Volodymyr Zelensky Archives

Politics

“Things Happen”

Staging sovereignty

November 19, 2025 • by Arthur Goldhammer

We have become accustomed to the Oval Office ritual by which Trump stages his pugnacious primacy. The protocol of the traditional press conference, in which the president stands and the press remains seated until recognized, is inverted. Trump sits as if enthroned on one of his gilded chairs, though not ...

Europe & Central Asia

Thinking About Freedom in Wartime Ukraine

The philosophical implications of Zelensky’s decision to stay in Kyiv

September 30, 2024 • by Timothy Snyder

This lecture was delivered as part of a benefit conference for the Ukrainian academy that Aaron James Wendland organized in March 2023 at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. The benefit conference was designed to provide financial support for academic and civic ...

Thinking About Freedom in Wartime Ukraine

Europe & Central Asia

Putin’s New Iron Curtain

Freedom and democracy are both impossible if we do not take responsibility for the other

March 22, 2022 • by Lucas Fain

Let us recognize that freedom and democracy are both impossible if we do not take responsibility for the other. This is the call of ethics. It is required to imagine another future, to free the world from arrogant barbarism, to break out of the world in which we now find ...

Democracy

Performances of Democracy

An excerpt from Jessica Pisano’s Staging Democracy

March 6, 2022 • by Jessica Pisano

This book is about performances of democratic politics in Russia and Ukraine: why people take part in such performances, how they are related to economic change, and how they affect the meanings that attach to political participation. ...

Europe & Central Asia

A Letter to the Western Left From Kyiv

Critique of liberal internationalism cannot add up to support for the ‘spheres of interest’ doctrine

March 4, 2022 • by Taras Bilous

A large part of the western Left, focused on NATO and the USA, failed to see Russian aggression. Of course, the war on terror needs to be brought into the discussion – but critique of liberal internationalism cannot add up to support for the ‘spheres of interest’ doctrine....

Europe & Central Asia

What’s at Stake in Ukraine

“If you want peace, prepare for war”

February 2, 2022 • by Mariia Shynkarenko

Thus, the potential occupation of Ukraine should not be seen as a local affair, nor should the country be viewed as a strategic sacrifice to appease Putin’s fears about NATO. Instead, it should be seen as a warning of how far he can push his might, if not properly restrained. ...

North America

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

He has another target in mind

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

But the Kremlin does not need assistance from Trump -- much less from Rudolph Giuliani -- to find or manufacture dirt in Ukraine about Trump’s political rivals. Russia has highly trained professionals for that: kompromat, or compromising material, and blackmail are key Kremlin tools. Trump’s claim that he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine makes sense ...

Yes, Putin cares about Trump’s impeachment trial — but not for the reason you might imagine

Democracy

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

The word is weighted with different meanings in Ukraine.

February 4, 2020 • by Jessica Pisano

And yet, as some Republican members of Congress have noted, in his televised Sept. 25 meeting with Trump, when asked about the now-infamous July 25 phone call in which Trump asked for a favor, Zelensky said “nobody pushed me.” Why would Zelensky claim that “nobody pushed” if military aid was indeed on the ...

Why Ukraine’s president said there had been ‘no pressure’ from Trump

Politics

Damage Done

The Trump–Ukraine controversy in perspective

November 4, 2019 • by Nataliya Gumenyuk

‘It’s all for the best’ I used to tell myself whenever the situation in Ukraine became critical. That was before the release of the transcript of the conversation on 25 July between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. How could this be ‘for the best’? Obviously, Ukraine cannot ...