Russians (“one people”), the differences between the two countries are now more immediately apparent than ever. Today’s Ukraine is a democracy, though at times a messy one. In stark contrast, Putin’s Russia is a dictatorship, a top-to-bottom power vertical led by one man.

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The invading Russian army is not the only enemy Ukraine faces; the Russian propaganda that drives and justifies the invasion is arguably just as deadly. Moscow does everything it can to silence Ukrainian voices and make sure that the history of Ukraine is viewed through Russia’s very selective and murky prism. These indoctrination efforts target Russians, Ukrainians, and also international audiences in different ways but with equal gusto.

For many years, it has been apparent that Western politicians, policymakers, and commentators are particularly susceptible to Russian’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda due to their often limited knowledge of the relevant regional history. Today, it has become more important than ever to counter Russia’s false historical narratives, as international support for Ukraine could very well determine the outcome of the war.

If Russian propaganda is not blunted, the average voter in Western countries will be left face-to-face with the fake Ukrainian history disseminated internationally by the Kremlin and its networks of allies and agents. These falsehoods include the central message that there is no separate Ukrainian people or Ukrainian state. Instead, there is only Russia.

This twisted logic allows Putin to claim, with a poker face, that Russia is not waging war against the Ukrainian people, despite the unprecedented bloodshed since February 2022. It forms the basis of his claim that Russia’s full-scale invasion is really an attempt to liberate Ukraine from “Nazis.” According to Putin, Ukraine is part of Russia, so the Western world has no right to interfere in what is essentially an internal affair.

The Kremlin’s weaponized version of history has helped garner high levels of domestic support for Putin and his invasion of Ukraine within Russia itself, if one is to take as gospel the integrity of opinion polls conducted in a dictatorship. Whether these surveys are genuinely representative or not, it is clear that there is no meaningful anti-war movement in today’s Russia.

Little can realistically be done at present about the state of public opinion inside Russia. The real danger is that Russian disinformation regarding Ukrainian history will be allowed to further influence opinion throughout the West and raise doubts over the legitimacy of Ukraine’s fight for survival. This could diminish the supply of military and other support at a time of Ukraine’s greatest need. That would be a tragedy for Ukraine and a disaster for the wider Western world, with grave consequences for the future of international security.

Ihor Smeshko is a Ukrainian politician and former head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence and Security Service.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Nov 28, 2023

Putin debunks his own propaganda by disarming Russia’s NATO borders

By Peter Dickinson

Putin publicly blames NATO for provoking the invasion of Ukraine, but Russia’s recent demilitarization of the country’s borders with neighboring NATO members makes a mockery of such claims, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert Oct 24, 2023

Battle of Avdiivka: Putin’s new offensive continues despite heavy Russian losses

By Olivia Yanchik

Russia has returned to the offensive in Ukraine in recent weeks with a major assault on the town of Avdiivka. The Russian offensive continues despite reports of catastrophic losses, underlining Putin’s determination to secure victory at any price in Ukraine, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Nov 30, 2023

Western leaders must choose: Arm Ukraine or enable Putin’s genocide

By Taras Kuzio

Western leaders must decide whether they are finally prepared to arm Ukraine adequately or face the consequences of a Russian victory which would lead to genocide in the heart of Europe, writes Taras Kuzio.

Conflict Disinformation

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Fake history is a crucial weapon in Vladimir Putin’s bid to destroy Ukraine appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Ukrainian national pride is understandably booming thanks to the successes of the country’s military and the unifying power of the war effort. But for most Ukrainians, the main factor fueling their determination to fight on is the sense that Russia’s genocidal objectives leave them with no choice but to resist. Either Ukrainians defend themselves, or Ukraine itself will cease to exist.

Examples of the Russian military’s genocidal conduct in Ukraine and the Kremlin’s genocidal intent continue to mount. In recent weeks, human rights investigators have released new evidence accusing Moscow of a deliberate starvation campaign that appears to have been in place before the start of the full-scale invasion. This has been accompanied by calls for Russia to face new war crimes charges of “starvation as a method of warfare.” Accusations of weaponizing food come as Ukrainians mark a major anniversary of a remarkably similar crime committed by the Kremlin almost a century ago.

In late November, Ukrainians commemorate the artificial famine of the early 1930s known as the Holodomor. One of Stalin’s most notorious crimes, this deliberately engineered famine killed at estimated four million Ukrainians in less than two years. Declassified Soviet records now depict Stalin’s behavior as part of a broader campaign to extinguish Ukraine’s statehood aspirations.

Stalin’s bid to crush Ukraine’s dream of independence ultimately failed. Millions of Ukrainians would continue to resist Soviet rule, becoming the largest group of political prisoners during the final decades of the Soviet Union before playing a critical role in the eventual collapse of the USSR. Nevertheless, many irreplaceable features of Ukraine’s cultural heritage were lost forever during the Holodomor. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term “genocide,” saw Stalin’s attempt to destroy the Ukrainian nation as “the classic example of Soviet genocide.” There is now a growing scholarly consensus that defines the Holodomor as an act of genocide committed against Ukraine.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Modern Ukrainians are acutely aware that their freedom is not free. Most have a friend or family member who has been killed or wounded in Russia’s invasion. Many are also the descendants of people killed by the Stalin regime.

In June 2017, I interviewed Ukrainian museum director Ihor Poshyvailo about the Holodomor, asking how Ukrainians should commemorate Moscow’s past violence. Now, Poshyvailo finds himself working around-the-clock to prevent Moscow’s latest attempt at destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage. He has condemned modern Russia’s escalating aggression against Ukraine as a genocide and has called the current invasion “a war against our historical memory, against our being Ukrainian.” These accusations are increasingly supported by independent inquiries.

Genocides are called the “crime of crimes” because they target a group’s basic right to exist. In historical terms, genocides are exceedingly rare, complicating scholarly understandings of how this extreme behavior unfolds. Russia-Ukraine relations are remarkable in this regard, as Kremlin dictators are now accused of committing genocide against Ukrainians twice in just ninety years.

Not everyone is surprised. Historian Daria Mattingly, who has studied the Holodomor’s rank-and-file perpetrators, says the genocidal violence of the current Russian invasion reflects the nature of the Putin regime. “As an unapologetic imperial power, Moscow consistently treats the people it oppresses as resources, not human beings worthy of rights and protections,” she comments.

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Moscow’s atrocities in Ukraine blur the lines between past and present. Today, eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region is relentlessly bombed from just over the Russian border. Grief at the senseless destruction pours out of residents. “Life used to be beautiful here. They have left us without our loved ones, without our parents, without husbands, without sons, without our previous life, without jobs, without anything,” newly widowed Olga recently told a reporter.

Kharkiv also experienced terrible suffering during the Holodomor, when it was among the most badly affected regions of Ukraine. In 1932, a 36-year-old schoolteacher, Oleksandra Radchenko, kept a private diary, later serving ten years in a Soviet gulag after it was discovered by the Soviet authorities. Describing whole villages dying out, she wrote, “I am so afraid of hunger; I’m afraid for the children. It would not be so offensive if it were due to a bad harvest, but they have taken away the grain and created an artificial famine.”

For some Ukrainians, understanding the Holodomor’s long-suppressed history has been key to reclaiming their national identity. In 2019, I sat down with renowned scholar and theologian Ihor Kozlovskyi. Detained by Russia’s proxy forces in eastern Ukraine in 2016, he was tortured for nearly two years before being released in a prisoner exchange. When I asked him why understanding the Holodomor was important for modern Ukrainians, he told me this was the only way “to build our truly independent state free of aggression and dictatorship.”

Kozlovskyi passed away from a heart attack this year, but his words remain more important than ever. Learning from the past also holds a somber warning for the West. Despite strenuous Soviet efforts to hide information about the Holodomor, some intrepid journalists raised the alarm even as the genocide unfolded. Notwithstanding these news reports, personal appeals, and confirmation from his own diplomats, US President Franklin Roosevelt officially recognized the Soviet Union in November 1933, spurred on by what some scholars now call a mixture of US economic self-interest and realpolitik.

Today, many Western leaders continue to insist Putin cannot be allowed to repeat Stalin’s crimes. But Ukrainian pleas for comprehensive aid to expel Russian forces and finally break this violent cycle are only being partially addressed. On the anniversary of the Holodomor, Western leaders have the opportunity to bring life-saving poetic justice to the people of Ukraine, fighting against the memories and brutal realities of two Kremlin dictators.

Kristina Hook is Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Nov 21, 2023

Wartime Ukraine is making historic progress toward EU membership

By Mark Temnycky

The Ukrainian authorities have made clear they view EU membership as a strategic priority and are fully committed to pursuing this goal, even while defending themselves against Russia’s ongoing invasion, writes Mark Temnycky.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Oct 24, 2023

Battle of Avdiivka: Putin’s new offensive continues despite heavy Russian losses

By Olivia Yanchik

Russia has returned to the offensive in Ukraine in recent weeks with a major assault on the town of Avdiivka. The Russian offensive continues despite reports of catastrophic losses, underlining Putin’s determination to secure victory at any price in Ukraine, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Nov 14, 2023

Why Ukraine refuses to negotiate with “habitual liar” Vladimir Putin

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has dismissed mounting calls for a negotiated peace deal with Russia, arguing that Vladimir Putin is a “habitual liar” who cannot be trusted to keep his word, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Disinformation

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Many Ukrainians see Putin’s invasion as a continuation of Stalin’s genocide appeared first on Atlantic Council.

In an apparent bid to provide an ideological basis for this enforced pivot away from the West, Vladimir Putin has sought to promote Russia as the leader of a global anti-colonial movement. This cynical move echoes earlier Soviet propaganda positioning the USSR as an enemy of Western imperialism. Crucially, it also whitewashes Russia’s long history of colonial expansion while conveniently ignoring the openly imperialistic war being waged by the Putin regime in Ukraine.

Putin first championed Russia’s anti-colonial credentials during a September 2022 ceremony marking the “annexation” of four partially occupied Ukrainian provinces. At one point in his address, the Russian leader spoke specifically of ending US hegemony through an “anti-colonial movement” to be led by Moscow.

He has continued to promote this anti-colonial narrative ever since. At a September 2023 forum in Vladivostok, Putin stated that Russia had “never been a colonizer anywhere.” One month later, he told an international audience at the annual Valdai Discussion Club that “the era of colonial rule” was long over, before accusing the West of robbing the entire planet. “The history of the West is essentially a chronicle of endless expansion,” Putin declared without a hint of irony, despite ruling over what is by far the world’s largest country thanks to centuries of relentless imperial expansion.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Anybody with a basic knowledge of Russian history will recognize the absurdity of Putin’s efforts to portray his country as an ideological opponent of imperialism. Modern Russia includes vast territories conquered from the fifteenth century onward. During the Tsarist era, imperial Russia swallowed up numerous non-Russian nations and incorporated much of the northern Eurasian landmass, eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean.

Expansion into Siberia and the Caucasus provided generations of Russian rulers with access to valuable resources including oil, gas, gold, diamonds, timber, and much more. These natural treasures have been a primary source of Russia’s wealth for hundreds of years, representing a textbook example of colonial exploitation.

While the Russian imperial elite has enriched itself, the non-Russian peoples of the empire have received very little in exchange for the plunder of their natural resources. Indeed, these non-Russian regions remain among the poorest and most deprived areas of today’s Russian Federation. Putin has exploited this marginalization, recruiting disproportionately large numbers of soldiers from these regions for his invasion of Ukraine.

The hypocrisy of Putin’s anti-colonial posturing is most immediately apparent in relation to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. He has publicly compared the invasion of Ukraine to Russian Tsar Peter the Great’s eighteenth century wars of imperial conquest, and appears unperturbed by the obvious contradictions between this openly imperialistic behavior and his professed opposition to “Western colonialism.” In Putin’s dystopian world, of course, Russia is fighting to liberate Ukrainians from the nefarious influence of the West.

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Putin’s brand of anti-colonialism echoes Soviet narratives that first emerged in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution before evolving further during the Cold War. Soviet anti-colonial propaganda initially focused on criticism of Tsarist imperialism and support for the oppressed nations of the old Russian Empire. However, this changed once Stalin assumed power in the late 1920s. During the following decades, the Stalinist regime rehabilitated the imperial nationalism of the Tsarist era. Soviet textbooks even asserted that non-Russians had voluntarily chosen to join the Russian Empire.

The advent of the Cold War led to a major surge in Soviet anti-colonial propaganda, with the Communist authorities actively backing the liberation movements which swept Africa and Asia in the decades following World War II. Throughout the past year, Putin has repeatedly sought to highlight this history of Soviet support for countries seeking to shake off Western colonial rule, particularly when addressing African leaders.

Putin’s anti-colonial aspirations also reflect modern Russia’s failure to undertake a critical introspection of Tsarist and Soviet imperialism. During the three decades since the fall of the USSR, there has been almost no effort to examine the Kremlin’s colonial policies toward the many non-Russian peoples subjected to centuries of imperial rule. Instead, Russia’s state archives have largely remained closed, while Moscow has refused to embrace the kind of decolonization policies witnessed in independent Ukraine, the Baltic states, and some other former Soviet republics.

Since Putin came to power at the turn of the millennium, Russia has rehabilitated the ideology of imperialism while glorifying the Tsarist and Soviet empires, with a steady stream of films, TV serials, literature, and school textbooks celebrating and reinforcing Russia’s imperial identity. Meanwhile, crimes against the non-Russian peoples of the empire, such as the genocidal Holodomor famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s, have been whitewashed or erased entirely from official histories.

Surprisingly, the reluctance of modern Russia to confront the country’s imperial past has been mirrored by many Western academics and commentators, who have continued to overlook the issue of Russian colonialism despite the troubling imperialistic instincts of the Putin regime. Western histories of Russia still often follow the template established by the Kremlin and include references to “one thousand years of Russian history,” without acknowledging Ukraine’s own rival claim to the legacy of the medieval Kyivan Rus state.

Putin’s bid to position Russia as the world’s leading anti-colonial power is more than just geopolitical opportunism brought on by the necessity of frayed relations with the West. It is the culmination of decades of Tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet indoctrination that has excused Russian colonialism towards Ukrainians and other non-Russian peoples, while conflating Russia’s own anti-Western xenophobia with broader opposition to the dominant role of the West in global affairs.

The countries of the Global South may have many good reasons for pursuing closer ties with Putin’s Russia, but a shared opposition to imperialism is most certainly not one of them. On the contrary, if anti-imperial sentiment in the Global South has any impact on attitudes toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it should logically fuel support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian imperialism.

Taras Kuzio is a professor of political science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and an associate research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. He is the winner of the 2022 Peterson Literary Prize for the book “Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War: Autocracy-Orthodoxy-Nationality.”

Further reading

UkraineAlert Nov 14, 2023

Why Ukraine refuses to negotiate with “habitual liar” Vladimir Putin

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has dismissed mounting calls for a negotiated peace deal with Russia, arguing that Vladimir Putin is a “habitual liar” who cannot be trusted to keep his word, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Nov 13, 2023

Ukraine braces for another winter of Russian attacks on power grid

By Aura Sabadus

While the Ukrainian authorities have had over half a year to prepare for a new wave of Russian air strikes, the country’s civilian energy infrastructure remains vulnerable, writes Aura Sabadus.

Conflict Drones

UkraineAlert Oct 24, 2023

Battle of Avdiivka: Putin’s new offensive continues despite heavy Russian losses

By Olivia Yanchik

Russia has returned to the offensive in Ukraine in recent weeks with a major assault on the town of Avdiivka. The Russian offensive continues despite reports of catastrophic losses, underlining Putin’s determination to secure victory at any price in Ukraine, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict Defense Policy

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Vladimir Putin’s anti-colonial posturing should not fool the Global South appeared first on Atlantic Council.

A small wave of protests did briefly erupt in the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion, but within a few weeks the streets of Russia’s towns and cities were once again empty. Some Russians protested by leaving the country, but the biggest exodus was into silence. Apart from a few notable exceptions, those who opposed the invasion clearly felt unable to make a difference.

While any attempts to gauge public opinion in authoritarian regimes such as Putin’s Russia should be treated with a high degree of skepticism, the available data indicates that many Russians do indeed back the invasion. Russia’s only internationally respected independent pollster, the Levada Center, has identified overwhelming support in its monthly surveys, with more than 70% of respondents consistently voicing their approval of the so-called “Special Military Operation.” Anecdotal evidence, including the pro-war opinions expressed by large numbers of Russians in private conversations with their Ukrainian relatives since the beginning of the war, has further strengthened perceptions of widespread Russian public support.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

In the West, it has become common to explain this pro-war sentiment by arguing that Russians have been brainwashed by the Kremlin-controlled state media. Some commentators also mention widespread Russian apathy and disengagement from politics. However, these explanations risk infantilizing Russian society and stereotyping Russians as passive conformists with no agency of their own.

Most Western observers struggle to perceive Russian support for the war as a conscious choice because they are unable to accept that supporting a genocidal war could ever be seen as rational. Nevertheless, studies of past wars of aggression and authoritarianism tell us that the protagonists of evil typically regard their actions as both reasonable and justifiable. In Russia’s case, it is the country’s imperial past and the imperial intimacy of the Russian relationship with Ukraine that serve to justify the current war.

This imperial intimacy reflects deeply rooted historical ideas of kinship and fraternity that have encouraged generations of Russians to view Ukrainians as part of their nation. It is a hierarchical intimacy, with Ukrainians cast in the role of “little brothers” in need of protection and tutelage. This encompasses the necessity of “disciplining” Ukrainians for their own good. Such thinking is a central pillar of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “Russian World” ideology.

Putin’s notorious July 2021 essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” was a manifesto of imperial intimacy that openly questioned Ukraine’s right to statehood while denying the existence of a separate Ukrainian nation. Instead, Putin argued, Ukrainians were really Russians (“one people”). On the eve of the full-scale invasion, he declared that Ukraine was “an inalienable part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space.”

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Officially, the Kremlin has sought to justify the war by pointing to decades of post-Cold War NATO expansion while portraying Ukraine as a far-right threat to Russia itself. However, when addressing domestic audiences, Putin has often been more open about his imperial agenda. Speaking in summer 2022, he compared the current invasion to the eighteenth century imperial conquests of Russian Czar Peter the Great and claimed it was now his turn to “return” Russian lands. A few months later, Putin oversaw a lavish Kremlin ceremony marking the “annexation” of four Ukrainian provinces. Amid the unmistakable trappings of empire, he declared that these partially occupied Ukrainian regions had returned to Russia “forever.”

Such imperial posturing in relation to Ukraine resonates widely with the Russian public. Many Russians see today’s war as an historic mission to overcome the injustice of the Soviet collapse and reunite their country with Ukraine following decades of “artificial separation.” The imperial intimacy underpinning their attitudes toward Ukraine allows them to overlook the obvious opposition of the Ukrainian people to this reunion.

Over the past twenty months of full-scale warfare, denial of Ukrainian statehood and talk of imperial revival have become prominent features of Russia’s heavily censored and carefully choreographed information space. Ukrainians are routinely dehumanized and Ukraine itself is dismissed as an intolerable “anti-Russia.” Meanwhile, pundits on Russian state TV regularly discuss the need to exile or annihilate large numbers of Ukrainians. This genocidal rhetoric is typically framed as the inevitable price of achieving historical justice and saving Ukrainians from themselves.

While it is convenient to blame today’s war on Vladimir Putin and view it as the product of one man’s criminal fantasies, the problem of Russian imperialism is far bigger than Putin alone. Many millions of ordinary Russians support the war because they continue to view Ukraine through the distorting prism of imperial intimacy.

The situation is unlikely to change until a majority of Russians recognize that true patriotism means acknowledging past injustices bestowed by empire on Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Lithuanians, Chechens, and many others. This would open the way for the emergence of a new Russia with the potential to live in peace with its neighbors while finally realizing its vast potential. Unless this change occurs, Russian imperialism will remain a major destabilizing factor in global security.

Neringa Klumbytė is director of the Lithuania Program at Miami University’s Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 3, 2023

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

By Borys Gudziak

Russia’s Unholy War: Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has provided the ideological justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian efforts to eliminate Ukrainian national identity.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Oct 4, 2023

Putin’s fleet retreats: Ukraine is winning the Battle of the Black Sea

By Peter Dickinson

Putin was already struggling to account for his army’s evident inability to conquer a nation that he insists does not exist. He must now also explain how his once vaunted Black Sea Fleet is being defeated by a country without a navy, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Technologies

UkraineAlert Sep 14, 2023

It is still far too early to write off Ukraine’s counteroffensive

By Dennis Soltys

The slow pace of Ukraine’s much hyped counteroffensive is sparking fresh calls for a negotiated peace, but the Ukrainian military may yet achieve its goals as long as international support continues, writes Dennis Soltys.

Conflict Disinformation

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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On October 5, the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Litigation Project, together with the Global Justice Center, issued a joint letter and legal brief urging the international community to codify the crime of gender apartheid in the UN’s crimes against humanity treaty. The letter and legal brief were endorsed by dozens of prominent jurists, scholars, and civil society representatives. This includes Afghan women’s rights defender Shaharzad Akbar and Nobel laureates Shirin Ebadi, Malala Yousafzai, and Nadia Murad. It also includes South African jurists Justice Richard Goldstone and Navi Pillay, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Irish President Mary Robinson, former International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, and renowned global feminist Gloria Steinem. Former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth, former Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, and Baroness Helena Kennedy endorsed the letter and legal brief as well. 

The prominence and diversity of this group speak to the high stakes of this issue. Some people might be encountering this term for the first time, however, so it is worth exploring the crime of gender apartheid in greater detail.

1. What is gender apartheid?

Gender apartheid occurs when perpetrators seek to maintain a form of governance designed to systematically oppress and dominate another gender group or groups so that the dominant group may live alongside them and benefit from their subjugation. 

In Afghanistan, gender apartheid is seen in the Taliban banning women and girls from education and almost all employment, and from traveling long distances without a male guardian, all while having to abide by a severe dress code. Women in Afghanistan are banned from almost all public spaces including public parks, gyms, and most recently beauty salons.

