Commentary

As April began, the official number of coronavirus cases in Ukraine continued to rise slowly but surely. While several significant clusters have been identified, the overall outbreak has yet to mirror the scale of the crisis witnessed elsewhere in Europe. Nevertheless, forecasts for Ukraine remain grim, with many believing that a chronic lack of testing and widespread misdiagnosis of patients are combining to mask the true extent of the epidemic in the country. Crucially, there is a sense that the Ukrainian authorities have failed to make use of the vital weeks at their disposal since the emergency began to unfold internationally during the first few months of 2020. Rather than address the material shortcomings of the...

At times of national crisis, a government must project a unified front of competent leadership that engenders calm, confidence, and competence. These are the characteristics that Winston Churchill’s leadership illustrated on the eve of an imminent attack by the Germans at the beginning of World War II. His wisdom was evident in his ability to form a coalition of diverse political persuasions and extremely strong personalities into a unified team. In Ukraine however, recently published articles reveal glaring weaknesses in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s team – particularly with regard to the country’s health minister. This is a minister whose most prominent statements to date regarding the spread of the coronavirus include a public pronouncement that most of Ukraine’s elderly population will die and the need to declare a state of emergency to make...

The coronavirus may hit Ukraine hard. With its anemic health care system, large elderly population, and less than 1,000 life-saving ventilators in the country, all bets are off. Ukraine’s leaders have rightly closed airports and public transport. On March 22, the Office of the President of Ukraine issued a short video featuring First Lady Olena Zelenskyy and three other famous mothers giving their tips for staying healthy during the pandemic. The ninety-second video was remarkable in whom it did not feature. There was not a man or father. Instead, it’s all up to Ukraine’s tough and heroic women to weather the pandemic and keep their children and country safe. “Women are the...

Ukraine has gone into a nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. As of Tuesday, the country is completely closed to foreigners. All international air traffic has stopped and Ukraine’s land borders are closed, too. Ukrainian citizens stuck abroad have been instructed to go to their nearest consulate so they can get a seat on a chartered flight home. All domestic air, train, and bus travel has been suspended. Here in the capital city of Kyiv, the only businesses allowed to stay open were grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations. The government has ordered everything else closed. Schools, gyms, malls, movie theaters, barbershops, museums. Everything. The ...

As COVID-19 shakes down stock markets around the globe, Ukraine is putting on a brave front. Prime Minister Denys Shmygal claimed on March 11 that Ukraine was prepared for the world economic crisis “better than ever before.” “We have great liquidity in banks, high gold reserves, we have a pretty positive dialogue with the International Monetary Fund,” said Shmygal. However, with the world economy slowing down and lurching towards recession, Ukraine’s economy is about to take a hit, too. It will face additional pressure from expensive foreign lending and decreasing exports. To make matters worse, Ukraine has a new government that has been on the job for just 10 days. There is low confidence that it is prepared to take on the crisis...

Any war, including the current one, now six painful years-long, pits Ukrainians fighting for their independence against Russian aggression. Beyond the military confrontation, the war also involves a highly defined confrontation between two fundamentally different social systems that are at the core of the conflict. However, despite the existential stakes involved, the counterintuitive situation in Ukrainian society is characterized by ambiguity and indeterminateness. The ruling political force seems to be concealing or obscuring the public articulation of its position and preventing an understanding of what current policy is. In such cases, civil society always tries, especially through the media, to pose “real questions” about issues of public concern. Nevertheless, today it is unclear what exactly such “questions” should look like...

Brooke draws comparisons with existing frozen conflicts in the Russian-occupied parts of Moldova and Georgia. Russia has occupied Moldova’s Transnistria for almost 30 years and shows no signs of leaving. In the cases of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, the shooting war may be over, but Russia regularly sends troops into the Georgian countryside at night to advance the borders and add to the territory they already occupy. In all three instances, Russia is not going anywhere. One would hope that the world has learned enough from the experiences of Moldova and Georgia to avoid heading down the same path in Ukraine. The goal of the international community should not be to allow yet another Russian occupation to become permanent. Accepting a frozen conflict would be a betrayal of the...

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly posed a rhetorical question to an NPR reporter: “Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?” By scheduling his own visit to Ukraine on Friday, Jan. 31, Pompeo is demonstrating that they should. Indeed, his visit is a timely reminder that this vast European country’s success in overcoming Russian aggression and reforming a corrupt politico-economic system is far more important to the United States than merely serving as a backdrop for U.S. domestic political battles. Ukraine is a nation of more than 40 million people, the largest country geographically that is fully within Europe, a potential agricultural and...

On February 2, 2020 the League of Ukrainian Canadians hosted an evening with the former prisoner of conscience Oleg Sentsov. The director, writer and activist was born in Crimea in an ethnic Russian family. Like most Crimeans, he grew up speaking Russian, but, like an apparent minority of them, he identified strongly as a Ukrainian citizen, and opposed the Russian occupation. In February of 2014 he took part in the Maidan that brought down the Ukrainian President...

Volodymyr Zelensky in a televised address congratulated Ukrainians on New Year's holidays, calling for unity. Zelensky delivers New Year's greetings to the nation / snap from video Volodymyr Zelensky on New Year's eve delivered his first presidential greeting to the nation. "Dear Ukrainians. Usually, in the New Year's greetings, presidents tell us about GDP growth, lower inflation, 'implementation', 'diversification', and other obscure terms. In general, they convince us that we've actually started living better, it's just that we haven't noticed this yet, so very often we just put our TVs on mute during the president's address and wait until he's done with his fairytale to finally move on to champagne, sandwiches with sprats, and a traditional New Year's salad. Tonight it's going to be different. Tonight everyone will honestly answer themselves an important question: who am I? A president of Ukraine, a successful lawyer, an ordinary housewife, a philosophy department student from Kyiv Mohyla Academy, or an agronomist from Cherkasy region? Who am I?..