The Russian-Ukrainian War and the Geopolitical Situation

Roundtable and Webinar

Wednesday, March 9, 2022
12:00 New York time

On February 24, 2022, Russia dramatically escalated its war against a sovereign and independent Ukraine, with a full-scale invasion of the country. This constitutes the largest military operation in Europe since World War II. Over the last several days, Ukrainians have confronted this unprecedented act of aggression. Russian armed forces have bombarded Ukrainian cities, causing the death of hundreds if not thousands of civilians. At great cost and with heroic resistance, the Ukrainian army is defending the country. Against this background, the participants of the roundtable will discuss the progress of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the role of the United States and NATO, the effectiveness of sanctions, and the humanitarian catastrophe facing Ukrainians.

Participants: Adrian Karatnycky, Valerii Kuchynskyi, Mykola Riabchuk

Moderator: Markian Dobczansky

Adrian Karatnycky was a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. From 1993 to 2004, he was president and executive director of Freedom House, during which time he developed programs of assistance to democratic and human rights movements in Belarus, Serbia, Russia, and Ukraine. At Freedom House he devised a range of long-term comparative analytic surveys of democracy and political reform. For twelve years he directed the benchmark survey Freedom in the World and was co-editor of the annual Nations in Transit study of reform in the post-Communist world. He is a frequent contributor to Foreign Affairs, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, and many other periodicals. He is coauthor of three books and coeditor of eight books on Soviet and post-Soviet themes.

Valerii Kuchynskyi is a career diplomat from Ukraine. During his professional career, which spans over 35 years, he occupied important posts at home and abroad: Member of the Board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director-General of the Americas Department, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for UNESCO. He also headed the Department of Arms Control and Disarmament and the Department of International  Organisations. He has served in numerous bilateral and multilateral appointments in New York, Washington DC, Geneva, in Africa and in the Caribbean. In 2000- 2006, he held the position of the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations with a diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He also served as Ukraine’s Representative to the UN Commission on Human Rights. Since 2007, after terminating his diplomatic tenure, he has been employed as Adjunct Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University in the city of New York. Kuchynskyi has authored scores of articles and monographs on UN activities, international relations and foreign policy.

Mykola Riabchuk is a Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Political and Nationalities’ Studies of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and a lecturer at the University of Warsaw. He is also the honorary president of the Ukrainian PEN Center and the head of the jury of the “Angelus” international award. He wrote extensively on civil society, state-nation building, nationalism, national identity, East European politics and postcommunist transition. Five of his books were translated into Polish, and one into French, German, Serbian, and Hungarian. His work was distinguished with a number of national and international awards and fellowships, including Fulbright (1994, 2016), Reagan-Fascell (2011), and EURIAS (2013).

Registration is required and can be completed by following this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iL9J13lHQRKlfzoIt0FBZg