In Iran, gender apartheid is seen in the Islamic Republic not allowing a woman the right to divorce her husband or to gain custody of her children, and in banning women from obtaining a passport and traveling outside the country without the permission of a male guardian. Women in Iran are banned from many fields of study and are not permitted into sports stadiums. Their lives and their testimony are worth half a man’s under the law, and they are forced to wear compulsory hijab.

Gender apartheid in these countries is seen in a series of policies and daily abuses that bar women and girls from engaging in public life and having hopes of any financial autonomy. It is in all these measures designed and enacted by the Taliban and the Islamic Republic as a system of governance that aims to compress and relegate Afghan and Iranian women and girls into narrow roles: as child-bearers, child-rearers, and sources of unremunerated domestic labor.

Although it has not yet been codified as a crime under international law, gender apartheid has long been recognized as a concept. It dates back at least to the Taliban’s first takeover of Afghanistan in 1996. In our letter to UN member states, we’ve defined the crime of gender apartheid as the commission of inhuman acts with the intent to maintain an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination of one gender group over another. This amends the existing definition of the crime of race-based apartheid under the Rome Statute—the animating document of the International Criminal Court—to encompass the same act and mental element, but with regard to domination of gender groups rather than racial groups.

2. Why should gender apartheid be recognized under international law?

The addition of the crime of gender apartheid under international law will give victims and survivors a clear legal avenue to hold perpetrators—whether state or individual—to account for the totality of crimes being perpetrated against them. The situations of women and girls living under the Taliban and Islamic Republic of Iran, for example, demonstrate just what’s at stake. As these regimes continue to tighten their grip, aiming to entrench a system of governance that eviscerates any semblance of women and girls’ autonomy and agency, every available option is needed to prevent and punish the full scale of their conduct. Codifying gender apartheid would equip the international community with a new and powerful tool for accountability to mobilize against these deteriorating situations.

3. Who supports the codification of gender apartheid? 

On March 8, 2023 a group of prominent Afghan and Iranian human rights defenders, international jurists, and civil society leaders launched the End Gender Apartheid Campaign, which calls for the global recognition of the crime of gender apartheid. Their demands were powered by the deteriorating situation for women and girls in Afghanistan with each successive Taliban decree and the rise of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran capturing global attention in support of women’s rights in these countries. 

The campaign builds upon a long history of work on this issue. For decades, international officials, lawyers, scholars, and activists have increasingly recognized the commission of gender apartheid and sought to codify it. Over the last year, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other UN experts specifically recognized the deteriorating situation for women and girls in Afghanistan as gender apartheid. UN experts have also come together to caution against laws in Iran that are a form of gender apartheid. Just last month, UN Women’s Executive Director Sima Bahous called on the international community to explicitly codify gender apartheid under international law.

4. What can the international community do to recognize gender apartheid?

The United Nations has a unique opportunity to codify gender apartheid as a crime under international criminal law because the draft crimes against humanity treaty—the first major global treaty on core international crimes since the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court—is moving forward. However, the International Law Commission’s draft articles, the starting point for the treaty, replicate the twenty-five-year-old definition of apartheid from the Rome Statute, which focuses on race-based apartheid only. The Rome Statute’s focus is not surprising given the recent memories of apartheid-era South Africa when it was written, but the definition of apartheid can and should be expanded today.

The letter we issued to UN member states—endorsed by dozens of leading jurists and rights defenders, including those who worked to dismantle the apartheid regime in South Africa—urges states to amend the draft definition of the crime of apartheid to encompass gender-based apartheid, too. UN member states will have an opportunity to debate next steps for the draft treaty on October 11-12 during the ongoing UN Sixth Committee session. They can then submit written comments by the end of this year and debate the draft treaty provisions in substance in April 2024.

5. How is gender apartheid distinct from the international crime of gender persecution?

The crime of apartheid is different from what is on the books now because of its distinguishing intent and animating context. This means gender apartheid requires the commission of an inhuman act of requisite character with the intent to maintain an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination. The crime of gender persecution requires neither such context nor intent. Rather, it concerns itself with the “severe deprivation of fundamental rights” where the victim or victims have been targeted “by reason of the identity of a group or collectivity or targeted the group or collectivity as such.” 

The intent to maintain an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination of one group over others is markedly different in scope and dystopian ambition from the crime of persecution, as serious and significant as the latter is. This is already recognized, without controversy, given that the current definition of race-based apartheid sits neatly alongside the crime of persecution on the ground of race in the Rome Statute’s 1998 codification of international crimes. To the extent that the two crimes involve overlapping facts, it is also well-settled under international law that courts can charge perpetrators with cumulative crimes in order to capture the full extent of criminal conduct.

6. How would prosecution work?

Accountability against governmental actors in Afghanistan and Iran has been tough. The proposed codification would open new avenues to hold perpetrators—both state and individual—to account.

If the crimes against humanity treaty is adopted and the crime of gender apartheid is included, countries that are party to the treaty would be obligated to criminalize gender apartheid and take other measures to prevent and punish crimes against humanity under their domestic laws. This could potentially open the pathway to prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which essentially means that some crimes are so heinous that they can be prosecuted in courts anywhere, even if the perpetrator is from a different country, the victims are from a different country, or the acts occurred in a different country. 

Iranian officials responsible for the architecture of gender apartheid do travel outside of Iran and into countries with universal jurisdiction laws—so this could expand options for prosecution of officials, much in the same way a former Iranian official was convicted by a Swedish district court in July 2022 for the executions of thousands of political prisoners in Iran’s jails. With respect to the Taliban, similar approaches may apply. 

Codification of the crime of gender apartheid in the crimes against humanity treaty would also affirm the obligations of states and international organizations to prevent and punish gender apartheid, even if they’re not direct parties to the treaty. In this way, the hope is that codification will mobilize diplomatic, legal, and social movements of resistance, including in the contexts of Afghanistan and Iran, and also in similar crisis situations now and in the future.

Gissou Nia is the founder and director of the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council and advisor to the End Gender Apartheid Campaign.

The post Gender apartheid is a horror. Now the United Nations can make it a crime against humanity.  appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Since it was launched in 2020, the Ukrainian government’s Diia ecosystem has been at the heart of the country’s digital infrastructure. The core Diia app now has more than 19 million users, and is updated with new services on an almost weekly basis in order to keep pace with rapidly evolving wartime demands. In May 2023, an updated and upgraded version of the Diia.Education digital platform was unveiled that aims to address the considerable vocational training and recruitment challenges created by the war.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

The Diia.Digital educational platform was originally launched in 2020 as a portal offering free edutainment content to help close the digital gap in Ukrainian society and enable individual Ukrainians to develop the skills they need in order to thrive in an increasingly digital environment. The platform proved popular, attracting 1.5 million users during the first year. However, the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022 made it necessary to rethink the focus of the initiative.

The Russian invasion has caused some of the most dramatic social disruption witnessed in Europe since World War II, with millions of Ukrainians becoming refugees or internally displaced persons during the first few weeks of hostilities alone. Many have also lost their homes and jobs. According to the United Nations, nearly 60% of Ukrainian IDPs are of working age, but finding a job in unfamiliar regions can often be a daunting task. One possible solution to this problem is retraining and acquiring the digital skills that employers are looking for.

While the wartime job market in Ukraine has been marked by high levels of disruption, it is also possible to identify evidence of global recruitment trends toward digitalization. Even in the wartime climate, there are rising numbers of tech-related entry-level vacancies for positions such as data analyst, digital marketeer, video editor, and chat specialist. Training for these kinds of vacancies was an obvious focus for the Diia.Education upgrade.

Eurasia Center events

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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There have been growing indications in 2023 that the Ukrainian economy is regaining some of its earlier buoyancy. Despite the physical and psychological horrors of the ongoing Russian invasion, Ukrainians continue to open new businesses. In the first half of 2023, more than 130,000 Ukrainians registered as private entrepreneurs. The monthly registration figure for June was the highest in three years.

This rapidly evolving employment landscape is creating a critical need for effective training strategies to help Ukrainians remain competitive. The updated and upgraded version of Diia.Education is supported by Google and the East Europe Foundation. It offers a unique range of functions that allow users to create personalized learning trajectories and tailored educational courses focusing on their specific interests and objectives.

Users can also take career-oriented tests along with standardized national digital literacy tests. There are more than 50 different job-specific educational series to choose from, covering jobs ranging from SMM specialist to baker. Additional training tools focus on digital literacy, entrepreneurship, creativity, and more. Crucially, the upgraded platform now also features a job search function.

The Russian invasion has had devastating consequences for almost every aspect of Ukrainian daily life, but Ukrainians have refused to be beaten. Instead, there has been a determination throughout society to keep going at all costs. The challenge now in terms of employment is to provide displaced Ukrainians in particular with the necessary tools to get back on their feet and contribute to the country’s recovery. This requires a balanced approach that recognizes the immediate needs of the wartime job market while also keeping in mind the changes taking place in the global economy and the skills that will be in demand in the years to come.

Ukraine was experiencing rapid digitalization for a number of years before Russia’s full-scale invasion. The past eighteen months of wartime upheaval have accelerated existing digital adoption processes and significantly strengthened the various tech segments of the Ukrainian economy. Looking ahead, it will be vital to make sure there are enough Ukrainians with the requisite skills to fill vacancies in the expanding tech sector. Providing easily accessible educational tools is a step in the right direction.

Valeriya Ionan is Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 3, 2023

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

By Borys Gudziak

Russia’s Unholy War: Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has provided the ideological justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian efforts to eliminate Ukrainian national identity.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Jul 31, 2023

Zelenskyy advisor: Defeat in Ukraine will spark collapse of Putin regime

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak says the Wagner mutiny has exposed Russia’s internal weakness and predicts battlefield defeats in Ukraine will spark the collapse of the Putin regime, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Aug 15, 2023

Ukraine strikes back against Russia as world’s first drone war escalates

By Marcel Plichta

Recent drone attacks in Moscow and on Russian shipping in the Black Sea are an indication that Ukraine is becoming increasingly bold as it seeks to strike back in what is the world’s first ever drone war, writes Marcel Plichta.

Conflict Defense Technologies

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Ukraine upgrades digital education efforts appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The recent publication of a new history textbook for Russian schoolchildren highlights the continued dominance of unapologetically imperialistic thinking within the Russian establishment. “This isn’t a historical textbook, but a narrative of excuses for Russian and Soviet crimes, as well as an exhortation to young readers to accept these crimes, past and present, as their own,” commented Jade McGlynn, the British author of a new study of Russian memory politics.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

The launch of this new textbook is worthy of particular attention. As an officially sanctioned guide to Russian history that is clearly designed to shape the world view of young Russians, it highlights many of the key messages at the heart of modern Russian imperialism and lays bare the Kremlin’s efforts to weaponize history in order to justify its own wars of aggression.

Unsurprisingly, the textbook glorifies centuries of Russian imperial expansion and whitewashes the crimes of the Soviet era, while dehumanizing Ukrainians as Nazis and portraying the West as implacably hostile to Russia. It defends the Russian invasion of Ukraine and places Putin alongside other leading Russian imperialists such as Peter the Great and Stalin as a “gatherer of Russian lands.” Meanwhile, setbacks such as the collapse of the USSR and the loss of Russian influence in the post-Soviet space are portrayed as part of a long-term Western anti-Russian conspiracy.

One of the key threads running through the new textbook is the notion of Russian victimhood. Russia is consistently portrayed as a victim of Western intrigues and is never the aggressor. Needless to say, there is no thought for the entire nations subjugated or destroyed by Russian imperial aggression. In this highly distorted and hopelessly partisan reading of history, the largest nation on the planet is also the world’s biggest victim.

Eurasia Center events

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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The messianic view of Russian history outlined in this newly published textbook is part of a long tradition of Russian exceptionalism dating back to Czarist times that portrays Russia as a nation on a sacred civilizing mission. With Russia depicted as an unquestionably positive force for good in the world, the use of force in pursuit of this role becomes easily justified. Such twisted logic remains prevalent today and helps to explain the popularity of otherwise absurd arguments framing the invasion of Ukraine as an attempt to rescue Ukrainians from themselves.

This embrace of exceptionalism encourages Russians to romanticize the violence that has defined much of their country’s history. It also reinforces a sense of continuity linking the Czarist and Soviet past with the Putinist present. For millions of Russians, post-Soviet military campaigns including the frozen conflict in Moldova, two Chechen wars, the invasion of Georgia, the seizure of Crimea, and the intervention in Syria are all part of a expansionist tradition stretching back centuries.

Putin himself has spoken of the USSR as “historical Russia under the name of the Soviet Union.” He has directly compared his Ukraine invasion with the imperial conquests of Peter the Great, and has made clear that the goal of today’s war is to reclaim “historically Russian lands.” No doubt Putin’s Czarist predecessors would find these imperial ambitions immediately recognizable.

In line with Putin’s claims to be restoring historical justice in Ukraine, the new textbook rejects the idea of Russia as a colonial power and instead speaks of “reuniting” territories or liberating neighboring nations from oppression. Meanwhile, those who have dared to condemn or fight against Russian expansionism are depicted as agents of the West or nationalist extremists. The incorporation of new territories by Russia is portrayed as beneficial for the people being incorporated, regardless of whether they themselves agree.

The recent publication of Russia’s new history textbook is a comparatively minor event at a time when the Kremlin is waging a genocidal war of imperial conquest in the heart of Europe. Nevertheless, it should serve as a wake-up call for anyone still laboring under the delusion that Putin is a rational leader pursuing limited geopolitical objectives. On the contrary, he presides over a regime and a society that openly embraces a brand of imperialism which most Europeans assumed had been consigned to the ash heap of history generations ago.

This imperialistic mindset represents perhaps the greatest single obstacle to a sustainable peace in Europe. Even if the invasion of Ukraine ends in military failure, the underlying problem of Russian imperialism will remain until Russians are forced to confront their country’s long history of imperial aggression. This will likely be a painful process, but it is unavoidable if Russia is to eventually emerge as a modern state and reintegrate into the wider community of nations.

Taras Kuzio is a professor of political science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and author of the recently published “Fascism and Genocide. Russia’s War Against Ukrainians.”

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 3, 2023

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

By Borys Gudziak

Russia’s Unholy War: Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has provided the ideological justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian efforts to eliminate Ukrainian national identity.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Jul 31, 2023

Zelenskyy advisor: Defeat in Ukraine will spark collapse of Putin regime

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak says the Wagner mutiny has exposed Russia’s internal weakness and predicts battlefield defeats in Ukraine will spark the collapse of the Putin regime, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Aug 17, 2023

Putin must not be allowed to turn the Black Sea into a Russian lake

By Melinda Haring

Western countries must take urgent action to prevent Vladimir Putin from turning the Black Sea into a Russian lake, warns Melinda Haring.

Conflict European Union

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Putin weaponizes history with new textbook justifying Ukraine invasion appeared first on Atlantic Council.

For the majority of Afghanistan’s new generation—those who worked, fought, and aspired for a free, democratic, and prosperous country—it has been a harrowing two years. It has been two long years of processing grief and overcoming the anguish of abandonment and collapse, but also two years of engaging in self-reflection, reorganization, and resistance.

The country is in a deep crisis; the status quo is not sustainable. The challenges ahead are enormous and multidimensional, but all is not lost. Afghanistan’s most precious asset, developed over the past two decades, is its professional and well-connected youth. More than 60 percent of Afghanistan’s population is under the age of twenty-five. The burden of resolving this crisis by spotting and exploiting opportunities amid this calamity falls on this generation. They are slowly but surely rising to the task.

The challenges ahead are indeed colossal. Afghanistan faces a deeply divided society, a demoralized elite, a broken economy, an exhausted civil society, and an extremist ethnoreligious group in control of the country. The Taliban reneged on the promises they made during the Doha negotiation process to form an inclusive government and provide women and girls with access to education. Instating exclusively male and essentially Pashtun mullahs, they failed to gain domestic and international legitimacy. They continue to impose draconian and regressive laws, which are pushing the country into a downward spiral in every socioeconomic, human-rights, and fundamental-freedoms index. After systematically erasing women and girls from public life, the Taliban administration is on the brink of being designated as a gender apartheid regime by United Nations–appointed rights experts. Its symbiotic relations with foreign terrorist groups, drug production and trafficking, and systematic promotion of violent extremist ideology pose imminent threats to the immediate region and beyond.

The international community, weary and incoherent in its approach to the crises, has retreated to the background, only to engage in narrow humanitarian diplomacy. With each new edict from the Taliban’s reclusive leader, the bar on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms lowers further. International demands for an inclusive and representative government are confined to written reports. International leaders have dropped democratization from their talking points on the Taliban regime altogether.

Yet members of Afghanistan’s new generation—inside the country and in exile—have not given up, neither on their country nor on their hope and aspiration for the creation of a free, rights-based, and prosperous state that can serve as a home to all its citizens. Only two days after the Taliban’s military takeover, women and girls took to the streets of Kabul and other major cities to demand their fundamental rights. The call by women for “food, work, and freedom” ignited the first sparks of a civil resistance movement in the cities. Similarly, despite the chaotic disintegration of Afghanistan’s national security forces, some soldiers and officers have laid the foundations of a national resistance front in the rural mountains of Afghanistan. Afghan diaspora communities have organized protests and launched advocacy campaigns for the restoration of rights and dignity around the world.

The most excruciating challenge of all is the spread of a self-deprecating narrative among certain circles outside Afghanistan that there is no alternative to the Taliban government and that it is the “reality” that Afghans have to live with. This narrative is wrong and lazy. The Taliban are not and never were an acceptable alternative to a democratic state in a pluralistic society such as Afghanistan. While they are a part of the country’s “reality,” this does not mean that the people of Afghanistan shouldn’t rise above and aspire for better. Hence Afghans’ struggle for a better Afghanistan entails standing against the brutality of a formidable foe but also enduring the selective amnesia of retreating friends.

More serious than often-cited tribal or regional rifts—Durrani versus Ghilzai or east versus south—are the inherent internal contradictions in the Taliban attitude toward contemporary governance, education, economics, and foreign affairs. The concept of equality of treatment and opportunities for citizens and long-term peaceful coexistence with the outside world, the two prerequisites of enduring stability in Afghanistan, are not ingrained in the movement’s DNA. Their dogmatic, anti-Enlightenment, and misogynist ideas and practices are not only a nuisance for the developed world, but also a threat to the new wave of modernization in Muslim-majority nations. 

History has shown that dogmatic regimes defy the normative principle of diplomatic engagement. Concessions don’t lead to counter-concessions but to the strengthening of power. The Taliban’s behavior during the peace talks and after their assumption of power vindicates this argument. They are running in the opposite direction of the caravan of human progress. International engagement should prioritize containment and damage control rather than offering more concessions. 

The international community’s nonrecognition of the Taliban regime has created an enabling environment for Afghanistan’s civil and political forces to coalesce around common values and principles and demand the restoration of human rights, fundamental freedoms, and an inclusive and representative government. International civil society, parliamentarians, academic institutions, women’s rights groups, associations of veterans, and friends of Afghanistan are actively supporting these endeavors. Taking note of the Taliban’s intransigence and regressive policies, their failure to gain international legitimacy, and the emergence of a civil resistance movement, many Afghans inside the country have not settled with the Taliban and do not perceive them as a legitimate and permanent government.

A realistic assessment of the above challenges points to opportunities to positively engage all relevant stakeholders. Afghanistan’s professional and emerging political forces, journalists, and academics are rapidly establishing themselves as units of a mass resistance and reform movement. It is these Afghans, particularly among the youth, who must unite to save the country.

Nasir Andisha is the ambassador and permanent representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations in Geneva. He is a former vice president of the Human Rights Council (2020) and deputy foreign minister of Afghanistan (2015-2019).

The post Afghanistan’s next generation must rise above the Taliban’s ‘reality’ appeared first on Atlantic Council.

AlDhabi is the youngest Emirati entrepreneur and youngest publisher. She also holds a Guinness World Record for being the youngest person to publish a bilingual book. Our MENASource editor, Holly Dagres, talked to her on August 9 to discuss her remarkable entrepreneurial journey and explore her achievements.

MENASOURCE: How old were you when you started reading?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: So, to be honest, my mom started to read me books when I was still in her tummy. When I was about six to seven months, I started to sound out the words and read along with the story. My mom used to say, maybe a sentence like, “A rabbit went for a walk,” and I would sound out the letters. When I was two or three years old, I started to read by myself.

One of the best things is that every time I open a book, I always know there’s a meaning, and that’s why I enjoy books so much because they have a message. So, I feel that books are really interesting, to be honest. And they’re also really fun since there are nonfiction and fiction books.

MENASOURCE: You reportedly read 1,200 books by the time you were six. What were some of your favorites?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: Well, to be honest, when I was six years old I had read 1,200 books, and when I was, I think, seven to eight years old, I had read about 3,000 books and above.

Some of my favorites were Mary Poppins, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Alice in Wonderland, The Gruffalo, Goodnight Moon, and DK Children’s Encyclopedia.

MENASOURCE: Tell us about your online platform Rainbow Chimney. What inspired you?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: Rainbow Chimney didn’t start as a business. Whenever I went to my grandma’s house, I would do activities. And every time I went there, my cousins were on their electronics. They take them wherever they go, whenever they want to. “Why,” I used to ask my mother. I would say, “Mom, why don’t they play with me? Why are they on their electronics so much?” She told me that they like to use electronics more than having fun, which is kind of weird because, as children, we love to play. And when I say we love, we love to play.

So, when I went home, I thought to myself, “What could I do to fix this?” I took a box, filled it up with activities, books, some crafts, art, and these kinds of things. And when I put books, I didn’t put a little. I put a lot. I closed the box and colored it with lines, stripes, and on top of it, I wrote Rainbow Chimney, which is now my business’s name. So, you might be thinking, “What did you do next?”

