Events

REGISTER HERE

For two years, the Ukrainian people have frustrated Vladimir Putin’s invasion of their country. Instead of a quick and easy victory, the Russian military has suffered significant casualties as Ukraine has continued to fight to reclaim its territory, with one U.S. intelligence report estimating that Russia has lost 90% of its pre-war army in the conflict. While initially the war sparked an outpouring of resources and renewed cohesion within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), political support for additional aid to Ukraine is waning. In response, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a special pre-Christmas trip to lobby U.S. lawmakers to pass a new aid package. The war between Israel and Hamas as further diverted attention from Ukraine’s cause.  

The trajectory of the conflict, and therefore Ukraine’s future, remains uncertain. What does Ukraine need to achieve new gains on the battlefield? How will the upcoming US presidential election and selection of a new NATO leader affect the war? What might an end to the conflict look like? Join Perry World House for this conversation on the future of the war in Ukraine.  

Speakers

Hanna Shelest, PhD, Director of Security Programmes at the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism” and Editor-in-chief at UA: Ukraine Analytica. Dr. Shelest is a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis. She had served for more than ten years as a Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of Ukraine. In 2014, Dr. Shelest was a Visiting Research Fellow at the NATO Defense College in Rome. Dr. Shelest was an adviser of the Working Group preparing Ukrainian Navy Strategy 2035 and was involved in working groups developing the Foreign Policy Strategy of Ukraine and Ukraine’s NATO Public Communication Strategy. She led different policy-related projects, including Scorecards of the Ukrainian Foreign Policy (2015-2022). 

Maksym Skrypchenko is President of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center. He is a prominent political analyst and foreign policy expery. He is recognized for his expertise on Eastern Europe, Ukraine, and Russia. Since 2015, Maksym has been a co-founder of Ukrainian Solutions, providing strategic insights to businesses. His establishment of the Ukrainian Transatlantic Platform in 2018 advanced Ukraine's NATO integration and transatlantic relations. As Deputy Director of the Security Initiatives Center (2018-2021), Maksym offered in-depth foreign policy analysis. He is a prolific writer, contributing to international outlets like The Hill and The Wall Street Journal, and frequently provides commentary for media such as Politico. His works, especially on Intermarium and the Black Sea region, are widely respected. As President of the Transatlantic Dialogue Center since 2021, he leads efforts in promoting Ukraine-US cooperation.

Sophia Opatska is Vice Rector for Strategic Development at the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU).  She is Founding Dean and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of UCU Business School. Sofiya has around 25 years of experience in Business Education and managing educational institutions as well as in the corporate sector. Her areas of expertise for teaching and research are Organizational Strategy, Leadership, Entrepreneurship. Since the beginning of the full scale invasion Sofiya has been putting extra effort to communicate internationally about the resilience of Ukrainian business which is based on her research among Ukrainian companies. She is a member of the Board of first Impact Investment project in Ukraine Promprylad.Renovation, as well as Vice President of European Federation of Catholic Universities. 

Moderator

Maia Otarashvili is the Director of the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. She is co-editor of FPRI’s 2017 volume Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support. Her research interests include geopolitics and security of the Black Sea-Caucasus region, Russian foreign policy, and the post-Soviet “frozen” conflicts of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. Maia is a PhD candidate at the War Studies Department at King’s College, London. She holds an M.A. in Globalization, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster in London, with emphasis on post-authoritarian transitions.