When I took [Rainbow Chimney] to my grandmother’s house the next time I visited, I put it on the floor. My cousins all started to look at the box, but they were still on their electronics. So, I told them about the box, and they were curious. They asked, “Is it a puppy? What’s inside the box? We want to see what’s inside the box.” And I said, “If you want to open the box, you need to put all the electronics aside, including my whole family.” My grandmother even put it away. My grandfather put it away. They all put it away. So, we opened the box together. They took a book, toy, or activity. And, when I got home, I asked my mother, “Can we have a business?” So, she agreed and we established Rainbow Chimney to make educational aids, and now my business has a bookshop. It also has special books for people with autism and those who are blind.

MENASOURCE: What inspired you to write your bilingual book, which was recorded in the Guinness World Records?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: When I was six years old, I thought to myself, “If I have a bookshop, why don’t I have a publishing house?” So, I published a bilingual book. It’s called I Had an Idea. It’s actually my first book. It’s both in English and Arabic so that everybody in the world can understand it.

Then, I thought to myself again, “What if my book became a Guinness World Record?” So, we applied for the Guinness World Records, and I got the Guinness World Record for the youngest female author to publish a bilingual book. So, that was only for my first book. Then, my second book, which is called Here Was the Beginning, got a world record again for the youngest author to write a bilingual book series.

MENASOURCE: How many books have you published right now?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: So far, two. We’re working on my third book. I have an initiative called Books from Children to Children, and this initiative is to encourage children from four to ten years old to write—either in Arabic or English. The objective is to raise a new generation of writers and to encourage children to think and become whatever they want to be in the future.

MENASOURCE: Have you considered what you’d like to be when you grow up?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: When I grow up, I want to encourage children to become whatever they want to be in the future. And not only that. But I also want to go to space and discover more things. But not only to be an astronaut but to be an astronaut and scientist at the same time.

I want to go to space because I want to learn. I have wanted to learn about space since I was three years old. I’ve loved space so much, and I still have lots of books about space. I even have a space encyclopedia.

When I go to space, I not only want to discover more things but [experience] everything I have learned. I want to show children through publishing that they can know more about space and also learn more facts. I also want them to feel the joy and happiness that I feel when I write books and how interesting it is. 

MENASOURCE: What do you like to do for fun when you’re not reading books?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: So, actually, I love to read books. I don’t think I would do anything else. But, like, of course, we need to move around. I like to draw, color, or even sometimes paint. And those things are actually really interesting to me because I love how if you’re stressed out, you can paint, and you calm down. Painting is soothing and relaxing. And you can just think of whatever you want at that time.

And, of course, I love to play with my brother and sister. Mostly I would like to play with my youngest brother. So, yeah, I really love to play with my siblings.

One of the things I love the most is going to school. It’s because I feel like school is my second home. It gives you the learning that you need. It’s always interesting. Maybe people sometimes think it’s boring. But that boringness, it becomes interesting, especially Math and English. I really enjoy them very much. Math challenges you and makes you think about something new—something you have never tried before. And, English, I really like to write a lot. Write what you need to, read what you need to write.

MENASOURCE: What has your experience been with the WIN fellowship so far?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: It’s been a great experience, and I’m truly honored to be part of this program. I’m really excited about the new connections I’ll gain and the new things that I’ll learn about businesses. I can be more knowledgeable about what I need to do to support my business, Rainbow Chimney. I’m really excited about the next thing that I’ll learn.

MENASOURCE: What is your message to other aspiring young entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: My message to them is that, no matter what, never give up. And to those children out there who don’t read books, maybe the cover’s nice, but the cover’s not the book. So, I really want them to believe in themselves. I want them to be confident. I want them to be brave, and I want them to be confident about what they’re seeing and about their knowledge and to care about their knowledge. And sometimes maybe they will want to read a few more books in their home.

MENASOURCE: As the youngest WIn fellow, what message do you have on International Youth Day?

ALDHABI ALMHERI: I would like to say there’s a key within you that unlocks a door, and this door is waiting to be opened by you. So, I hope to everybody who’s hearing me right now that they can inspire themselves and become whatever they want to be in the future—if they try hard.

Holly Dagres is editor of the Atlantic Council’s IranSource and MENASource blogs, and a nonresident senior fellow with the Middle East Programs. She also curates The Iranist newsletter. Follow her on Twitter: @hdagres.

The post AlDhabi AlMheiri: Meet the nine-year-old driving change in the UAE, one book at a time appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The attack on the Transfiguration Cathedral was seen as particularly shocking as the damaged building is the city’s largest church and sits in the heart of Odesa’s UNESCO-listed historic center. However, the incident was far from unprecedented. Days later, Russian forces shelled St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Kherson, which ranks as another of southern Ukraine’s most prominent Orthodox landmarks.

In late July, UNESCO officials confirmed they have now officially verified damage to 274 Ukrainian heritage sites since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion almost eighteen months ago. The list includes 117 religious sites, 27 museums, 98 buildings of historical or artistic interest, 19 monuments, and 12 libraries. Other available data suggests UNESCO’s figures may actually be conservative. In January 2023, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution’s Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab claimed to have already identified almost 1,600 cases of damage to heritage sites in Ukraine.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has consistently targeted pillars of Ukrainian art, history, and society. Numerous Ukrainian and international commentators claim these attacks on Ukrainian heritage sites are part of a deliberate Russian campaign to eliminate symbols of Ukrainian national identity.

These arguments are supported by Vladimir Putin’s own frequent denials of Ukraine’s historical legitimacy and his insistence that Ukrainians are in fact Russians (“one people”). Nor is Putin alone in questioning Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent nation. Over the past eighteen months, genocidal anti-Ukrainian narratives have become a routine daily feature of Russia’s heavily censored and carefully choreographed state TV.

The genocidal rhetoric coming out of Moscow provides critical context for the attacks on heritage sites currently taking place across Ukraine. According to the director of Ukraine’s Maidan Museum, Ihor Poshyvailo, Russia’s ongoing invasion is best understood as a “heritage war.” He argues that the invasion unleashed by Vladimir Putin should not be viewed as a traditional war over territory or as a military campaign with limited political goals, but instead as “a war against our historical memory. Against our identity. Against our culture. And, of course, against our future.”

This sentiment has been echoed by Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, a prominent figure in Ukrainian cultural circles and the current director of Kyiv’s popular Mystetskiy Arsenal visual arts museum. “This Russian war in Ukraine is very tightly connected to culture,” she commented in April 2023. “The basic assumption which lies beneath this assault is that Ukraine should not exist as a separate phenomenon with its own political agency. Any Ukrainian otherness from Russia should be erased. It is genocidal in its objectives and in its action, as we have already seen. Culture is at the very core of this war.”

Member of the European Parliament Sabine Verheyen, who chairs the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, is one of a number of international figures to level similar accusations against the Kremlin. “Russia is trying to destroy not only Ukrainian cultural heritage, but also national uniqueness, tradition, and ultimately, the Ukrainian right to exist,” she stated in late 2022.

Eurasia Center events

Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

Conflict Russia Security & Defense Ukraine

High-profile targets of Russian attacks have included the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum in Kyiv region, which housed a collection of paintings by revered Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, who famously inspired Picasso. The museum was destroyed by the Russian army during the very first days of the invasion in February 2022.

Russian forces have also targeted a range of national monuments crucial to securing historical and cultural memory, including the Drobitsky Yar Holocaust Memorial in eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, which was shelled in March 2022. The attack prompted Ukraine’s Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center to tweet: “Russia continues to attack not only the civilian population of Ukraine but also the places of remembrance.”

In late July 2023, a Russian airstrike hit a school in northern Ukraine’s Sumy region that houses a research center dedicated to the man-made Stalin era famine known as the Holodomor, which has been recognized by more than 30 countries as an act of genocide against Ukraine. Modern Russia continues to deny that the artificial famine was a deliberate attempt to target Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s literary treasures have also been frequently targeted. The Russian military has bombed libraries across the country, with dozens reportedly destroyed completely and more than 150 left severely damaged. One high-profile victim was the Rare Book Library at Kharkiv’s Karazin University, which housed more than 60,000 historic books and manuscripts.

Ukrainians have responded to the existential challenges of the Russian invasion by demonstrating remarkable resilience. This is as true in the cultural world as it is on the military and economic fronts. Nevertheless, greater international engagement is needed to provide the material and organizational backing necessary to protect and repair Ukraine’s heritage sites. Ultimately, the best way to safeguard Ukrainian culture and national identity is by providing the country with the arms it needs to defeat Russia. Until that happens, the steady destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage will continue.

Mercedes Sapuppo is a program assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Jul 13, 2023

After Wagner: Could the Russian army now turn against Putin?

By Mercedes Sapuppo

With dozens of senior Russian officers reportedly detained following the Wagner revolt and a senior commander dismissed this week for criticizing the conduct of the Ukraine invasion, could Putin face a mutiny within the Russian army?

Conflict Crisis Management

UkraineAlert Jul 31, 2023

Zelenskyy advisor: Defeat in Ukraine will spark collapse of Putin regime

By Peter Dickinson

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak says the Wagner mutiny has exposed Russia’s internal weakness and predicts battlefield defeats in Ukraine will spark the collapse of the Putin regime, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Aug 3, 2023

Russian Orthodox leader Patriarch Kirill’s unholy war against Ukraine

By Borys Gudziak

Russia’s Unholy War: Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill has provided the ideological justification for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russian efforts to eliminate Ukrainian national identity.

Civil Society Conflict

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Russia is targeting Ukrainian national identity with attacks on heritage sites appeared first on Atlantic Council.

While Russia’s invasion has generated unprecedented international interest in Ukrainian studies, it has also had a profound and overwhelmingly negative impact on the academic community in Ukraine itself. This must be taken into account. After all, the international development of Ukrainian studies depends largely on the state of academia in Ukraine. As Andriy Zayarnyuk wrote last year, “the center of Ukrainian studies is now in Ukraine.”

A recent report evaluating the current state of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar studies identified more than 160 study centers located mainly in North America and Europe. Ukrainian studies centers are mostly placed within Slavic studies departments, with courses tending to focus on Ukrainian culture, language, and literature rather than politics and economics.

Europe has the most centers primarily concentrated in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Poland. Notably, Ukrainian studies remains virtually nonexistent in some neighborhood countries such as Romania and Turkey. This absence became particularly evident following Russia’s full-scale invasion, with a recent survey of Ukrainian studies professionals identifying increased demand for expert commentary.

Even in countries with Ukrainian studies programs, the focus is often limited. Universities typically employ individual lecturers who offer courses on Ukrainian topics which can change from semester to semester. Factors leading to the closure of Ukrainian studies centers include lack of funding, lack of student interest, weak institutionalization, and reliance on the activities of individual researchers.

A more comprehensive approach to Ukrainian studies is clearly needed. This should include the establishment of Ukrainian professorships to make studies an integral part of the academic environment and less exposed to changes in political preferences.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Growing international interest in Ukraine as a result of Russia’s invasion has already boosted the field of Ukrainian studies. Universities have been able to bypass bureaucracy to host more people from Ukraine, with a diverse range of Ukrainian academics fleeing the war and arriving in the West over the past fifteen months. Among students, interest in Ukrainian studies has never been higher. The challenge is to ensure this does not become a mere passing fad.

To make Ukrainian studies more resilient in the long run, Ukrainian topics need to be integrated into existing classes on subjects such as Soviet or Russian imperial history, or even European studies, contemporary politics, and international relations. The goal should be to make Ukraine part of the conversation on different issues.

At the same time, much will depend on parallel progress in Ukraine. Key objectives include translating source materials, integrating Western academic practices, and improving English skills among the academic community.

Wartime realities in Ukraine have created new possibilities for Ukrainian academia but have also deepened many of the problems that existed before the invasion. Much of the country’s educational infrastructure has been destroyed, but the impact on human capital has been even more devastating. In short, Ukraine is currently losing many of its best people including significant numbers of irreplaceable academic professionals.

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Ukraine’s universities are currently in survival mode but reform is also on the agenda. Just one day before the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, the Ukrainian government adopted a new two-year development strategy for the country’s higher education system. The Ministry of Education has since announced that it will use this strategy as a road map for the reconstruction and continuation of reforms in the post-war period. However, the strategy was designed before the war and does not target the specific problems caused by Russia’s invasion.

Last month, Oksen Lisovyi was appointed as Ukraine’s new Minister of Education. It is not yet clear whether he intends to implement radical reform with long-term goals or keep the existing higher education system largely in place. While support for change is widespread, many within the academic community and education industry also appear to favor a more conservative approach.

Ukraine may not have the luxury of time for an extended debate. Funding for education has been severely cut as a result of the Russian invasion, with academics struggling to survive on inadequate salaries. This is forcing many to consider a career change. Others have left their university positions to serve in the army. It is not clear how many will return to academia, or whether they will have jobs to return to.

Students also find themselves confronted by harsh realities. With no end in sight to the Russian invasion, today’s Ukrainian high school graduates face a choice between an uncertain fate in their homeland or exploring the wide range of study options currently available at European and North American universities.

Ukraine’s universities have responded to the challenges of the invasion with ingenuity, utilizing tools developed during the Covid pandemic to switch to distance learning. However, uncertainty over the future looms large.

Some Ukrainian universities still maintain cooperation with Western institutions, but these relationships typically depend on prewar ties and offer one-sided academic mobility enabling Ukrainian scholars and students to study abroad. It would be good to see European and North American universities launch more nonresident fellowships for Ukrainians who are unwilling or unable to leave the country.

It may also be time to consider establishing new platforms and institutions for collaboration between Ukrainian scholars and their international colleagues. Ukraine can offer opportunities for Western academics focused on the Soviet and Russian empires who are no longer able to access Russian archives. Ukraine’s State Archive Service has been digitizing materials for some time and has introduced a united search system of Ukrainian archives.

The past year of war has sparked unprecedented interest in Ukrainian studies while creating both huge challenges and exciting opportunities. Ukrainian studies is now widely recognized as an important field that requires far more international attention. Looking ahead, the discussion must address both institutional and practical issues. The most important task at this stage is to prevent the further erosion of Ukraine’s academic potential and create the conditions for sustainable post-war development.

Oleksandra Gaidai is a Department of History postdoctoral fellow at American University.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Apr 8, 2023

Human wave tactics are demoralizing the Russian army in Ukraine

By Olivia Yanchik

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has not gone according to plan but he still hopes to win a long war of attrition. However, Russia’s reliance on human wave tactics risks undermining morale within his invading army, writes Olivia Yanchik.

Conflict Defense Policy

UkraineAlert Apr 6, 2023

NATO poses a threat to Russian imperialism not Russian security

By Peter Dickinson

Russia’s passive acceptance of neighboring Finland’s NATO membership raises serious questions over the Kremlin’s efforts to portray the invasion of Ukraine as a response to NATO expansion, writes Peter Dickinson.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Mar 8, 2023

Ukrainians will never surrender. How long can they count on the West?

By Serhiy Prytula

Ukraine’s remarkable resistance during the first days of the Russian invasion convinced the democratic world to back the country but with Putin now preparing for a long war, continued Western resolve is vital writes Serhiy Prytula.

Civil Society Conflict

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Russia’s invasion highlights the need to invest more in Ukrainian studies appeared first on Atlantic Council.

On April 20, Transatlantic Security Initiative nonresident senior fellow Maggie Feldman-Piltch wrote a special edition blog post in Non-State Actress. She shares a brief update on the Non-State Actress book project and outlines her vision for the substantive focus of her work.

_{The Non-State Actress project is made possible by generous support from the German Federal Foreign Office, whom we thank for their support.}

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Maggie Feldman-Piltch

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security Transatlantic Security Initiative

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The Transatlantic Security Initiative, in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

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The post Feldman-Piltch in Non-State Actress on her upcoming book appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Seventy-eight years after World War II, as facts fade and fewer survivors remain, the Holocaust risks being forgotten. This natural amnesia is compounded by widespread campaigns to revise or repress Holocaust history. International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 and Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah) on April 17 are important annual observances to counter these trends, but much more needs to be done year-round. Surprisingly, the Arab world may soon become a world leader in rejecting denialism to reassert “Never again!”

Present events constantly reshape the perceptions of the past and, indirectly, future outcomes. There are people in every country around the world who claim that the Holocaust never took place. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Holocaust denial is mainly a trend among the younger generation due to a lack of Holocaust education in schools and after-school activities. For decades, the Holocaust has been a taboo subject, politicized and conflated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in official discourse. Historical truth is clouded, if not overshadowed, by key actors in the Arab world who connect Israeli state policies and the Jewish people worldwide—past and present, using them interchangeably, as if they were one. Opposition to Israel becomes resistance to the reality of Jewish suffering and injustice done to Jews in the past.

As a result, the Holocaust was absent from public consciousness until 2009, when Morocco’s King Mohammed VI became the first Arab leader to recognize the Holocaust by addressing the matter in a message addressed to the launch event of the Aladdin Project at UNESCO in Paris.

“Amnesia has no effect on my understanding of the Holocaust, or that of my people,” said the king, adding, “We must together endeavor to reassert reason and the values which underpin the legitimacy of a space of co-existence where the words of dignity, justice, and freedom will express themselves in the same way and will coexist, with the same requirements, regardless of our origins, cultures or spiritual ties. This is our interpretation, in Morocco, of the duty of remembrance dictated by the Shoah.”

Speaking at international conferences and forums devoted to the Holocaust and intercultural dialogue, King Mohammed VI and representatives of the Moroccan government have frequently emphasized the significance of denouncing anti-Semitism, instilling togetherness, and religious coexistence in Moroccan society, learning from the lessons of the Holocaust, and highlighting the crucial role that education plays in this context.

Challenges for Holocaust education in the Arab world

Past efforts at Holocaust education in the Arab world have too often suffered from a lack of context-specific sensitivity. In contrast to the king’s speech, which expresses the values and ideals of the Moroccan tradition as the basis for affirming Holocaust remembrance, others have simply translated Euro-centric Holocaust materials into Arabic, mainly from fear by civil society actors they would be blamed for “normalizing” with Israel if they tried to teach about the Holocaust. To effectively use Holocaust education as a tool for genocide prevention, the content should be tailored to Arab audiences using relevant wording, metaphors, names, and historical events.

In contrast to other areas of the world, World War II battles were fought, and Jews of the MENA region, directly or indirectly, experienced the Holocaust. Employing this little-known history in creating educational content is essential to sparking children’s imagination.

On the other hand, if this would only be a requirement, rather than a shared process of mutual development, educators would not take ownership of these materials and will lack the motivation to use these materials towards the essential goal of developing Holocaust education within the Arab world.

The power of participation

Today, initiatives all over the Middle East and North Africa try to promote Holocaust education through standard education approaches. However, teacher-to-student Holocaust education, while powerful, cannot reach the vast audience in need of this vital information and perspective. There is an increasing need to use state-of-the-art media, including those that allow for online sharing of ideas. While the hateful have exploited the Internet to spread racism, Holocaust denial, and other destructive ideologies, it can also serve as a powerful tool to educate and empower those fighting hate.

In 2011, the Kivunim Institute and Mimouna Association organized the first conference on the Holocaust in the Arab world commemorating the actions of the late King Mohammed V at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. An article in the New York Times praised the event as a “first of its kind in an Arab or Muslim nation, and a sign of historical truth triumphing over conspiracy theories and anti-Semitic dogma.”

The Mimouna Association and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in 2017 jointly created the first Arabic-language Holocaust curriculum by and for Muslims. The Holocaust education material created was tailored to the specific context of the Arab and Muslim world.

The USHMM, which is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this month, has prioritized promoting Holocaust education in the Arab world, for example, through Holocaust commemorations in Morocco in 2018 and 2022, and Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, the USHMM organized an important Holocaust commemoration in the UAE and Egypt.

In the Emirates, Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori created in 2021 the first Holocaust memorial exhibition in the Arab world at the Crossroads of Civilization Museum in Dubai. This permanent exhibit is the first of its kind in the Arab world, and offers visitors a setting within which to begin to understand the Holocaust and fight the denial of this dark chapter of human history.

In Morocco this year, the Mimouna Association, in partnership with the Council of Jewish Communities in Morocco, the United Nations Information Centre, and the ASF, provided over 120 students from different Moroccan universities and institutes, Moroccan Muslim activists, and members of the Moroccan Jewish community with an opportunity to engage and learn more about the history of the Holocaust.

In the largest synagogue of Casablanca, 350 guests—including university students, Morocco’s Minister of Education Chakib Benmoussa, diplomats from the United States, Israel, France, Germany, Poland, The Vatican, and Spain, as well as representatives from Moroccan civil society and international organizations—packed the pews to honor King Mohammed V, savior of the Moroccan Jewish community.

Recognizing the deep convictions, moral approach, and brave policy of Sultan Mohammed V, the US ambassador to Morocco, Puneet Talwar, affirmed, “His Majesty King Mohammed V protected Morocco’s Jews from the Nazis. And His Majesty King Mohammed VI has carried on that legacy. He has spoken forcefully against the denial of the Holocaust.”

The Chief Rabbi of Casablanca, Rabbi Joseph Israel, said a customary Moroccan prayer honoring the king and his forefathers. The Muslim students also heard the Chapters of Psalms, Kaddish, Yizkor, and the Kel Malei Rachamim in memory of the Holocaust victims.

On the eve of Yom Hashoah, it is no longer considered taboo in the MENA region to promote Holocaust education and genocide prevention. The region’s youth are far more receptive to discussing the events of one of the darkest chapters of human history, despite the political, religious, and educational challenges shrouding this historic move that has been praised in some nations in the region and criticized in others.

El Mehdi Boudra is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. Follow him on Twitter: @ElBoudra.

The N7 Initiative, a partnership between the Atlantic Council and Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, seeks to broaden and deepen normalization between Israel and Arab and Muslim countries. It works with governments to produce actionable recommendations to deliver tangible benefits to their peoples.

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The post <strong>Safeguarding the past: The Arab world’s cure to Holocaust amnesia</strong> appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The post Nawaz in Dawn: <a href="https://www.dawn.com/news/1746219/for-pakistan-to-prosper-it-must-invest-in-its-children">For Pakistan to prosper, it must invest in its children</a> appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The barriers South Asian women face in the workforce are deep and intersecting, including but not limited to: accessing digital technology; disruptions to supply chains; the dual burden of managing eldercare and childcare; limited physical and mental health services; and the increased risk of gender-based violence (GBV). These are key obstacles to women’s labor force participation, and all were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a joint report published by the International Finance Corporation and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), 35 percent of women entrepreneurs in India reported that they have suffered declining revenues due to COVID-19, and 72 percent of female small business owners in Sri Lanka reported experiencing difficulties accessing their usual financial services. The same report found that female job-loss rates resulting from COVID-19 are about 1.8 times higher than male job-loss rates globally.

Women’s participation and advancement in the labor force not only benefits women themselves, but also men, families, communities, and the entire nation. Despite this, women’s work is a minefield of visible and invisible barriers, rooted in inequality, patriarchy, and privilege. Global corporations, civil society, governments, and businesses across the South Asian region and the globe are committed and poised to support women’s advancement in the workplace, and are well positioned to accelerate and complement these efforts through direct investments and advocacy. But, first, two key areas must be explored, and they serve as the foci for this issue brief:

1. Raise awareness of key economic challenges facing women across the region.
2. Explore best practices and opportunities for addressing these pressing challenges.

To date, these efforts have been limited and/or siloed within particular domains and there is a paucity of scientific evidence pointing to how these efforts are effectively supporting women’s economic recovery.

This issue brief describes cross-cutting themes, a proposed theory of change, and recommendations that emerged from the Atlantic Council and US Department of State expert convening, “Future of Women and Work in South Asia.” The convening’s goal was to foster cross-sectoral collaboration and catalyze knowledge sharing to support women’s economic empowerment in South Asia. The project also aimed to elucidate strategies for increasing philanthropic and corporate investments to appropriately address the challenges and barriers women face.

The South Asia Center is the hub for the Atlantic Council’s analysis of the political, social, geographical, and cultural diversity of the region. ​At the intersection of South Asia and its geopolitics, SAC cultivates dialogue to shape policy and forge ties between the region and the global community.

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Understanding “rape culture” in Bangladesh, India, & Pakistan

By Rudabeh Shahid, Kaveri Sarkar, and Azeem Khan

Countless examples of gender-based violence (GBV) in South Asia from last year raise significant concerns about so-called “progress” made in improving women’s standing and fighting rape culture in the region. Political discourse in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is deeply misguided regarding such issues, often leading to systematic victim-blaming which—knowingly or unknowingly—helps the perpetrators.

Bangladesh Civil Society

The post The future of women in India: Barriers, facilitators and opportunities appeared first on Atlantic Council.

On March 20, to reflect on the twenty-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Atlantic Council’s Iraq Initiative held a discussion to amplify the voices of Iraqi youth. “Trajectories of Iraqi youth two decades after the 2003 invasion: Between aspirations and reality” featured introductory remarks from the Director of the Iraq Initiative, Abbas Kadhim, and was moderated by Hezha Barzani, a Program Assistant for the empowerME Initiative at the Atlantic Council.   

In his introductory speech, Abbas Kadhim stressed the importance of including youth in the debate about the future of Iraq, arguing that “youth are not only entitled to be present, but are called to lead the debate, as they will be the most affected by it”. This was further emphasized in Hezha Barzani’s introduction, where he noted that 60 percent of Iraq’s current population is under the age of twenty-five. 

The panel featured empowerME Program Assistant Nibras Basitkey, who highlighted the importance of being solution-oriented when discussing the future of Iraqi youth. It also featured a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Shival Fazil, who claimed that Iraqi youth “do not feel represented by the current system of government in Iraq and are stretching across ethnic and religious identities in favor of an issue-based coalition, seeking political reform”. Adjunct fellow Hamzeh Hadad from the Center for New American Security noted that the years following the invasion “were tumultuous, with Iraqis facing global issues” such as the expansion of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and the global pandemic. This point was built upon by co-Founder and President of Sinjar Academy, Murad Ismael, who claimed that “youth in post-ISIS Iraq are rejecting extremism”. 

Problems currently facing Iraqi youth

A consensus was reached among the participating panelists that the present nature of the Iraqi youth is characterized by their collective desire for reform and coalition-building.  The emerging trend of national movements are transcending ethnic, religious, and cultural lines. Hamzeh Hadad explained this phenomenon as being “a product of Iraqi unity against ISIS as well as the younger generation’s exposure to sectarian violence in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s rule”. He also explained the unification of Iraqi youth with the failure of the Iraqi leadership class, which resulted in a widespread protest movement. Another problem currently affecting Iraq is the persistence of internal displacement accompanied both the 2003 invasion and the ISIS insurgency. The second wave of displacement that took after 2024 in Iraq has particularly impacted minority communities. Basitkey, Ismael, and Fizal all pointed to the plight of the Yazidi population which had been persecuted by ISIS and remains scattered with negligible access to basic civilian infrastructures and education. 

When discussing the current threat of ISIS resurgence, Shival Fazil claimed, “it is this growing disillusionment with politics and resentment toward the ruling elite that runs the risk of being exploited and weaponized by the Islamic State or other extremist groups.” 

This statement demonstrates the importance of addressing the concerns of the Iraqi youth and committing to political, economic, and social reform for both humanitarian and security reasons. Youth are also facing the repercussions of climate change, which will continue to be a serious threat to the country, both on livelihoods and security fronts. Hamzeh Hadad pointed to the inadequate preparedness of the country to combat climate change, arguing that “both Iraq and the international community must team up to create the appropriate infrastructures to cope with modern problems such as climate change.” 

Importance of education

One of the most pressing problems currently facing Iraqi youth is limited access and poor quality education. Each of the panelists spoke to this importance extensively. Nibras Basitkey claimed that “this phenomenon was worsened by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has disproportionately impacted minorities”. Additionally, Iraqi youth experience a significant setback in their education due to limited access to technology during the pandemic. Murad Ismael highlighted the importance of technology in improving education, claiming that “technological training in Iraq is extremely outdated and individuals who pursue higher education in technology in Iraq finish their degree with a high-school level understanding”. He offered that smartphones could be harnessed to improve education, but “there must be a campaign that compels individuals to maximize the educational value of their phones”. Basitkey further argued that “Iraq requires an updated curriculum that would focus on technology and skills that would optimize youth’s chances of obtaining jobs in the local market”. Additionally, “women’s access to education must be significantly improved”. 

The value of economic growth 

Iraq’s economy is highly dependent on oil and most jobs lie in the public sector-this is problematic for numerous reasons. Murad Ismael argued that “a prosperous private sector is essential to a functioning democracy in Iraq”, as the public cannot voice their political opinions freely if they are dependent on a particular political party for employment. Furthermore, oil prices are extremely unstable. Shivan Fazil highlighted the consequences of an oil-dependent economy and advocated for “the establishment of a competitive and reliable private sector”. Economic development is also a social issue. Basitkey argued for “the necessary inclusion of women in the Iraqi economy by challenging social norms and initiating campaigns that encourage women to participate in politics”. This will improve economic growth and mobilize a highly underutilized sector of the population. 

Each of these issues requires a tremendous commitment not only from Iraq but also from the international community. To ensure the success of Iraq’s bright youth population, these issues must be addressed, specifically, those of economic and educational concerns, concluded the panelists.

Britt Gronemeyer is a Young Global Professional with the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council. 

The post Trajectories of Iraqi youth two decades after the 2003 invasion: Between aspirations and reality appeared first on Atlantic Council.

I certainly do. Growing up in Srechka, a small rural village in northern Iraq, I experienced firsthand the limitations placed on me because of my gender. I longed for an education, but cultural norms and traditions dictated that girls should stay home and take care of the household while boys were expected to work and provide for the family. Education was seen as a threat against those norms, which were upheld by villagers for decades despite what was written in the Iraqi constitution.

Despite these limitations, I never gave up on my quest for knowledge because I understood the significance of education in fulfilling my potential. Unfortunately, in 2014, I was compelled to leave Srechka due to the invasion of my town by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). These events added to my challenges in accessing education. However, my determination to overcome these obstacles only grew stronger as I realized the transformative power of education in shaping individuals as agents of change and empowering them to contribute to the development of their communities.

Years of turmoil and insufficient investment in Iraq have deteriorated the once-excellent education system and limited Iraqi children’s opportunities for quality education. At present, roughly 3.2 million Iraqi children of school age are not receiving an education. Furthermore, under-investment in the educational sector has impaired students’ access to quality learning and the ability to acquire skills necessary to meet the demands of the market. Of the children not enrolled in primary school, 56 percent are female (this number is 65 percent in the case of lower secondary school).

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this issue, leading to high dropout rates for both genders, although females are disproportionally impacted. Factors that impede Iraqi women from obtaining an education are socially-constructed gender norms, perceived protection concerns, trauma, internal displacement, early and forced marriages, and economic and financial hardships. In rural areas, the data on female dropouts is scarce, and they are among the nation’s most at-risk groups for child marriages.

Unfortunately, the situation in Afghanistan today is not much different from what I experienced in Iraq. The Taliban’s prohibition on female education is a severe blow to the progress made in recent years toward gender equality in the country. Afghan women and girls have been fighting for their right to education, and it is a devastating setback to see their hard-won progress threatened by the Taliban’s oppressive regime. 

The Taliban’s actions violate the basic human rights of Afghan women and girls and also have long-term implications for Afghanistan’s economic and social development. Education is essential for individuals to fulfill their potential and contribute to the development of their communities. The denial of education to women and girls hinders their ability to participate in the workforce and limits their potential for upward social mobility.

Taliban prohibits girls’ education, undoing years of progress in Afghanistan

Since the Taliban’s rise to power in 2021, one of their first acts was implementing a strict interpretation of Islamic law. This included the prohibition of girls from attending school and university, as the group believed that education was not necessary nor appropriate for women.

Prior to 2021, in the years after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the United States and its allies focused on rebuilding and modernizing the country’s infrastructure, including its education system.

As part of its efforts to rebuild Afghanistan since 2002, the US provided approximately $88 billion in security aid, $36 billion in civilian aid (which includes $787 million designated for the advancement of Afghan women and girls), and almost $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid from the United States, according to data shared by the White House.

These different funds supported the construction of new schools, training of teachers, and development of educational materials. The US also worked with Afghan authorities and international organizations to promote access to education, particularly for girls and women who had been largely excluded from the education system under the Taliban. Since 2002, the US has granted Afghanistan $133 billion in economic and security help, including allocating funds for infrastructure, economic and social progress, and security forces.

These efforts have helped to increase enrollment in schools, particularly among girls and women, and to improve the quality of education in Afghanistan. According to the World Bank, the percentage of female enrollment in primary school rose from zero to 85 percent in 2019. However, the situation was still far from ideal, as many families continued to be resistant to the idea of educating their daughters, and there were still areas of the country where the Taliban had a strong presence and where girls’ education was not allowed. 

However, it is widely recognized that the assurances made have not been upheld and that the severity of the matter is undeniable.

When the Taliban first seized control, they declared that classrooms would be segregated by gender. Then, they refused to reopen secondary schools for females. In December 2022, with one single decision, the Taliban banned female education by prohibiting females from attending universities, thus, widening the scope of their restriction on female education.

The consequences on economic development

These recent bans have erased years of gender equality progress made in Afghanistan. This has had a devastating effect on the education and rights of Afghan women, who have faced severe restrictions on their freedom and rights for decades. This also hinders the economic development of the country. Education is a key driver of economic growth, and providing education to girls can significantly impact a country’s economy.

As of 2023, there remains a significant dearth of statistics production in Afghanistan, making it difficult to assess the state of the economy fully. However, despite this challenge, experts predict that the country’s economic output could decline by as much as 20 to 30 percent over the course of the year from August 2021.

Furthermore, nearly 97 percent of Afghanistan is facing the risk of poverty, with more than half of the country depending on humanitarian aid to survive. The average Afghan household already spends 91 percent of its income on food, leaving little for other basic needs. This dire situation has resulted in many families resorting to rationing and other strategies to cope with the economic strain—such as selling their kidneys—to put food on the table. Children are particularly vulnerable in this situation, as they are at an increased risk of starvation, malnutrition, hunger, and preventable diseases.

Furthermore, a recent United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) analysis argues that the denial of secondary education for girls in Afghanistan has had a significant economic impact, resulting in a loss of at least $500 million within the last year alone. This statistic is a stark reminder of the importance of ensuring girls’ access to education. Not only does education empower girls to make decisions and lead more fulfilling lives, but it also has economic benefits for their communities.

Educating girls has been shown to have a multiplier effect on economic growth and development. When girls are educated, they are more likely to become successful members of society, contributing to the economy and increasing the overall standard of living. Education should be seen as a right and an investment in the future of entire communities.

The economic benefits of educating girls are undeniable in reducing poverty and providing more ways for them to contribute to the economy. Education is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty, and it can help girls and women access better-paying jobs and become more financially independent. This can increase the standard of living for girls and their families and significantly contribute to the country’s overall economic development.

Denying women access to education and employment in Afghanistan will cost the country up to $1 billion, or a maximum of 5 percent of its GDP—an amount that is too much for the nation to bear due to its present economic circumstances.

Studies have shown that educating women can reduce poverty levels in a country. Educated women are more likely to be employed and have higher incomes, which will help lift them and their families out of poverty. Furthermore, educated women are more likely to have healthier pregnancies, improved health outcomes for their children, and increased access to basic services like health care and sanitation. This will lead to a healthier population and improved quality of life. 

Advancing female education under the Taliban

Despite the new government in Afghanistan abandoning its promises of reform, the international community must remain steadfast in its commitment to safeguarding the rights of Afghan women and girls. It is also essential that they continue to pressure the Afghan government to uphold its commitments to reform and protect the rights of its female citizens. Furthermore, the international community should provide support and resources to organizations and initiatives working to empower Afghan women and girls. Only through collective action can the rights of Afghan women be fully secured.

Given the Taliban’s police state and severe threat of repression against advocacy for women’s rights in the country, especially regarding reversing the female education ban, a few key strategies can be implemented to ensure female education. These strategies can minimize repression risks without formally recognizing the legitimacy of the Taliban.

• Collaborate with reputable and recognized local and national organizations to develop a coordinated and strategic approach to promoting female education in Afghanistan. This should involve creating partnerships between the government, NGOs, and other international organizations that are recognized by the international community. This strategy should involve advocacy and awareness-raising to educate the public on the importance of female education and the negative impact of the Taliban’s ban. It should also involve providing financial incentives to families to encourage them to send their daughters to school.

• Provide security measures to protect girls and women from violence and harassment as they travel to and from school. This could involve training security forces to respond to incidents of harassment and ensuring that girls and women feel safe. It could also involve providing transport options to help girls and women travel safely to and from schools.

• Prioritize community-based education programs that are accessible and safe for girls and women. This could involve providing alternative education programs in safe settings, such as at home or in community centers. It could also involve providing resources to local organizations to help them provide quality education to girls and women.

As an Iraqi refugee who understands the importance of education, I recognize that achieving gender parity in education is critical for Afghanistan’s long-term economic growth and prosperity. Education is a fundamental right and a key driver of economic development, and denying girls access to education is detrimental to the country’s future. It is only through collective action that the international community can ensure the rights of Afghan women and girls are upheld and that they can live in a society where education is a privilege, not a punishment.

Nibras Basitkey is a program assistant at the Atlantic Council’s empowerME Initiative at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East. 

The post I was once denied an education in Iraq. This is why the Taliban’s prohibition on female education matters. appeared first on Atlantic Council.

On July 19, 2022, the White House convened leaders from industry, government, and academia at its a National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit. In his remarks at the Summit, recently departed National Cyber Director Chris Inglis committed to developing a National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy with input from relevant stakeholders to align government resources and efforts toward addressing the many challenges in this area. Among these challenges is finding sufficient talent to fill the United States’ ever-growing number of openings for cyber-related roles across all sectors of the economy. According to research from CyberSeek, US employers posted 714,548 of these job openings in the year leading up to April 2022. While many of the vacancies are oriented toward individuals who are savvy in the more technical aspects of cybersecurity, more organizations are searching for multidisciplinary talent, ranging from international affairs to project management and everything in between. 

While we await the White House’s National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy, we brought together a group of experts to provide insights into bolstering the cyber workforces of the United States and its allies.

#1 What is one assumption about the cyber workforce that is holding the cyber community back?

Nelson Abbott, senior director, advanced program operations, NPower: 

“‘We cannot find good talent.’ This sentiment is, in my opinion, a result of companies not broadening their talent acquisition strategies. You will not meet the increasing demand for cyber talent by using the same talent pipelines that are not increasing their output to market.” 

Richard Harris, principal cybersecurity policy engineer, MITRE Corporation: 

“One problematic assumption is that the market, academia, or government alone can solve the problem of cyber workforce shortages. Developing cyber workforces at the right time, in the right quantities, and with the right skills requires purposeful and persistent public, private, and academic partnerships.” 

Ayan Islam, director, cyber workforce, Office of the National Cyber Director: 

“There is an assumption that there is a single pathway into the cyber workforce when there are many pathways to recruit cyber workforce talent. To open the job pipeline to those for whom a career in cyber or a related field would be out of reach, new pathways need to be created. We need to fully leverage the potential for community colleges to contribute to the workforce, grow work-based learning programs such as apprenticeships, and further explore non-traditional training opportunities. While some exist today, we need many more pathways to allow for more entrants and career changers into the cyber workforce and to demystify those pathways.” 

Eric Novotny, Hurst professor of international relations, emeritus, School of International Service, American University: 

“One assumption that I have noticed in employment advertising is the posting of entry-level positions in which the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) certification is listed as necessary or desirable. This certification, as is well-known in the community, is a cybersecurity management certification that requires five years of experience in the domain. It may be that human resources representatives do not understand the levels or purpose of cybersecurity certifications. Some organizations may lose qualified job candidates if desired certifications are not aligned with job requirements.” 

Merili Soosalu, partner leader and regional coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean, EU Cyber Resilience for Development Project (Cyber4Dev), Information System Authority of Estonia (RIA): 

“Cybersecurity as a topic is on its way to the mainstream. In the more and more digitalized world, cybersecurity is an integral aspect that cannot be overlooked. This should also be reflected in the outlooks of cyber careers that do not only mean highly experienced technical skills but rather a variety of professions and skillsets from the areas of project management and communications to the highly skilled blue- and red-team competencies.”

#2 What government or industry-led programs have had an outsized positive impact on workforce development efforts?

Abbott: “I am of the opinion that there have not been ‘outsized’ positive impacts. There are a lot of great companies and organizations doing good work (NPower, Per Scholas, etc.), but they do not have the capacity to meet the exponential growth in demand for talent. The recent cybersecurity sprint was good to develop interest in that alternative hiring model, but it is still too early to see what the measurable results are.” 

Harris: “Some of the most successful workforce development programs have been in local communities. These programs were the result of local businesses, governments, and academic institutions putting their heads together to meet cybersecurity and other technical skill needs. While these efforts help keep people in their communities, they also support workforce mobility where these same skills are in demand outside of the local community.” 

Islam: “With over seven hundred thousand (approximately 756,000 as of December 2022, per CyberSeek.org) vacancies in cybersecurity positions across the United States, these numbers constitute a national security risk and must be tackled aggressively. Therefore, it is important for government, industry, education, and training providers to all contribute to workforce development efforts, and work in tandem to address our growing needs. For example, the Office of National Cyber Director hosted a National Cyber Workforce and Education Summit at the White House last summer with government and private sector partners to discuss building the United States’ cyber workforce, increasing skill-based pathways to cyber careers, and equipping Americans to thrive in our increasingly digital society. The event resulted in many new commitments. A cybersecurity apprenticeship sprint was also announced at the Summit, which led to an increase in private-sector participation in the Department of Labor’s apprenticeship program, with 194 new registered participants and over seven thousand apprentices getting jobs.” 

Novotny: “Sponsored events to attract new talent into the field, such as Cyber 9/12, AvengerCon, and various Capture the Flag (CTF) exercises are invaluable for stimulating interest in cybersecurity and exposing students and young professionals to executives and experts in the field.” 

Soosalu: “In Estonia in recent years, many positive initiatives have been developed for different age groups. For instance, for adults looking to change their careers to information technology (IT), the Kood/Jõhvi, an international coding school, was created and top IT specialists should enter to the job market in the coming months. A private initiative called Unicorn Squad was created in 2018 to popularize technology education among girls. These initiatives, to name some, will hopefully show positive effects in the coming years. The Estonian State Systems Authority, responsible for national cybersecurity, prioritizes the knowledge development of cyber incidents of critical sectors by regularly organizing joint exercises between the national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the IT teams of different critical service providers.”

#3 Are there any issues or challenges in workforce development have been overstated or immaterial?

Abbott: “‘Anyone can do cyber.’ While it is true that there is a much broader spectrum of roles in cyber than most people realize (non-technical; governance, risk management, and compliance; policy; etc.), these still require a strong working knowledge of information technology and networking concepts.” 

Harris: “Many people need to move beyond wringing their hands about cyber workforce shortages or hoping that someone else will solve the problem. Organizations can start at the grassroots level and proactively develop partnerships and plans that result in a tangible workforce development achievement at whatever level is feasible, and then build on that success.” 

Islam: “Actually, what is understated and greatly material to the issue and challenge in cyber workforce development is the lack of appropriate resourcing and C-suite appreciation with security program investments. There is still a disconnect in recognizing that cybersecurity is a foundational business risk and not a one-time, niche issue. Without proper investments on the people side of security programs, we will continue to see the same issues or challenges in tackling cybersecurity threats.” 

Novotny: “There are some misconceptions that cybersecurity is an exclusively IT-driven, technical field. That is certainly true for some roles and responsibilities, but cybersecurity solutions also embrace people and processes, as well as technology.  Professionals with highly developed technical skills will need to include management and people skills in their career development.” 

Soosalu: “Today, all studies show that the IT sector, cybersecurity in particular, lacks a qualified workforce. Therefore, all challenges are real and need to be tackled.”

More from the Cyber Statecraft Initiative:

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#4 How can different types of organizations better assess their cyber talent needs?

Abbott: “By 1) moving from credential-based job descriptions to competency-based job descriptions; 2) better communicating between hiring managers and talent-acquisition teams; 3) changing job descriptions to remove bias and non-negotiable requirements to encourage more candidates to apply; and 4) considering internal upskilling programs and backfilling entry-level roles with new talent.” 

Harris: “The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework is an awesome baseline reference for understanding workforce positions and skills. Organizations, however, must do the work to understand their current and future cyber talent needs, then leverage the NICE Framework, or a similar guide, to connect those business needs with the right positions and skill paths, and build a workforce development plan.” 

Islam: “A growing number of organizations are taking advantage of skill-based and aptitude assessments to allow for diverse and multidisciplinary candidates to join the cyber workforce. However, skill-based training and hiring practices are still necessary. Any solution must be inclusive of historically untapped talent, including underserved areas and neurodivergent populations. A cybersecurity career should be within reach for any American who wishes to pursue it, and skills-based training and hiring practices enable inclusive outcomes, give workers a fair shot, and keep the economy strong.” 

Novotny: “The size of the existing IT and cybersecurity internal infrastructure plays a huge role here. Medium and small enterprises will have a more difficult time justifying a large cybersecurity staff in most cases. For these organizations, where many cybersecurity functions are outsourced, the skills shift to management and procurement, rather than technical operations, such as staffing a security operations center. In the government sector, having different standards and compliance rules than in the private sector also drives different necessary skill sets. On the other hand, I would argue that any organization that has network operations and valuable information assets to protect has similar security requirements in principle.” 

Soosalu: “For assessing needs, some forms of standards are needed. In the European Union, the new European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF) was created to become a useful tool to help identify the profiles and skills that are most needed and valued. This will help create a European framework for recognizing skills and training programs.”

#5 How have cyber workforce needs shifted in the past five years, and where do you see them going from here?

Abbott: “They have only increased, and almost doubled in 2022. More companies are taking cybersecurity seriously, and are now realizing the importance of having those individuals on their teams. I fear that the demand for cyber talent will only continue unless employers start to create new solutions instead of relying on old habits when it comes to talent acquisition.” 

Harris: “Rapid technological change like the current artificial intelligence revolution, and increasingly complex risk dynamics exemplified by greater cyber-physical convergence, require cyber workforces and individuals to embrace continuous learning throughout their careers. More attention needs to be paid to developing interesting and flexible cyber career paths and investing in more career progression training and education.” 

Islam: “We need to broaden our thinking about the importance of cyber across occupations and professions in our interconnected society. There are many occupations and professions that have not traditionally required in-depth cybersecurity knowledge or training, but whose work relies on the use of cyber technologies. Greater attention should be paid to ensuring that cybersecurity training and education are part of the professional preparation of these workers.” 

Novotny: “Several broad trends are noticeable in workforce requirements that have changed over time. First, as more sectors of the economy are identified as critical infrastructure, professionals that have industry sector experience are in higher demand.  Second, the cyber threat intelligence business—in both government and in the private sector—has opened job opportunities for young professionals with language and international relations education. Third, there is an apparent fusion of traditional cybersecurity needs with a growing concern about misinformation, social media, and privacy. A few years ago, these latter issues were largely separate from the cybersecurity domain. That is not the case today.” 

Soosalu: “Estonia was the target of one of the first ever national cyberattacks in 2007, and therefore cybersecurity as an issue is not new to our general public. However, being one of the most digitalized countries in the world, Estonia relies heavily on its digital services and needs to both create awareness and invest in being as cyber resilient as possible. The lack of a skilled workforce is clearly a vector of risk. Compared to the period of past five years, the legislation has evolved. Today, many more sectors are obliged to follow information and cybersecurity standards, hire information security officers, and invest budget into dealing with cybersecurity. The topic of cybersecurity is here to stay, and we will need to do our outmost to create interested and competent workforce for these profiles. Hopefully, the initiatives named above (Question #2) will help to contribute to this, and we see soon more women and more IT and cyber enthusiasts in the job market.” 

Simon Handler is a fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative within the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab). He is also the editor-in-chief of The 5×5, a series on trends and themes in cyber policy. Follow him on Twitter @SimonPHandler.

The Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, under the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), works at the nexus of geopolitics and cybersecurity to craft strategies to help shape the conduct of statecraft and to better inform and secure users of technology.

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Ukrainian digital artist Nikita Titov partnered with the Ukrainian Veterans Foundation, which provides financial support to Ukrainian veterans, to design and promote a collection of 18 striking posters featuring soldiers from all walks of life (see article illustration). These posters serve as a powerful tribute to the determination and sacrifice of Ukrainians who have been ripped from their everyday lives by Russia’s brutal invasion.

Posters from the “Call-sign Ukraine” project have been featured worldwide. They have appeared everywhere from the Embassy of Ukraine in Japan to the Kyiv metro, where they have been displayed alongside a Ukraine Veterans Foundation campaign entitled: “No matter who you are in civilian life, we are there to support you.” These initiatives reflect growing awareness that the fate of Ukraine’s rapidly growing veteran community will help define the country’s future for decades to come.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

At the start of 2022, there were around 400,000 veterans in Ukraine who had served in the ongoing hybrid war with Russia that had raged in the east of the country since early 2014. Following the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, this number has now mushroomed. Hundreds of thousands of additional Ukrainians will join the ranks of the country’s veteran community in the near future.

These veterans have the potential to transform Ukraine. In terms of sheer numbers and also as a consequence of the skills and experience their have acquired, they will shape Ukraine’s economy, politics, cultural life, and society as a whole. However, much work must yet be done to ensure Ukraine can provide the support they will require. “There are already problems and the situation is likely to get worse,” notes poster artist Titov. “These people are traumatized by the war, not only physically but also mentally.”

While the vast majority of future veterans remain on the front lines, the challenges that their return to civilian life will create must be addressed now. After months of brutal combat and exposure to the results of Russian war crimes, Ukraine’s soldiers will need support in the form of medical and psychological care to treat the direct effects of the conflict.

In addition to immediate care, Ukrainian veterans will also need long-term economic support to ensure they are able to provide for themselves and their families while reintegrating into civilian life. This support should include training opportunities to prepare veterans for new careers along with access to small business financing.

The dramatic growth of Ukraine’s veteran community will add new impetus to the ongoing reform of the country’s veteran policies. Until relatively recently, Ukraine’s system of veteran services was dominated by a Soviet approach that provided subsidies and cash payments instead of direct services. Gaps in the system were often filled by civil society. In 2018, Ukraine established a Ministry of Veteran Affairs with the goal of throwing off the Soviet legacy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has backed these efforts, stating in August 2022 that the country must seek to create one of the world’s leading veteran support models. The objective should be to allow veterans to contribute “not only to the defense of our state on the front lines but also to the post-war development of Ukraine,” he commented.

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Much work now lies ahead in order to translate Zelenskyy’s vision into reality. Hundreds of thousands of veterans across the country will require access to a range of medical and psychological services. They must also be provided with the kind of economic opportunities they so richly deserve.

The Ukrainian government is already working to make access to services easier. This includes creating an online service portal and easing access to psychological help by creating a new register of providers. In August 2022, the Ministry of Veteran Affairs signed an agreement with local authorities in Ukrainian cities to improve the provision of services. The Ministry has also established the Ukraine Veterans Foundation to serve as a platform to develop opportunities for veterans returning to civilian life.

Ukraine itself must undergo a physical transformation in order to become a more welcoming place for the veteran community. At the most basic level, this means improving accessibility to buildings and public spaces for all those who have experienced life-changing injuries during their service. Every aspect of Ukrainian daily life must be accessible to people living with limited mobility or other physical restrictions.

At present, the best way for the international community to back Ukraine’s veterans is by helping them win the war. They can do so by sending the weapons needed to defeat Vladimir Putin’s invasion and providing the financial support to keep the war-ravaged Ukrainian economy afloat.

Victory will create a whole new reality as hundreds of thousands of teachers, managers, civil servants, entrepreneurs, and IT specialists return to civilian life and seek to build futures for themselves in post-war Ukraine. This future is clearly full of potential. The task is to make sure Ukraine can capitalize on the opportunities that lie ahead. Ukraine’s veteran community should become a major asset for the country. To what extent will depend on the environment the authorities are able to create and the support provided by Ukraine’s international partners.

Despite the horrors of the war, there is still plenty of optimism about Ukraine’s prospects. Titov’s posters, with their bright and colorful style, reflect this faith in a future shaped by a generation who have taken up arms to defend their homeland. “Ukraine will win,” says the artist. “The new Ukraine will be a very strong country that the whole world will be proud of.”

Aleksander Cwalina and Benton Coblentz are program assistants at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Dec 26, 2022

Eight reasons for Ukrainian optimism in 2023

By Brian Mefford

Ukrainians have experienced an incredibly traumatic year but the country enters 2023 with reason for cautious optimism that Vladimir Putin’s criminal invasion can be decisively defeated, writes Brian Mefford.

European Union NATO

UkraineAlert Dec 25, 2022

Bakhmut: Fortress of freedom

By Andriy Yermak

Western support for Ukraine must remain strong in 2023 to prevent a Russian victory that would fuel a global authoritarian revival, warns the head of Ukraine’s Office of the President, Andriy Yermak.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert Dec 22, 2022

Russia’s defeat is the top global priority for 2023

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ensuring that the Russian invasion of Ukraine ends in defeat is vital for the international security system and must be the strategic priority for 2023, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Conflict European Union

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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Nope, and for good reason.

As I prepare to leave the Atlantic Council and join the Superhumans Center, a Ukrainian charity that will build the first prosthetics hospital in Ukraine, I owe hundreds of people money, dinner, and mostly eternal gratitude. Thousands more have trusted me with their secrets and stories. I hope I didn’t screw them up too much.

To those who have made the last eight years awesome, thank you.

Yevhen Hlibovytsky, my tutor, driver, fellow nosy social scientist, and beloved friend, your spirit infuses my work and love of country. I can’t wait to show you the eccentric parts of America. There are a lot of them! Duzhe, duzhe dyakuyu.

When I became the editor of UkraineAlert in 2015 I was woefully under-qualified. Dr. Alina Polyakova convinced John Herbst to hire me over a more pedigreed man. Peter Dickinson, Christian Caryl, Uri Friedman, Amanda Abrams, and Larry Luxner, you reshaped my underdeveloped stories and encouraged me countless times.

My co-conspirator, editor, and debating partner Jacob Heilbrunn makes every piece 1000 times better, but please do not tell him. And while we are on that subject, please don’t tell John Herbst that I didn’t write any of the titles that gave the communications team heartburn. That was my brilliant husband. Thank you, Daniel!

Ambassador John Herbst, you are the Atlantic Council to me. You made the fight fun, the debate delicious, and every conversation convivial, and you made me a better person. I will be in your debt until they bury me in Kyiv.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Before I sally forth, I relish the chance to explain why Ukraine has captivated me for more than fifteen years.

It was not love at first sight. In 2006, I went to Ukraine as part of a disastrously organized election observation mission. I found Kyiv forbidding but was quickly put on a train to Crimea to observe in Simferopol, an ugly but otherwise unremarkable post-Soviet city. The leaders of our election team soon vanished and we were left with two older gentlemen from the Canadian diaspora, who graciously volunteered to hastily assemble maps and organize our mission.

I took the work seriously and I almost got into a fistfight as a result. When I saw violations, I duly noted them. At one polling station, a large man was voting outside of the ballot box. Voters have a right to privacy, and in a place like Crimea that overwhelmingly votes for one party, privacy is key.

As a diligent election observer, I took a picture of the man. He came at me demanding to know what I was doing. A crowd quickly gathered as the situation escalated. I insisted I had the right to take photographs and note violations. The head of the precinct, with the unnatural burgundy hair you only see in the former Soviet Union, called Kyiv for guidance. “Unfortunately, this young woman has the right to take pictures,” she announced with a scowl. The crowd heaved a disappointed sigh and dispersed. As we exited the polling station, I was shaken and scared the big man might be waiting for me. What a country.

I never intended to come back. At the time, I had landed a dream job at Freedom House. I was giving Saudi Arabia hell for its gross and innumerable human rights violations, but my boss was impossible and the task felt hopeless. I feared it would take Saudi Arabia decades to change.

Fast forward. My boyfriend at the time landed a Fulbright scholarship to Kyiv and was having the time of his life. I was miserable and decided to join him. I soon found a job in Ukraine teaching English. The initial Skype interview went swimmingly and the Ukrainian trainer was both charismatic and lovely. At first, I only intended to stay for six months and then enter boring middle-aged American life. Instead, I found my calling and have never looked back.

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Sergiy Gusovsky, one of Kyiv’s most beloved restaurateurs and among the finest people you could wish to meet, often remarks that once a Westerner falls for Ukraine, they are hooked for life. That’s exactly what happened to me.

In January 2007, I made the big move to Ukraine. It was beyond cold. Even with my ankle-length wool coat and eighteen Alaskan winters under my belt, I could barely take it.

The American English Center rented space in ordinary schools. I taught mostly college students daily from 4pm to 10pm. The beginner students couldn’t understand a word I said, but the advanced students got me and were soon demanding harder and harder words. Hour after hour, we talked about Ukraine’s social structures, the economy, the country’s endlessly frustrating politics, its painful history, and society’s ridiculous expectations of women. There was no subject that was off limits.

Within six months, I had decided I never wanted to leave. Kyiv is the world’s most underrated city. Not only is it extraordinarily beautiful, especially during the spring months, but the spontaneous and generous nature of everyday life also appealed to me. The Kyivite focus on the here and now is the inverse of Max Weber’s Protestant ethic which I had imbibed far too deeply by age 18. Being in the Ukrainian capital helped me rediscover by natural equilibrium.

Plus, it was dirt cheap. My $400 per month apartment overlooking the golden domes of Pechersk Lavra Monastery was a sensational place to live. Meanwhile, Kyiv’s location at the center of Europe enabled me to visit 10 countries in six months. Leaving wasn’t an option.

Although I did eventually move back to the US, I never really left. Ukraine has remained with me. For the past eight years, I have been privileged to lead and build the biggest, loudest, and most effective program on Ukraine in North America at the Atlantic Council together with Ambassador John Herbst.

I often find myself answering the same peculiar question: “Why are you, a girl with a German surname and no discernible connection to Eastern Europe, so taken with Ukraine?”

Normally I give a canned answer. I grew up in Kenai, a small village in Alaska with a Russian Orthodox Church. When I was in the sixth grade, the Berlin Wall fell and Russians poured into Alaska. Regional flights were set up between the Russian Far East and Alaska, and the local business community got very excited about linking the two frontier lands. Closer to home, Miss Tatiana appeared in my school and I began studying Russian. I became mesmerized by the language and by the sight of golden samovars.

Recently I’ve realized that the true answer to this question is actually deeper. Much deeper.

Ukraine’s unquenchable thirst for freedom and justice inspires me endlessly. Even when the picture there looks hopeless, which it often does, my courageous warrior friend Vitaliy Shabunin reminds me to take the long view. “There are thousands of people like me. We are going to change Ukraine. It’s only a matter of time,” he says. May it be so, Vitaliy, and may it be so soon!

Thank you for your love, your trust, and your support over the last eight years! Все буде Україна!

Melinda Haring is the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She tweets @melindaharing.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Nov 10, 2022

Battle of Kherson: Russian retreat confirms Putin is losing the war

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The war is still far from over, but Ukraine’s victory in the Battle of Kherson may eventually come to be seen as one of the key turning points in the defeat of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, writes Andriy Zagorodnyuk.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

UkraineAlert Nov 17, 2022

Kherson euphoria highlights the folly of a premature peace with Putin

By Peter Dickinson

Footage of the euphoric scenes in liberated Kherson should be compulsory viewing for anyone who still believes in the possibility of a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia, argues Peter Dickinson.

Civil Society Conflict

UkraineAlert Oct 27, 2022

A ceasefire would condemn millions of Ukrainians to Russian occupation

By Mark Temnycky

Recent calls for a ceasefire in the Russo-Ukrainian War ignore the fact that millions of Ukrainians remain under Russian occupation and would face an uncertain fate if abandoned to the Kremlin, writes Mark Temnycky.

Conflict Freedom and Prosperity

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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I have six real and practical suggestions for anyone looking to support Ukraine. First, vote. With less than four weeks remaining until the US mid-term elections, get up to speed on candidates and where they stand on support for Ukraine.

Second, look for new ways to draw in your community. Music and dance are great ways to bring more people in. For example, I live in the Washington, DC area, so I’ve invited my entire neighborhood to attend the October 18 Benefit Concert for Ukraine, organized by the Chopivsky Family Foundation, at the Kennedy Center. Grammy-award winning violinist Joshua Bell takes to the stage alongside the New Era Orchestra of Kyiv to play Beethoven and two lesser-known Ukrainian composers.  

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Third, help Ukraine rebuild now. Private charity can change lives while the US government and others dither with complex reconstruction plans. Russia President Vladimir Putin’s latest missile strikes on civilian infrastructure including schools, parks, playgrounds, and apartment buildings are a constant reminder that nowhere is safe in Ukraine.

Only four weeks ago, Kyiv felt shockingly normal and open for business. To help Ukrainians retain some normalcy during what will inevitably be a difficult winter, consider giving to the Kyiv School of Economics’ campaign to reopen schools. All schools in Ukraine must have a bomb shelter in order to re-open, and many schools cannot afford the expense, so children are forced to take online lessons yet again.

Kyiv School of Economics has set a $1 million target to remedy this situation, and bomb shelters in villages cost as little as $15,000. All donations are tax deductible for US citizens and Kyiv School of Economics will pair would-be donors with schools so that children in the US and in Ukraine can form pen pal relationships.

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Fourth, make no mistake about it, the coming winter will be very hard and very cold. Putin’s recent missile strikes hit more than 10 Ukrainian cities, intentionally targeting heating and power facilities, leaving thousands without electricity and internet. “This is going to be a difficult winter for us,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Yalta European Strategy conference on September 10.

Ordinary Ukrainians need sleeping bags, thermal underwear, warm socks, generators, and heaters. Americans can send these goods to Help Center Ukraine, an outstanding distribution site run by Ukrainian businessman Andrey Stavnitser and a close friend. I personally have visited his distribution warehouse in Lublin, Poland, and Andrey’s team will ensure that all donations reach needy Ukrainians across the country.  Help Center Ukraine has distribution sites in New Jersey and Lublin, Poland, and will be opening another warehouse in the United Kingdom soon.    

Fifth, Ukrainian families already living in the United States have real physical needs. One family from Kyiv needs a used car. Others need help figuring out how to transfer their degree credentials. Volunteer in your community and if you have space, invite a family into your home. If taking a family in for a spell is too much, invite them to share an upcoming holiday with you.  

Sixth, as the holidays approach, find ways to bring Ukraine into your preexisting traditions. My family and I carol every year, and this year will be no exception. The new twist is that we will sing the Ukrainian song “Shchedryk,” a magical composition that was later adapted into the English Christmas carol, “Carol of the Bells.”  

Russia’s war of choice in Ukraine shows few signs of ending soon, so it is incumbent upon all freedom-loving people to find creative ways to keep support for Ukraine robust as long as it takes. 

Melinda Haring is the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. She tweets @melindaharing. Editor’s note: The Chopivsky Family Foundation is a donor of the Atlantic Council.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Sep 21, 2022

Putin’s nuclear ultimatum is a desperate bid to freeze a losing war

By Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine is a sign of the Russian dictator’s mounting desperation as his invasion continues to unravel and his country’s geopolitical isolation deepens.

Central Asia Conflict

UkraineAlert Oct 3, 2022

Will Putin send mobilized Russians to Belarus for a new Kyiv offensive?

By Alesia Rudnik

Vladimir Putin’s decision to order Russia’s first mobilization since World War II has revived fears in neighboring Belarus that the country could be dragged into the invasion of Ukraine and a new march on Kyiv.

Belarus Civil Society

UkraineAlert Sep 13, 2022

Ukrainian victory shatters Russia’s reputation as a military superpower

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The stunning success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region has exposed the rotten reality behind Russia’s military superpower reputation and convinced many that a decisive Ukrainian victory is now possible.

Conflict Corruption

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Six things you (yes, you!) can do now to help Ukraine appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Countries in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and external shocks, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The newly announced US-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030 (PACC2030) has the potential to bolster the region’s response to climate change by stimulating locally driven economic growth. PACC2030 represents a renewed US commitment to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) members and is expected to be the central driver of US-Caribbean engagement over the next few years. If successfully implemented, PACC2030 can shape and strengthen US-Caribbean relations for the long term, facilitate US-Caribbean public-private partnerships, and give impetus to regional efforts to advance climate and energy agendas.

PACC 2030’s success is crucial for CARICOM countries and the United States. Apart from the socioeconomic and security threats posed by climate change, natural disasters, and energy insecurity, there are geopolitical considerations. Simply, if the United States cannot support the security and prosperity of its so-called Third Border, CARICOM members in need of short-term solutions to energy challenges and climate financing are likely to look to countries like China, Russia, and Venezuela for assistance. The agreement needs to deliver in the short term to generate confidence that the United States is committed to a sustainable partnership.

This report outlines three quick wins the United States and CARICOM should pursue: finding quick access to financing for CARICOM countries to invest in climate and energy resilience, involving and increasing the role of the US private sector in PACC2030’s implementation, and ensuring that the expertise and technologies brought to the region by the framework are taught, and not just given.

The United States has all the tools and expertise—and now, the will—to support climate and energy resilience in CARICOM countries. But timely implementation is needed over the next few months to show the region that US support and promises are not empty gestures, and instead come with action. This report offers clear next steps towards implementing this ambitious partnership and strengthening US-Caribbean relations in years to come.

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The post PACC2030: Quick wins for a US-Caribbean partnership on climate and energy resilience appeared first on Atlantic Council.

For those living in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, the situation is far worse. Schools under Russian control are being forced to adopt a Kremlin-curated curriculum designed to demonize Ukraine while convincing kids to welcome the takeover of their country and embrace a Russian national identity. Teachers and parents who dare to object face potentially dire consequences.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, Ukrainian children have been among the primary victims of what is Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II. Hundreds have been killed, while millions have been displaced by the fighting and forced to flee to unfamiliar surroundings elsewhere in Ukraine or outside the country. Thousands of Ukrainian children are also thought to have been subjected to forced deportation to the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin is now targeting young Ukrainians as part of its campaign to eradicate Ukrainian national identity in areas under Russian control. In an address to mark the start of the new school term on September 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin underlined the importance of indoctrinating Ukrainian schoolchildren.

Putin dedicated part of his speech to Ukraine, lamenting that Ukrainian children aren’t taught that Russia and Ukraine were once both part of the Soviet Union or that Ukraine has no history as an independent state. He also declared that the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine was historically Russian territory that had been wrongly included within Ukraine’s borders by the Bolsheviks. Putin blamed the education system in Ukraine for distorting historical facts and contributing to the creation of anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine that posed a threat to Russia.

This emphasis on the reeducation of young Ukrainians should come as no surprise. Throughout Putin’s 22-year reign, the Russian school system has grown increasingly politicized as the Kremlin has sought to bring aspects of the national curriculum into line with officially endorsed narratives. Textbooks and teaching materials have been developed to reflect the state’s approved view of Russian history in particular, with children subjected to highly sanitized versions of the Soviet past.

Eurasia Center events

Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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In occupied regions of Ukraine, Russia has embarked on a comprehensive reeducation program that includes specific efforts to challenge the entire notion of a separate and distinct Ukrainian nation. This began during the initial period of occupation with the removal of Ukrainian textbooks and all symbols of Ukrainian statehood from schools. In some cases, Ukrainian history books were demonstratively burned.

The occupation authorities have attempted to pressure Ukrainian teachers into adopting the Russian curriculum. Despite the obvious risks involved, many have refused to cooperate. Russia has sought to overcome objections via both threats and incentives. Those who agree to adopt the new Kremlin-approved teaching guidelines are offered cash payments, while anyone who objects faces dismissal along with possible imprisonment or worse.

Confronted with a shortage of Ukrainian teachers willing to cooperate with Moscow’s russification agenda, the occupation authorities are seeking to import staff from Russia itself. Hundreds of Russian teachers are believed to have agreed to relocate to Ukraine and teach in the occupied regions. Unsurprisingly, the subjects most in demand are Russian history, literature, and language. This influx of Russian teachers has been accompanied by the distribution of new textbooks aligned with Kremlin thinking.

Volunteering to indoctrinate children in occupied Ukraine may not be entirely risk-free for educators who choose to do so. A number of Russian teachers were reportedly detained during Ukraine’s recent successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region after having been abandoned by the fleeing Russian military. While details have yet to be confirmed, they may now face criminal charges.

The risks are far higher for Ukrainian parents who refuse to enroll their children in schools offering the Russian curriculum. The occupation authorities have warned parents who protest that they face fines and possible imprisonment. In some cases, Kremlin appointees have threatened to remove parental rights and separate children from their families. With forced deportations and the illegal adoption of Ukrainian children already well-known features of the occupation, these cannot be treated as idle threats.

Russia’s campaign to completely russify the Ukrainian education system is part of a broader drive to extinguish Ukrainian statehood and eradicate Ukrainian national identity in areas under Russia’s control. The apparently voluntary participation of Russian schoolteachers in these efforts raises troubling questions about the role of non-military personnel in possible war crimes. With hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children currently vulnerable to Kremlin indoctrination, their fate is a powerful argument for the urgent liberation of Russian-occupied Ukraine.

Dr. Oleksandr Pankieiev is a research coordinator and editor-in-chief of the Forum for Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta’s Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Sep 13, 2022

Ukrainian victory shatters Russia’s reputation as a military superpower

By Andriy Zagorodnyuk

The stunning success of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region has exposed the rotten reality behind Russia’s military superpower reputation and convinced many that a decisive Ukrainian victory is now possible.

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UkraineAlert Aug 23, 2022

A strong Ukraine is the best solution to Europe’s Russia problem

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine’s courageous response to Putin’s invasion has inspired the world but some Western leaders remain in denial over the threat posed by a hostile Russia, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

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UkraineAlert Sep 17, 2022

Putin’s Russian Empire is collapsing like its Soviet predecessor

By Taras Kuzio

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was meant to extinguish the Ukrainian state once and for all. Instead, Russian influence in the post-Soviet region is in danger of receding to levels not witnessed in hundreds of years.

Belarus Central Asia

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Weaponizing education: Russia targets schoolchildren in occupied Ukraine appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Victory requires a coordinated, multifaceted, and long-term approach with economic, diplomatic, humanitarian, and logistical support all needed in order to bolster the Ukrainian transition to NATO-standard weaponry. Above all, this means a full commitment by Ukraine’s partners to increase arms supplies to the country.

The scenes accompanying recent Ukrainian advances have helped bring into focus the genocidal consequences if Russia is not decisively defeated. As Ukrainian troops liberated towns and villages across the Kharkiv region last week, their progress was marked by a steady stream of videos capturing the emotionally charged moments of liberation. This footage is a powerful reminder of the plight facing millions of Ukrainians currently living under Russian occupation.

In one video from Balakliya, elderly women emerged from their apartment building to greet Ukrainian soldiers, their ecstasy evident. “We have prayed for you to come save us for half a year!” one cried while embracing the soldiers. “What good boys!” another repeated. Belying Russian propaganda that Russian-speakers in Ukraine are persecuted, the women embraced the Ukrainian soldiers with affectionate words in the Russian language.

Another video from Balakliya underscored exactly what is at stake in the counteroffensive. In this video, Ukrainian soldiers triumphantly removed a Russian propaganda billboard featuring the slogan “We are with Russia! One people!” This billboard was a blunt example of the genocidal language employed by the Kremlin in its campaign to destroy the Ukrainian national group.

Russia’s “one people” propaganda denies Ukrainians the right to view themselves as a distinctive national group, a category protected under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. It is one more piece of evidence demonstrating Moscow’s intent to eradicate Ukrainian national identity through violent, coerced Russification and the killing of those they view as “irredeemably Ukrainian.”

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Ukrainians throughout the country are well aware of Russia’s genocidal intentions. Indeed, Kremlin leaders and propagandists alike make no secret of their desire to wipe Ukraine off the map of Europe completely. Putin himself has dismissed Ukraine as an illegitimate and intolerable “anti-Russia.” Russian television pundits and politicians alike have demonized Ukrainians, saying, “We and Ukraine cannot continue to exist on the same planet. It is impossible to coexist with infernal evil.”

In areas of Ukraine that have fallen under Russian control since the launch of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the occupation authorities have declared that Russia has come “forever.” All traces of Ukrainian identity have been targeted and suppressed including Ukrainian language road signs, tattoos, and education. Teams of schoolteachers have even been brought in from Russia to indoctrinate Ukrainians.

As the whole world saw following the early April liberation of Kyiv region towns such as Bucha and Irpin, Russian troops have engaged in the systematic mass murder of Ukrainian civilians. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians including large numbers of children have also been subjected to forced deportation to the Russian Federation.

The horrors of Russian occupation have shaped Ukrainian attitudes toward the war. Unsurprisingly, polls consistently show that most Ukrainians reject any talk of surrendering their land (and fellow citizens) in any agreement and understand that they will never be safe until Russia is defeated.

Eurasia Center events

Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

Conflict Russia Security & Defense Ukraine

Many Ukrainians are also guided by their historical experience of previous genocidal campaigns waged by the Kremlin. Throughout the past eight years of Ukraine’s armed conflict with Russia, Ukrainians have repeatedly referenced the 1932-33 Holodomor famine to underscore that “Russia past and present is threatened by an independent, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine.”

While Ukrainians view their current fight against Russian imperialism as part of a centuries-long struggle, one critical distinction separates today’s brutal war from earlier atrocities. Whereas the international community largely ignored the 1930s Soviet genocide, Ukraine now enjoys overwhelming backing from the democratic world. This could well prove decisive.

History indicates that genocidal campaigns typically end either in the total victory of the perpetrators or the victims, with external support often playing a decisive role. Efforts to find “middle ground” or promote negotiated settlements in such situations do not last or protect victims.

Increased international military aid is now crucial. This aid should include more advanced weapons systems that will allow the Ukrainian military to build on recent battlefield successes and secure ultimate victory. It is equally important to enhance Ukraine’s air defense capabilities in order to protect the country’s civilian population from Russian retribution as Putin’s army is forced to retreat.

The achievements of Ukraine’s counteroffensive should be sufficient to silence the skeptics who continue to question the value of arming the country. Likewise, the accompanying scenes of liberation should be enough to convince advocates of appeasement that condemning Ukrainians to Russian occupation is morally repugnant. Now is the moment for the international community to consolidate its support for Ukraine and deal a decisive military blow to Russia’s genocidal invasion.

Kristina Hook is Assistant Professor of Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University’s School of Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development and a former US Fulbright scholar to Ukraine.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 10, 2022

Putin is running out of excuses as Ukraine expands the war to Crimea

By Peter Dickinson

Russian officials have denied that Ukraine was behind an audacious August 9 attack on an airbase in occupied Crimea but Moscow’s excuses are beginning to wear thin as Vladimir Putin’s invasion continues to unravel.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Aug 23, 2022

A strong Ukraine is the best solution to Europe’s Russia problem

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine’s courageous response to Putin’s invasion has inspired the world but some Western leaders remain in denial over the threat posed by a hostile Russia, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Sep 8, 2022

Russia may not survive Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine

By Janusz Bugajski

The Russian Federation looks set to face growing threats from domestic separatist movements in the coming years as Vladimir Putin’s disastrous decision to invade Ukraine serves as a catalyst for imperial collapse.

Civil Society Conflict

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Ukraine is winning but needs weapons to end Russia’s genocidal occupation appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Security

Ukraine intensifies offensive attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, recapturing Balakliia

Tracking narratives

Kremlin-controlled media blame NATO for private jet crash

New Russian commercial threatens Europe with energy supply shutdown

Documenting Dissent

Pushback against compulsory ‘patriotism’ lessons in Russian schools

Ukraine intensifies offensive attacks in Kharkiv Oblast, recapturing Balakliia

The situation on the front line in Ukraine is rapidly changing as the attacks intensify and the fighting becomes increasingly fierce. On September 6, the Ukrainian army launched several counteroffensives against Russian positions in the occupied areas of southern and eastern Ukraine. Russian forces are preparing to defend their positions in Izyum, while the Ukrainian army is regaining control of settlements in the Kharkiv region. Newly released footage documented several prisoners of war who had been reportedly captured during Ukraine’s counterattacks. Meanwhile, there are signs that entire Russian units were wiped out during the fight for control of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region. On September 7, the Ukrainian army announced that it had recaptured Balakliia. The DFRLab expects that Russian reinforcements will not arrive as quickly as Moscow had initially planned, given the circumstances on the ground and the fact that Ukraine has destroyed many logistical hubs in recent weeks. In addition, explosions were reported in Berdyansk and Mariupol, with Ukrainian forces most likely using artillery and drones to attack critical Russian infrastructure. 

Ukrainian forces are also using drones to launch offensive attacks in their attempt to recapture Kherson; a video released on September 3 showed Bayraktar TB2 drones striking Russian equipment along the entire front. Also on September 3, images appeared online indicating that a bridge at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in Kherson Oblast had partially collapsed due to intense missile strikes from Ukrainian forces, further hindering Russian troops in their logistical efforts. In the meantime, Russian forces are building more pontoon bridges to help improve transport links across Kherson Oblast. 

Elsewhere, the city of Kupiansk in Kharkiv Oblast has become one of the epicenters of clashes between Russian and Ukrainian units, experiencing heavy shelling. It seems likely that Ukraine is attempting to add pressure from south of the Izyum axis, which has become a critical bastion for the Russian army since the invasion began. Kupiansk is crucial to both Russia and Ukraine as it is a major railway junction for the northeast frontline. The situation in Kharkiv Oblast remains fraught, but Russian forces are losing important equipment, such as the Strela-10 short-range SAM system that appears to have been captured by Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Wagner Group confirmed that its fighters took part in the capture of the village of Kodema in Donetsk Oblast. Battles for the settlement have been ongoing since mid-summer. Taking control of Kodema would open the possibility of a Russian offensive launched from Zaitseve, in the south, to reach the city of Bakhmut, making it possible to storm the city from several directions. 

As the DFRLab has previously reported, the Wagner Group generally does not promote its involvement in the Ukraine war. However, our research suggests that Wagner Group members are most likely directly under the command of the Russian military hierarchy. In Ukraine, the unit’s direct ties to Spetsnaz special operations forces and Russian military intelligence are visible. For example, with the support of Wagner and Spetsnaz units, the Russian army managed to stop an attempted attack on the strategic village of Pisky, also in Donetsk Oblast. 

On September 8, Russian sources claimed military developments in the direction of Avdiivka, mentioning an “assault operation” in the Pisky area. The operation was carried out by the far-right Sparta and Somalia Battalions, the 11th Regiment, reservists, and units of the separatist Donetsk People’s Militia. This indicates that these irregular units, with links to Spetsnaz and composed of veterans and battle-hardened fighters who have been in the Donbas since 2014, are likely to play an extended role in the fighting in Donetsk as Russia experiences morale issues with its regular fighting forces. The Russian command will also likely continue to face problems such as the rising distrust among Luhansk separatist fighters who have not been paid regularly. 

On September 3, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said that after sustained shelling in the area, the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine was disconnected from its last external power line, but was still able to run electricity through a reserve line. International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the agency’s experts, who remained in Zaporizhzhia after arriving for an inspection last Thursday, were told by senior Ukrainian staff that the fourth and final operational line was down. IAEA experts also learned that the reserve line linking the facility to a nearby thermal power plant was delivering the electricity generated by the plant to the external grid, according to a statement. It added that the same reserve line could provide backup power to the plant if needed. Russian-backed authorities earlier said the plant had been knocked offline. 

Russian forces continue to use the plant as a shield against possible Ukrainian attacks against Russian positions in Zaporizhzhia and Enerhodar. The Insider obtained video of multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) shelling the area near the Zaporizhzhia plant on September 3. Preliminary geolocation indicates the shelling is coming from Russia-controlled territory near the power station. A few days later, Russia attempted to deny the IAEA report about Zaporizhzhia. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that there is no military equipment on the grounds of the plant, other than Rosgvardia elements. Rosgvardiya is the national guard of Russia and fulfills different roles in the context of Ukraine, serving as  both occupation forces and military reinforcements. 

—Ruslan Trad, Resident Fellow for Security Research, Sofia, Bulgaria 

Kremlin-controlled media blame NATO for private jet crash

Pro-Kremlin media outlets accused NATO of taking down a Cessna 551 private jet near Latvia. The private jet was expected to fly from Spain to Germany on September 4 but lost contact with air traffic controllers shortly after takeoff. After the plane went dark, fighter jets from Germany, Denmark, and Sweden intercepted the jet to make visual contact with the plane, but were unsuccessful in locating the crew. The plane later crashed in the Baltic Sea near Latvia. The jet was owned by private jet chartering company Quick Air. 

Pro-Kremlin media were quick to suggest that NATO was behind the crash. Pravda.ru cited three possible reasons for the crash in a headline that read, “Cessna 551 crash: depressurization, NATO missile or crew poisoning.” Similarly, Tsargrad, the media outlet associated with Alexander Dugin, published an article with the headline, “Did NATO forces open fire? Plane crashed off the coast of Latvia.” 

Other Kremlin-controlled media outlets, like Gazeta.ru, RBK, Rambler, and NTV, did not directly blame NATO for the plane crash but implied involvement by focusing on the fact that fighter jets belonging to NATO member states intercepted the plane. For example, Gazeta.ru wrote, “NATO fighters were lifted into the air. Following this, the aircraft began to lose speed and altitude. It was found off the coast of Latvia.” 

Outlets such as RBK, Rambler, and NTV referenced a Reuters report that cited a Lithuanian Air Force spokesperson who confirmed “that fighter aircraft from the NATO Baltic Air Police mission in Amari airfield in Estonia had taken off to follow the plane.” RBK also cited Reuters when reporting, “NATO fighters based in Estonia were raised to intercept it.” Similarly, Rambler reported that “a private plane Cessna 551 crashed northwest of the city of Ventspils in Latvia; NATO fighters were raised to intercept the aircraft.”

—Nika Aleksejeva, Lead Researcher, Riga, Latvia

New Russian commercial threatens Europe with energy supply shutdown

In a newly released commercial, Russia appeared to threaten to cut Europe off from access to all Russian energy supplies this winter. The ad, which has gone viral on social media, includes a song with the lyrics, “Winter will be big, only twilight and snow.” 

In the commercial, a man wearing the uniform of Gazprom, the Russian national gas company, seemingly shuts off a gas supply, and a pressure gauge is seen falling to zero. The footage also includes scenes showing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The next scenes show EU flags and European capitals covered in snow. The video also includes footage of windmills and solar panels, which may be an attempt to communicate that Europe will not be able to heat their cities in the winter using green energy. 

Gazprom denied being involved in the creation of the commercial but commented that “the video is great.” 

The commercial has surfaced on YouTube, VK, pro-Russian outlets, and pro-Kremlin Telegram channels.

—Eto Buziashvili, Research Associate, Washington DC

Pushback against compulsory ‘patriotism’ lessons in Russian schools

On September 5, Russia launched compulsory patriotism lessons referred to as Razgovory o Vazhnom (“Conversations about the Important”) in schools across the country. The Telegram channel Mozhem Obyasnity (“We Can Explain”) reported that some parents kept their children at home to boycott the lesson. On September 3, Telegram channel Utro Fevralya (“February Morning”) reported that a mother in Yekaterinburg wrote a letter to her son’s teacher stating that she is “categorically against” the new program. “I’ve seen the lesson plans,” she continued. “I think there is no place for propaganda in school.” The teacher responded that the school administration had ruled that the son did not need to attend the class. Similarly, on September 6, Utro Fevralya reported that a father in rural Novokievskii Uval who demanded that his child be excused from the lesson was told by the school administration, “If the child does not like it, he may not listen, but he is obliged to attend.” 

On August 30, the Russian Teachers’ Union and women’s rights organization Myagkaya Sila published an open letter condemning the new lesson and calling on parents to boycott the program by demanding their children not be taught propaganda. The letter cited a federal education law permitting students to choose their extracurricular courses; while the class is mandatory, it is technically extracurricular programming. 

On September 5, the Mozhem Obyasnity Telegram channel reported that all course materials had been removed from their official website. On September 7, the materials reappeared, but mentions of Russia’s “special military operation” had been removed. 

The “patriotic” extracurricular lessons are scheduled for Monday mornings for students in grades one to eleven. The official website for the program includes lesson plans through November 28, 2022.

—Nika Aleksejeva, Lead Researcher, Riga, Latvia

The post Russian War Report: Ukraine intensifies offensive attacks in Kharkiv Oblast appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Putin’s criminal war is having a truly historic impact on Ukrainian society and bringing Ukrainians together in a quite literal sense. The invasion has forced millions of Ukrainians to flee to the west of the country, where they have either sought refuge or traveled further into the EU. This has led to unprecedented intermingling between Ukrainians from different regions of the country, which is fueling feelings of solidarity and national integration. Recent opinion polls consistently indicate converging opinions on national identity, language, relations with Russia, and future geopolitical objectives among Ukrainians from all regions of the country. One of the national issues Ukrainians are now most united on is the need for de-Russification.

A further factor driving national integration is the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to serve in the country’s military, with many deploying to frontline regions in the east and the south. Likewise, Ukraine’s large volunteer force is based throughout the country, bringing a wide variety of people from different professional and regional backgrounds into contact with each other for the first time.

The invasion is also speeding up Ukraine’s linguistic de-Russification, with the Russian language now increasingly associated with military aggression. The number of Ukrainians who support Ukrainian as the country’s official state language has risen to 86%. Just 2% of Ukrainians believe Moscow’s claims of a “genocide” against the country’s Russian speakers, but the deliberate weaponization of the Russian language by Vladimir Putin has led many Ukrainians to view the language less favorably.

At the same time, Russian remains widely used in everyday life throughout Ukraine. Language change is a slow process with Russian-speakers typically becoming bilingual before fully adopting Ukrainian. Recent data indicates that 85% use both Ukrainian and Russian at home while just 13% of the Ukrainian population uses only Russian.

Ethnic re-identification appears to be proceeding at a faster pace with 92% of Ukrainian citizens now declaring themselves ethnic Ukrainian in one recent survey. This figure would make Ukraine the third most homogeneous country in Europe after Portugal and Poland. Meanwhile, only 5% of today’s Ukrainian population identified as ethnic Russians in the same survey, representing a striking decline from 22% in the 1989 Soviet census and 17% in the 2001 Ukrainian census.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Ukraine’s relationship with the past is undergoing radical change in response to Russia’s invasion, leading to a widening of the memory divide separating the two neighboring countries. Only 11% of Ukrainians now express nostalgia for the USSR compared to approximately two-thirds of Russians. Likewise, 84% of Ukrainians hold a negative view of Stalin while most Russians have a positive attitude toward the Soviet dictator.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian attitudes toward the country’s twentieth century liberation movement have experienced a major shift. During the early decades of Ukrainian independence, public opinion was often deeply divided on the issue of Ukrainian nationalist groups. This began to change following the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution, when 41% expressed positive views of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) and UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army). Since the February 2022 invasion, this figure has rocketed to 81%.

Ukrainians are now less inclined to differentiate between the Kremlin and ordinary Russians. Following the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, a majority of Ukrainians blamed Russia’s leadership. However, they now overwhelmingly hold both the Kremlin and the Russian people responsible for the current invasion. As a consequence, the number of Ukrainians who express positive views of Russians has plummeted from 47% in 2018 to just 3% today.

This collapse in positive attitudes toward ordinary Russians is not difficult to explain. Everything from polling data to anecdotal evidence demonstrates overwhelming Russian public support for the invasion of Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians with relatives in Russia have personal experience of their family members either applauding the war or accusing them of lying about the horrors of the invasion.

It is also striking that the vast majority of civilian victims during the first six months of the invasion have been the same Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the south and east of the country who Putin claims to be protecting. Tens of thousands were murdered in Mariupol alone, while dozens of other towns and villages have been similarly reduced to ruins in regions of Ukraine that the Kremlin cynically trumpets as “historical Russian lands.”

Eurasia Center events

Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Given the scale of the carnage, it is hardly surprising that 89% of Ukrainians believe the Kremlin is committing genocide in Ukraine. Almost nine in ten Ukrainians think Russia is seeking the destruction of the Ukrainian state and Ukrainian national identity, while half regard Russia as a fascist regime.

This sense that Ukraine is facing an existential challenge is fueling de-Russification and is also driving Ukrainians to reject any talk of a compromise peace. There is a strong sense throughout the country that without a decisive victory, Ukraine will never be secure. Around half of Ukrainians believe there can never be reconciliation with Russia and another third think it may only become possible in two to three decades. In other words, 78% of Ukrainians rule out any normalization of relations with Russia for at least a generation.

De-Russification at the official level has seen openly pro-Kremlin political parties banned and pro-Kremlin media shuttered. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine is on life support with only 4% of Ukrainians now professing membership. This is compared to 54% who identify as members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. With the Ukrainian government recently imposing sanctions on ROC head Patriarch Kirill and seven leading members of the ROC clergy for their role in the invasion, the ROC has an uncertain future in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s school curriculum is undergoing wartime de-Russification, with Ukrainian schoolchildren no longer studying Russian language and literature. The cultural de-Russification process also includes the removal of monuments to Russian literary figures such as Pushkin and Dostoyevsky, along with changes to thousands of street and place names across the country.

Monuments to Russian-Ukrainian friendship along with Russian and Soviet history are being rebranded or pulled down. In Kyiv, a prominent monument to Russian-Ukrainian friendship has been renamed while the city’s iconic motherland monument will have its Soviet crest replaced by a Ukrainian tryzub (trident). In Odesa, debate is raging about whether to remove the monument to Russian Empress Catherine the Great.

Irrespective of how long the war will last, it already seems clear that the end product will be a de-Russified and Europeanized Ukraine. This is exactly what Vladimir Putin hoped to prevent. The Russian dictator’s genocidal invasion is both a crime and a blunder on a scale unparalleled in modern European history.

Taras Kuzio is a Professor of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 10, 2022

Putin is running out of excuses as Ukraine expands the war to Crimea

By Peter Dickinson

Russian officials have denied that Ukraine was behind an audacious August 9 attack on an airbase in occupied Crimea but Moscow’s excuses are beginning to wear thin as Vladimir Putin’s invasion continues to unravel.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Aug 23, 2022

A strong Ukraine is the best solution to Europe’s Russia problem

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine’s courageous response to Putin’s invasion has inspired the world but some Western leaders remain in denial over the threat posed by a hostile Russia, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Aug 24, 2022

Ukraine’s six key conditions for peace talks with Putin’s Russia

By Anders Åslund

After six months of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, there are indications that Vladimir Putin is seeking a return to the negotiating table. Anders Åslund sets out six key conditions for Ukraine ahead of any potential peace talks.

Conflict Economic Sanctions

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Russia’s self-defeating invasion: Why Vladimir Putin has lost Ukraine forever appeared first on Atlantic Council.

Putin came to power in this culture of impunity and has used it to his advantage. Over the past two decades, he has rehabilitated the Soviet past and revived the glorification of Russia’s imperial identity, making it possible to challenge Ukraine’s very right to exist. For this reason, it is imperative that Putin and other key members of his regime now face a long overdue reckoning. But is such an outcome even possible?

The most obvious route to a reckoning is via international justice. Given the massive scale of the crimes being committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, it is unclear what would be the best forum for prosecutions. Investigators from the International Criminal Court (ICC) are already investigating war crimes in Ukraine, while the UN Human Rights Council has established an Independent Commission of Inquiry. Meanwhile, the Ukrainians themselves have begun putting individual Russian soldiers on trial. These efforts will probably result in war crimes prosecutions but it may be many years before key verdicts are delivered. It is also extremely unlikely that Putin himself will ever end up in the dock.

With these uncertainties in mind, we need to ask what true accountability would look like. Holding criminals accountable is meant to deter them and others from future crimes, foster reconciliation between perpetrators and victims, and promote sustainable peace. As Putin’s crimes are rooted in an historic failure to impose accountability, any legal punishments for the invasion of Ukraine would only go so far in accomplishing these goals. Prosecuting war criminals must go hand in hand with efforts to challenge the historical narrative that drove the invasion in the first place. This means confronting Russia’s imperial identity and addressing the toxic notion that Ukrainians have no right to exist as an independent nation.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

If Russia is to be held accountable, the international community must do everything possible to ensure a Ukrainian military victory and the liberation of all occupied Ukrainian land. Following Russia’s defeat on the battlefield, Ukraine will need to receive credible security guarantees offering protection equivalent to NATO membership. Likewise, Western leaders should commit to making Russia pay reparations. Above all, the war must end on Ukraine’s terms. Any attempts to push Ukraine into accepting a compromise peace would be an affront to the country’s immense sacrifices and would also fly in the face of the need for accountability. It is vital that Russia publicly recognize its guilt and acknowledge the sanctity of Ukrainian sovereignty.

One way to achieve greater accountability is by empowering Ukrainians. The international community must work to support Ukrainian society in its efforts to hold Russia accountable. This support should include everything from technical assistance to helping local civil society systematically gather evidence and document atrocities. Ukraine has a functioning legal system but it does not have nearly enough capacity to cope with the volume of war crimes committed by Russian forces over the past six months. International assistance can make a big difference.

Ukraine’s international partners should also assist in the long quest to identify all the victims of Russia’s genocide. For the average Ukrainian, anger at Putin may be something of an abstraction. Indeed, while he is the individual most directly responsible for the invasion, he is neither the soldier who pulled the trigger nor the one who launched the bombs that destroyed civilian homes, hospitals, and schools. Like genocidaires throughout history, Putin’s intent is to destroy Ukrainian culture, language, and national identity, but he does not act alone. Recognizing each and every victim is an important step towards meaningful accountability for the crimes committed against the Ukrainian nation.

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We need to consider how to target Putin’s false historical narratives at their very roots. One way to do this is to recognize, as Yale historian Timothy Snyder has said, that we need more history and less memory. While it is an open question to what extent Russians themselves bear collective responsibility for Putin’s invasion, polls indicate that a clear majority of Russians do support the war. While exact figures remain elusive, many Russians have evidently bought into Putin’s views of history. With Russia becoming an increasingly closed and authoritarian country, where does that leave those of us who want to see accountability from the inside out?

Here, we need to think beyond the immediate term. “Canceling” Russian culture is not necessarily the answer, but amplifying Ukrainians and their culture absolutely is. Getting their stories to Russians is critical, whether through technologies like VPNs or by supporting the Russian investigative journalists who have fled the country but are continuing their courageous work while based outside Russia.

Here in the West, we can work to advance public awareness, both of today’s Russian genocide and of historic Soviet crimes. This means making sure we document them in history books, teach them in schools, memorialize the victims in public places, and even recognize our own complicity in ignoring past events like the Soviet-era Holodomor famine in Ukraine.

Putin and his regime must face legal punishment for the genocidal invasion of Ukraine. But in order to achieve meaningful accountability, we must also address the unrepentant imperialism that makes it possible for Russians to dehumanize Ukrainians and destroy entire Ukrainian cities. This will require a long-term approach to historical justice that goes beyond the courtroom and seeks to strengthen every aspect of Ukrainian statehood while fundamentally challenging the way Russians view their own past.

Danielle Johnson holds a PhD in Politics from Oxford University and specializes in Russian and Ukrainian affairs.

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UkraineAlert Aug 10, 2022

Putin is running out of excuses as Ukraine expands the war to Crimea

By Peter Dickinson

Russian officials have denied that Ukraine was behind an audacious August 9 attack on an airbase in occupied Crimea but Moscow’s excuses are beginning to wear thin as Vladimir Putin’s invasion continues to unravel.

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UkraineAlert Aug 21, 2022

What Ukraine needs to win the war

By Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

Ukraine can win the war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia and secure an extended peace in Europe but victory depends on receiving Western support that goes well beyond the current level, writes Richard D. Hooker Jr.

Conflict Drones

UkraineAlert Aug 23, 2022

A strong Ukraine is the best solution to Europe’s Russia problem

By Oleksii Reznikov

Ukraine’s courageous response to Putin’s invasion has inspired the world but some Western leaders remain in denial over the threat posed by a hostile Russia, writes Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bid to redraw Europe’s borders by force was accompanied by one of the most sophisticated information offensives ever launched. As the Ukrainian Armed Forces fight to end the occupation of Crimea, it is also vitally important to debunk the disinformation promoted by the Kremlin to justify the 2014 takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula.

A recently launched English-language online course aims to educate international audiences about Crimean history. Developed by the Ukrainian Institute and EdEra online education studio with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation, the “Crimea: History and People” initiative explores the history and culture of the Crimean Tatars while telling the story of Crimea from the perspective of the peninsula’s indigenous people. This approach aims to decolonize the history of Crimea and counter the many imperial Russian narratives that continue to dominate international perceptions.

This initiative is arguably long overdue. Ever since the Russian invasion in early 2014, Moscow’s false claim that Crimea is “historically Russian land” has remained largely unchallenged in the international arena. In reality, Russia did not appear until relatively late in Crimea’s more than two thousand years of recorded history, with the Russian Empire annexing the peninsula in the final years of eighteenth century. Prior to this, Crimea had been home to the Crimean Khanate for over three hundred years, a far longer span than the subsequent period spent under Russian rule. This is largely overlooked in Russian histories and is rarely referenced in international coverage of Crimea. Instead, the peninsula is misleadingly portrayed as part of Russia’s ancient heritage. This helps legitimize Moscow’s wholly illegitimate claims to Crimea.

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Since Ukraine became independent in 1991, the process of decolonizing the country’s past has been slowly gathering pace. A more nuanced study of the entire post-Soviet region that goes beyond traditional Russia-centric approaches is essential for anyone seeking to make sense of contemporary Ukraine or looking to understand the origins of the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022. This is perhaps nowhere truer than on the issue of Crimea.

For decades following the Soviet collapse, many international observers spoke favorably of the “civilized” divorce between Russia and Ukraine. They often identified Crimea in particular as a success story, noting the absence of violent conflict and praising the compromises that made it possible to manage the return of the Crimean Tatars from Soviet exile along with the division of the Black Sea Fleet.

The true picture of Crimea in the 1990s is not quite so rosy. While open conflict was indeed avoided, the volatile political debates that raged over the future of the peninsula highlighted the continued strength of imperial sentiment in the supposedly democratic and pro-Western Russia of the Boris Yeltsin era. Russian politicians agitated against Ukraine over the issue of Crimea throughout the 1990s and were often accused of fueling separatist movements on the peninsula. As Paul D’Anieri noted in his 2019 book Ukraine and Russia: From Civilized Divorce to Uncivil War, “Even many Russian liberals who accepted Ukraine’s independence believed that Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Black Sea Fleet were Russian.”

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Simmering imperial anger in Russia over the loss of Crimea was a warning sign of potential conflict that went unheeded and ultimately led to today’s war. It is now painfully apparent that Russian society as a whole has never fully accepted the loss of Ukraine and still clings to obsolete notions of the country’s place within Russian imperial identity. Failure to move beyond the imperial past in the 1990s has turned modern Russia into a backward-looking country that is driven by a revisionist desire to reassert its authority over former colonies rather than building pragmatic neighborly relations.

The Western world must share some of the blame for this tragic reality. During the 1990s, many Western politicians and academics continued to view the post-Soviet world through a Russian prism while embracing Kremlin-friendly historical narratives shaped by centuries of Czarist imperialism. This helped to justify Russia’s continued regional dominance while reducing the newly independent peoples of the former USSR to the status of footnotes in their own national stories. It is now time to challenge such outdated thinking and decolonize perceptions of the entire post-Soviet region.

For far too long, academic courses at Western universities focusing on Eastern European studies have placed disproportionate emphasis on understanding Russia. In the years to come, this needs to change. Instead, Western academics must dedicate far more time to understanding Ukraine. Learning about the complex history of Crimea from a non-Russian perspective is an important step in the right direction.

Dr. Oleksandra Gaidai is Head of Academic Programmes at the Ukrainian Institute.

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UkraineAlert Aug 2, 2022

Putin’s entire Ukraine invasion hinges on the coming Battle of Kherson

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s much anticipated counter-offensive in the south of the country is now gathering momentum with many observers predicting that the looming Battle of Kherson will decide the fate of Vladimir Putin’s entire invasion.

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UkraineAlert Aug 21, 2022

What Ukraine needs to win the war

By Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

Ukraine can win the war against Vladimir Putin’s Russia and secure an extended peace in Europe but victory depends on receiving Western support that goes well beyond the current level, writes Richard D. Hooker Jr.

Conflict Drones

UkraineAlert Aug 24, 2022

Ukraine’s six key conditions for peace talks with Putin’s Russia

By Anders Åslund

After six months of battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, there are indications that Vladimir Putin is seeking a return to the negotiating table. Anders Åslund sets out six key conditions for Ukraine ahead of any potential peace talks.

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The post Decolonizing Crimean history appeared first on Atlantic Council.

This is no longer the case. In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention based in large part on the visionary efforts of Raphael Lemkin, a lawyer who studied in Lviv and went on to coin the term “genocide.” Lemkin was driven by the idea that crimes committed on the national scale must not go unpunished. He warned that impunity would be seen as an invitation for further atrocities. Unless crimes against humanity were punished, they would be repeated.  

When seeking to define genocide, Lemkin highlighted the crimes committed by the Soviet regime in Ukraine. He saw the Kremlin’s systematic efforts to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a “classic example of Soviet genocide.” The central event of the Soviet Union’s genocidal campaign in Ukraine was the murder of over four million Ukrainians through artificial famine in the early 1930s.

The Soviet authorities experienced almost no negative consequences as a result of this unparalleled slaughter. Indeed, just months after the peak of the famine, the United States granted the USSR official recognition. The outside world simply refused to listen to the handful of courageous voices such as British journalist Gareth Jones who attempted to shed light on the apocalyptic reality of the famine.

Instead of being celebrated for his revelations, Jones was shamefully attacked by his fellow international correspondents. The loudest voice was that of Walter Duranty, the Moscow bureau chief of the New York Times. It says much about how little has been learned that this disgraced genocide accomplice still holds a Pulitzer Prize despite calls for him to be posthumously stripped of the award.

Since regaining independence in 1991, Ukrainians have thrown off the shackles of Soviet censorship and chronicled the full extent of the Holodomor (“Death by Hunger”), as the famine is known in Ukraine. During the post-Soviet era, growing awareness of the Holodomor has been instrumental in bringing about a broader re-evaluation of the country’s totalitarian past.

The same cannot be said for modern Russia. Far from acknowledging the famine as an act of genocide, Moscow continues to downplay or deny Soviet crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to rehabilitate the entire Soviet era and has built modern Russian national identity around a cult-like veneration of the USSR’s role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Attempts to condemn the mass murders of the Soviet regime are now routinely dismissed as unpatriotic and anti-Russian, while Stalin himself is once again openly celebrated as a great leader.

Given the complete failure to hold Russia accountable for the crimes of the past, it is hardly surprising that these crimes are now being repeated. As Lemkin feared, impunity has set the stage for a new era of atrocities.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

The ideological foundations for today’s genocide were first laid in the wake of Ukraine’s 2004 Orange Revolution. This Ukrainian pro-democracy uprising was a watershed moment for the entire post-Soviet region. It was viewed with horror by many in Moscow, who saw it as the next stage in a Russian imperial retreat that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Putin’s response was to enter into increasingly open confrontation with the West while seeking to reassert Russian authority throughout the post-Soviet region. In the years following the Orange Revolution, the Kremlin developed the concept of the “Russkiy Mir” (“Russian World”), meaning a community of people beyond the borders of modern Russia bound by common ties of language, culture and religion who owe their allegiance to Moscow.  

As the concept of the Russian World evolved, state officials and regime proxies in Moscow began to directly question the legitimacy of the Soviet collapse and challenge the verdict of 1991. It became increasingly common to hear prominent figures publicly deny the sovereignty and national identity of former Soviet republics or reject the entire notion of an independent Ukraine.

This unashamedly imperial agenda was actively promoted for over a decade throughout the Russian information space via everything from blockbuster movies and TV documentaries to opinion pieces and public holidays. Kremlin troll factories seeded social media with revisionist historical narratives justifying Russian expansionism, while an endless parade of Kremlin-curated political talk shows primed the Russian public for the coming genocide.

A major landmark in these efforts came in summer 2021 with the publication of Putin’s personal essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” This historically illiterate 5000-word treatise was widely interpreted as a declaration of war against Ukrainian statehood. The Russian dictator used the article to reiterate his frequently voiced conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people” while also claiming that much of modern-day Ukraine occupies historically Russian lands. He concluded with a thinly veiled threat, declaring, “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.”

Despite these very public preparations for genocide, few observers were prepared for the atrocities that would come in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 invasion. In the weeks leading up to the invasion, reports emerged of detailed Russian plans for mass detentions, concentration camps, and priority kill lists. These warnings were widely dismissed as inconceivable but were to prove all too accurate. 

The scale of Russia’s crimes over the past six months remains difficult to comprehend. Entire cities have been reduced to rubble. Thousands have been executed. Millions have been forcibly deported to Russia. The core infrastructure of the Ukrainian state has been methodically targeted for destruction, along with the country’s cultural heritage. In areas under Russian occupation, all national symbols and traces of Ukrainian identity are being eradicated. The entire world is witnessing a textbook example of genocide unfolding in real time on smartphone screens and social media threads. 

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A sense of shock over the magnitude of Russian atrocities is understandable. However, it is also important to note that recognizable elements of the current genocide have already been underway for an extended period in regions of Ukraine occupied by Russia since 2014. Over the past eight years, Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region have become human rights black holes marked by the suppression of Ukrainian identity, language, and history along with the physical displacement of Ukrainians and arrival of Russian citizens. Once again, impunity has invited escalation. 

The world is slowly waking up to Russian genocide in Ukraine. Parliaments in countries including Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland have all recognized the Russian invasion as an act of genocide. Others are expected to follow suit. At the same time, there is still considerable international reluctance to confront Putin’s Russia. Advocates of appeasement point to Moscow’s nuclear arsenal and highlight the need to maintain a dialogue with the Kremlin in order to address a range of global issues. Russia is simply too big and too important to isolate, they argue.

This emphasis on compromise over confrontation risks further eroding international security. If Moscow is able to evade justice for committing genocide in Ukraine, other authoritarian regimes will surely see this as a green light. China in particular is closely monitoring the democratic world’s response to Russia’s invasion and will draw the necessary conclusions for its own foreign policy.

It is now painfully clear that failure to hold the USSR accountable in 1991 was a major error. A Nuremburg-style trial exposing the crimes of the Soviet era could have helped facilitate the post-Soviet transition to democracy and prevented Russia’s return to authoritarianism under Putin.  

This makes it all the more imperative that Vladimir Putin and his accomplices now face justice. Even if they remain in power and beyond the reach of international law, there is nothing to stop the civilized world from holding a trial in absentia. Such an undertaking would send a clear message to the Russian people and to authoritarian regimes around the world that the age of impunity for crimes against humanity is over. 

Genocide is no longer a crime without a name. On the contrary, the global community officially recognizes genocide as the gravest of all crimes. Nevertheless, this has not prevented today’s Russia from plotting and conducting a genocidal invasion in plain sight. Moscow’s boldness owes much to the sense of impunity engendered by a complete lack of accountability for the crimes of the Soviet regime. The world cannot afford to make the same mistake again.

Alexander Khara is a fellow at the Centre for Defence Strategies.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Mar 23, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine War can end in only two ways: Genocide or defeat

By Peter Dickinson

Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that he regards Ukrainians as Russians and does not recognize Ukraine’s right to exist. Unless he is defeated, his Ukraine invasion may deteriorate into a genocide in the heart of Europe.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Jun 27, 2022

Odesa rejects Russia: Putin’s Ukraine War turns old allies into bitter enemies

By Oleksiy Goncharenko

Putin has long claimed to be the champion of pro-Russian Ukrainians. However, the Ukrainian regions most closely associated with pro-Kremlin sentiment have also been hardest hit by the current invasion.

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UkraineAlert May 24, 2022

Putin’s Mariupol Massacre is one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes

By Paul Niland

The Russian destruction of Mariupol ranks among the gravest crimes against humanity of the twenty-first century and sends a clear message to the international community that can be no compromise peace with Putin.

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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

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The post Putin’s Ukraine genocide is rooted in Russian impunity for Soviet crimes appeared first on Atlantic Council.

The remarkable resilience of the Ukrainian nation has shocked and impressed many observers around the world. But those of us who live and work in Ukraine are not nearly so surprised. As the conflict approaches the six-month mark, it is important to understand that a war designed to crush Ukrainian independence has in fact resulted in a stronger, unifying Ukrainian identity centered on the principles of freedom and democracy. This is best exemplified by the mood among young Ukrainians.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Russia’s war is not the first time Ukraine’s emerging post-Soviet generation has risen to the challenge of resisting a return to authoritarianism. In 2004, when widespread voter fraud in the country’s presidential election seemed poised to undo independent Ukraine’s hard-fought freedoms and fledgling democratic values, young Ukrainians were among the leading organizers of the Orange Revolution.

Ten years later, Ukrainian youth once again rose to the occasion, but this time as leaders of the Euromaidan Revolution following the Ukrainian government’s Kremlin-backed decision to reject an Association Agreement with the European Union. As the Russian Federation now seeks to rob Ukraine of its sovereignty, we are once again witnessing Ukrainian youth at the center of the fight for the future of their country.

This younger generation of Ukrainians born following the collapse of the USSR is leading positive change on multiple fronts including the military and civil society. Many thousands are currently serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As the war rages around them, young Ukrainians are also volunteering in large numbers to distribute humanitarian aid through digital platforms like SpivDiia that match people’s needs with resources from businesses and private individuals. 

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Young Ukrainians in government are designing cutting-edge solutions to meet emergency wartime needs. Young journalists are risking their lives to provide accurate information and document Russian war crimes. Many of these journalists have recently been recognized for their professional accomplishments, including Ukrainska Pravda Chief Editor Sevgil Hayretdın Qızı Musaieva, who was named this year by Time Magazine as one of the world’s top 100 most influential people.

Another example is Mykhailo Fedorov. The 31-year-old Minister of Digital Transformation and Ukraine’s youngest cabinet member has rallied the Ukrainian IT community and lobbied international tech companies to support Ukraine in the digital hybrid war against Russia. He is also behind the wartime adaptation of a government app that is providing social benefits to millions of internally displaced people who lost their jobs as a result of the war. Deputy Minister of Health Mariia Karchevych is another high-profile government official under 35 who is coordinating the flow of humanitarian aid throughout the country.

In addition to supporting the country’s wartime needs, young Ukrainians are also on the frontlines of the fight against Russian propaganda. From the very first days of the invasion, numerous professional and grassroots initiatives have emerged to expose the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns.

In the months and years to come, youth will remain on the Ukrainian frontlines, both literally and figuratively. They will need to play an integral part in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction, helping to shape important initiatives such as youth-friendly mental health services and educational efforts to address wartime interruptions in learning.

As the world marks International Youth Day on August 12, it is important that we recognize the contributions of young Ukrainians in government and civil society as well as in the military. And as national and international stakeholders look to rebuild Ukraine, it is also crucial that we continue supporting, listening to, and engaging this younger generation to make sure they remain at the heart of the post-war recovery process.

Ukraine’s resilient response to Russian aggression highlights the country’s commitment to democratic values and active citizen participation. It reflects a remarkable readiness to take personal responsibility for the future of the country. Amid the horrific destruction of the Russian invasion, young Ukrainians are playing a crucial role in consolidating an even stronger sense of national identity. This victory is as strategically important as any military success for the future of Ukraine’s statehood.

Mehri Druckman is IREX’s Country Director for Ukraine and Chief of Party for the USAID funded Ukraine National Identity Through Youth (UNITY) program. SpivDiia is an IREX grantee.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Aug 9, 2022

Flawed Amnesty report risks enabling more Russian war crimes in Ukraine

By Lillian Posner

Amnesty International’s recent report accusing Ukraine of endangering civilian lives has sparked a wave of international criticism and is being actively used by the Kremlin to justify Russian bombing of civilian targets.

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UkraineAlert Aug 10, 2022

Putin is running out of excuses as Ukraine expands the war to Crimea

By Peter Dickinson

Russian officials have denied that Ukraine was behind an audacious August 9 attack on an airbase in occupied Crimea but Moscow’s excuses are beginning to wear thin as Vladimir Putin’s invasion continues to unravel.

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UkraineAlert Aug 5, 2022

Russia’s invasion is putting the future of Ukraine’s forests at risk

By Yehor Hrynyk

As the Russian invasion approaches the six-month mark, Ukraine’s forests are facing the twin threats of frontline wildfires and wartime emergency economic measures that could lead to a disastrous increase in logging.

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This raises challenging questions regarding the separation of culture from politics and the role played by culture in Russian imperialism. With Russian troops occupying vast swathes of Ukraine and Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly declaring the return of “historic Russian lands,” is now the right time for Russian intellectuals to rally in defense of Pushkin?

Figures like Shishkin certainly have the right to speak out over perceived attacks on Russian culture in wartime Ukraine. Yet others also have the right to challenge the intent behind such statements. As Russia’s genocidal campaign enters its sixth month with no apparent end in sight, what message do famous Russian intellectuals wish to convey when they use their name recognition to focus on the preservation of Russian culture in Ukraine? Are they really tone-deaf to the centuries of imperial politics underpinning the formerly dominant position of Russian culture in Ukraine? Do they not see how Putin has weaponized Russian culture in his quest to rebuild the Russian Empire?

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Russia is committing genocide against the Ukrainian people and making no secret of the fact. On the contrary, the overwhelming physical evidence of war crimes in Ukraine itself is supported by an endless array of proofs from Russian officials and propagandists in Moscow that demonstrate clear and unambiguous genocidal intent.

Since the invasion began on February 24, testimonies of survivors who fled Russian occupation have made clear that Putin’s ultimate objective is to wipe Ukraine off the map. Russian troops are trying to achieve this criminal goal through a combination of mass murder, terror tactics, deportation and depopulation. Mass graves have been uncovered wherever Russian troops have been forced to retreat. The Ukrainian authorities have been overwhelmed with accounts of torture and sexual violence. Thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly relocated to Russia. Air raid sirens sound in nearly every region of Ukraine on a weekly or sometimes daily basis. Civilian buildings are frequently the target of missile strikes. Millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes. No part of the country is safe.

Meanwhile, Kremlin TV pundits routinely question the legitimacy of Ukrainian statehood and call for the forced “re-education” of Ukrainians to rob them of their Ukrainian identity. Officials declare that Ukraine “no longer exists,” while editorials in Russian state media confirm the invasion’s stated military goal of “de-Nazification” actually means “de-Ukrainianization.” Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who the West once naively hailed as a liberal change-maker, now regularly posts deranged anti-Ukrainian messages on his Telegram channel alongside maps of Ukraine divided up among Russia and other neighboring countries.

Throughout occupied Ukraine, the campaign to erase Ukrainian identity frequently employs Russian cultural icons. For example, billboards featuring giant portraits of Pushkin have been erected in the occupied city of Kherson in southern Ukraine as part of efforts to promote Russia’s imperial claims. In such circumstances, it is only natural that Ukrainians would begin to view Russian culture as an extension of Russian military aggression and cling more fiercely to their national identity instead.

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Several noted Ukrainian authors who wrote mostly in Russian until the invasion have underlined how the conflict has made it impossible to separate culture from politics.

One such example is Volodymyr Rafeyenko, who wrote Mondegreen, his first novel in Ukrainian, after fleeing his native Donetsk in 2014. As he explained in a recent piece for Literary Hub, he was fully prepared to be a bilingual author but everything changed following the start of the full-scale invasion in February. “Genocide, the murders of children and adults, rapes, torture, the destruction of churches and museums, kindergartens and schools. Beastly, ungodly cruelty. All of this will be closely connected with the Russian language. And nothing can be done about it. The Russian language in its entirety has become obscene, speech outside the bounds of decent human discourse. And these days, if I have to use it in some private communication, I always feel something like disgust mixed with shame, guilt and physical pain.” After February 24, Rafeyenko found himself displaced yet again due to Russian aggression when he and his wife were trapped in the occupied suburbs of Kyiv. Thanks to the help of friends, they were able to evacuate to the west of the country.

The daily brutality of Russia’s invasion has compelled many Ukrainian artists to call on the world to suspend any and all cooperation with the Russian cultural sphere for as long as the war continues. Critics like Mikhail Shishkin have argued that it is Putin and not Pushkin who is directly responsible for the crimes taking place in Ukraine. Many Russian liberals appear to find it incomprehensible that poetry and other forms of high art could be spoken of in the same vein as mass torture, kidnapping, rape, and murder. Such posturing is either conveniently shortsighted or intellectually dishonest. 

For centuries, Russian literature has played an important role in the shaping of negative imperialistic stereotypes about Ukraine. The country has routinely been depicted as a backward and inferior region of Russia that is incapable of self-rule and undeserving of statehood. One particularly notorious example is the infamous poem by celebrated Soviet dissident Joseph Brodsky entitled “On the Independence of Ukraine,” which was written during the breakup of the Soviet Union. In this vicious and vulgar poem, he uses a Russian ethnic slur to refer to Ukrainians and contemptuously declares that on their deathbeds, Ukrainians will forsake nineteenth-century Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko in favor of Pushkin.

Brodsky’s poem sheds light on a painful truth that many in the West are still struggling to grasp. While Russian literary figures have traditionally been lionized by Western audiences as symbols of a freer Russia, their readiness to take a stand against the autocracy of the Russian state does not necessarily make them natural allies of the Ukrainian national project. Indeed, Ukrainians have long noted that Russian liberalism ends at the Ukrainian border.

None of this means that the tone–deaf words of Russian writers such as Mikhail Shishkin are tantamount to war crimes committed by the Russian army. However, understanding the nuances of Russian-Ukrainian relations should compel us to reexamine how the public sphere engages the topic of Ukraine. This is especially true in the context of ongoing Russian aggression and against an historic backdrop of Russian imperialism. Ideally, the current war should spark a fundamental shift in international perceptions of Ukraine and expose the folly of attempting to view the country through a Russian prism.

Russian artists, like Ukrainian artists, have been victims of the Russian state in its many ugly forms. Yet political oppression should not be confused with genocide. While Russian authors like Mikhail Shishkin sit in exile and mourn the loss of Pushkin statues in Ukraine, their Ukrainian contemporaries such as Oleh Sentsov, Artem Chapeye, Artem Chekh, Oleksandr Mykhed, Illarion Pavliuk, Stanislav Aseyev, Pavlo Stekh, Yaryna Chornohuz and many more have taken up arms to save their country from destruction. In the final analysis, it is their nation-building experience and not the fate of Pushkin that is the true story of this war. This is a story the world desperately needs to hear. 

Kate Tsurkan is a Ukraine-based American writer and Chief Editor of Apofenie Magazine.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Jun 30, 2022

Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: Decoding Putin’s Ukraine War lexicon

By Peter Dickinson

From “goodwill gestures” to “de-Nazification” and “reclaiming Russian lands,” the Atlantic Council’s Peter Dickinson decodes some of the key phrases from the lexicon of Putin’s Ukraine War into plain English.

Central Asia Conflict

UkraineAlert Jun 27, 2022

Odesa rejects Russia: Putin’s Ukraine War turns old allies into bitter enemies

By Oleksiy Goncharenko

Putin has long claimed to be the champion of pro-Russian Ukrainians. However, the Ukrainian regions most closely associated with pro-Kremlin sentiment have also been hardest hit by the current invasion.

Conflict Disinformation

UkraineAlert Jul 28, 2022

Vogue diplomacy: First Lady Olena Zelenska is Ukraine’s secret weapon

By Peter Dickinson

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska has recently sparked debate by posing for a Vogue photo shoot with celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz that some slammed as frivolous but others praised as a soft power masterstroke.

Conflict Disinformation

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

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The post Putin has forced Ukrainians to view Russian culture as a weapon of war appeared first on Atlantic Council.

This tech sector strength is driving the Ukrainian response to Russia’s imperial aggression. It is enabling the country to defy and in many instances defeat one of the world’s leading military superpowers. A start-up culture that owes much to Ukraine’s vibrant IT industry is providing rapid solutions to frontline challenges in ways that the more traditional top-down Russian military simply cannot match. 

The tech component of Ukraine’s battlefield success is perhaps not as surprising as it might at first appear. According to the 2022 Global Skills Report by Coursera, the country ranks among the global top ten in terms of technological skills.

This high position reflects the impressive progress made in recent years to support the growth of the country’s IT sector and to foster greater digital literacy throughout Ukrainian society. Since 2019, the Ukrainian authorities have prioritized digital skills and have sought to promote learning through the Diia.Digital Education online platform, which serves as an “educational Netflix” featuring courses conducted by experts and celebrities.

This approach appears to be working. The platform currently boasts a completion rate of 80% among those who sign up for courses. Nor has Russia’s invasion prevented Ukrainians from enhancing their IT skills. Around 60,000 Ukrainians have registered for courses since the start of the war, with the most popular topics being training for new tech sector professions, media literacy, and cyber hygiene.

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Ukraine’s emphasis on digital innovation was shaping the country long before Putin launched his full-scale invasion on February 24. In 2021, Ukraine became the first country in the world to give digital passports the same legal status as physical passports for domestic use. Ukraine was the fourth European country to introduce digital driving licenses and also developed the world’s fastest online business registration service. 

Efforts to promote greater digitization continue despite today’s wartime conditions. This is recognized as important for the war effort and is also seen as an essential ingredient for Ukraine’s post-war recovery. I am convinced that tech-focused educational initiatives must remain a strategic priority for the country. By 2025, 85% of all occupations will require digital skills.

The Ukrainian authorities are currently supporting a project to train 5,000 internally displaced women for new careers in the creative and tech industries. There is clearly huge demand for such tech-related retraining opportunities, with the application process for the first phase of this initiative attracting around 36,000 candidates.

A pilot project to reform computer studies within the Ukrainian school system is also proceeding against the backdrop of the ongoing Russian invasion. The first stage will begin in September and will feature 50 secondary schools, before being scaled up to the entire country next year. Thanks to this project, an estimated four million Ukrainian schoolchildren will gain access to a state-of-the-art digital education.

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Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

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Ukraine’s broader transformation into a genuinely digital state is continuing despite the disruption of the war. This progress is perhaps most visible in terms of the Diia.City project. Two weeks before the Russian invasion, Ukraine launched this special economic initiative offering some of the most attractive taxation terms in the world for tech companies. Ukrainian and international IT companies have continued to sign up to the Diia.City project since the outbreak of hostilities, with a total of 260 companies now registered. Clearly, they believe in Ukrainian victory and are confident about the country’s future development as a digital powerhouse.

Digital services have been launched to support those in the combat zone, allowing them to apply online for financial assistance. Likewise, the Diia mobile app allows anyone to financially support the Ukrainian military via a few clicks. Ukrainians can use the country’s digital platforms to report news of Russian military deployments in their localities and can submit digital reports detailing property damage.

The team at the Ministry of Digital Transformation is currently working with thousands of volunteers to wage a digital war against Russia on the information and cyber fronts. The ministry has initiated the creation of Ukraine’s very own IT army, which brings together specialists from Ukraine and other countries around the world. Today, this army consists of more than 250,000 IT volunteers participating in what is widely recognized as the world’s first cyber war.

Ukraine’s innovative use of technology is allowing the country to punch above its weight and defend itself against a much larger enemy. This experience will be studied for years to come as an example of how digital literacy and tech excellence can cancel out the traditional advantages of conventional military strength and transform the modern battlefield. The future of the world will be shaped by technology and today’s Ukraine is leading the way. 

Valeriya Ionan is Ukraine’s Deputy Minister for Eurointegration at the Ministry of Digital Transformation

Further reading

UkraineAlert Jun 30, 2022

Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: Decoding Putin’s Ukraine War lexicon

By Peter Dickinson

From “goodwill gestures” to “de-Nazification” and “reclaiming Russian lands,” the Atlantic Council’s Peter Dickinson decodes some of the key phrases from the lexicon of Putin’s Ukraine War into plain English.

Central Asia Conflict

UkraineAlert Jul 20, 2022

Ukraine can win

By Richard D. Hooker, Jr.

If the West takes active measures to ensure Ukraine can’t defeat Putin’s Russia, it won’t. But if it commits to supplying the range of capabilities required for modern, high intensity warfare, Ukraine can win, and it will win.

Conflict European Union

UkraineAlert Jul 25, 2022

Ukrainian footballers prepare to defy Putin with wartime premier league

By Andrew Todos

The Ukrainian Premier League is preparing to begin the 2022-23 season in August despite Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country as Ukrainians turn to football to demonstrate their determination to defy the Kremlin.

Central Europe Conflict

The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.

Read more from UkraineAlert

UkraineAlert is a comprehensive online publication that provides regular news and analysis on developments in Ukraine’s politics, economy, civil society, and culture.

The Eurasia Center’s mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the West to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the East.

Learn more

The post Ukraine’s tech excellence is playing a vital role in the war against Russia appeared first on Atlantic Council.

For the past thirty years, Ukraine has experienced a massive brain drain of young, talented and dynamic scientific researchers, students, and innovators to the more attractive and lucrative laboratories and industries of Europe, Asia, and North America. This loss has been severely exacerbated by the current Russian invasion of the country. While there have been large-scale efforts to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in temporary positions abroad, it can be assumed that many will never return to their homeland.

It suffices to look to the wartime role of the Ukrainian IT sector to understand why advanced scientific research, education, and high-tech entrepreneurship are so essential to the country’s military and economic security. Since the outbreak of hostilities just over four months ago, young Ukrainian cyber warriors have stunningly upended expectations that Russian military and criminal hackers (which may be one and the same) would destroy Ukraine through cvber warfare.  

As the world watches the Russian invasion of Ukraine unfold, UkraineAlert delivers the best Atlantic Council expert insight and analysis on Ukraine twice a week directly to your inbox.

Ukrainian science goes much deeper than cyber-defense. In materials science, physics, mathematical modeling, engineering and a range of other areas, Ukraine’s advanced scientific research has made a significant impact not only in terms of international scientific publications but also in the world of technology and commerce.

Importantly, the strength of Ukrainian science and technology is not limited to the civilian sphere and has historically been closely tied to defense production. The famed Paton Electric Welding Institute in Kyiv has not only conducted leading-edge research on metallurgy and welding; it was also a primary producer of Soviet tanks as well as special metals for submarines and aircraft. Ukraine must also venture in new directions in the life sciences, in part to research countermeasures to biological warfare as well as to prevent the spread of disease among farm animals.

Major restructuring is necessary in order to get the most out of Ukraine’s tech potential. Much like other countries throughout the former Soviet bloc, Ukraine has inherited Russia’s heavily top-down, bureaucratic and inefficient research system. The concept of the modern research university, combining advanced research and education at all levels and contributing to technological innovation through linkages with industry, is still largely absent in Ukraine. Due to the thirty-year post-Soviet brain drain, a very high priority must now be placed on the education of the next generations of Ukrainian scientists and engineers.

Other post-Soviet countries have realigned their research and higher education systems in diverse ways and to varying degrees. Reforms have gained some traction in Ukraine since the country’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity, but in most areas progress remains painfully slow.

In this light, the radical devastation of war presents both deep challenges and major opportunities. In the words of the seventeenth century English historian Thomas Fuller, as put to music by the Mamas and the Papas, “the darkest hour of the night comes just before the dawn.”

Eurasia Center events

Online Event Thu, August 15, 2024 • 9:00 am ET

Ukraine’s advance in Kursk: What’s next and implications

Conflict Russia Security & Defense Ukraine

As of now, the humanitarian and reconstruction assistance agenda of the United States government is silent on directed support for Ukraine’s science and technology sector. There are multiple opportunities for USAID and others to make a difference. There are also multiple opportunities not only to fail through inaction or lack of vision, but also for US assistance to fall behind support from other sources such as the European Union.

It is time for the US government to wake up and realize that for Ukraine to enter the modern world of knowledge economies, action is required now. Even before major physical reconstruction is underway, or simultaneously with it, there is an urgent need to address the immediate financial crisis in Ukrainian science, directing short-term support especially to those young scientists remaining in Ukraine. It is also essential to strengthen and realign the Ukrainian research, higher education, and technological innovation systems to succeed in the world of economic competitiveness and global cooperation.

There is now an ideal opportunity to look at these key issues in a fresh light and take bold steps. Without such thought and planning, throwing money at the problem will not have a lasting impact. As a senior Ukrainian member of the RESET-Ukraine working group informally remarked, “We need to change the system. If you go back to the old system, nothing will change.”

Only willingness to engage in significant system change, the kind that will lift Ukrainian research, education, and innovation to standards and practices resembling those in Europe and elsewhere, will inspire the confidence needed in order for external funders to provide the higher magnitudes of financing necessary in order make a long-term and sustainable difference.

Direct assistance grants, support for Ukrainian STEM programs especially in higher education, and jump-start grants to small high-tech Ukrainian businesses along the lines of the US Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program can go a long way, dollar for dollar, toward ensuring the long-term economic health and vitality of a sovereign and independent Ukraine. But these efforts must go hand in hand with a blueprint for systemic change, one that works for all Ukrainian stakeholders.

That is why the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have created an informal working group called Rebuilding Engineering, Science, Education, and Technology (RESET-Ukraine) to work together with our Ukrainian colleagues to consider the best practices of other countries in realigning their national research systems for the twenty-first century. Our work is already underway. But such efforts cannot fully reach their potential unaccompanied by a clear commitment, first and foremost, from the United States and other governments to put material assistance in this field high on the agenda.

Gerson S. Sher is a retired civil servant and foundation executive whose forty-year career involved leadership of scientific cooperation with the countries of the former Soviet Union. He is the author of “From Pugwash to Putin: A Critical History of US-Soviet Scientific Cooperation” (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2019), and is co-chair of the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s informal working group, RESET-Ukraine.

Further reading

UkraineAlert Jun 30, 2022

Goodwill gestures and de-Nazification: Decoding Putin’s Ukraine War lexicon

By Peter Dickinson

From “goodwill gestures” to “de-Nazification” and “reclaiming Russian lands,” the Atlantic Council’s Peter Dickinson decodes some of the key phrases from the lexicon of Putin’s Ukraine War into plain English.

Central Asia Conflict

UkraineAlert May 24, 2022

Putin’s Mariupol Massacre is one of the 21st century’s worst war crimes

By Paul Niland

The Russian destruction of Mariupol ranks among the gravest crimes against humanity of the twenty-first century and sends a clear message to the international community that can be no compromise peace with Putin.

Conflict Democratic Transitions

UkraineAlert May 27, 2022

South Ukraine holds the key to Putin’s dreams of a new Russian Empire

By Taras Kuzio

The biggest European battles since WWII are currently raging in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region but the ultimate outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian War is likely to be decided hundreds of miles to the south.

Civil Society Conflict