Kyiv needs a hearts-and-minds policy to win over Russophone Ukrainians in these places who feel no loyalty to Putin but have been acculturated in Russian and will still feel insecure about what the government has in mind for their language and cultural choices.
The EU’s enlargement momentum, fueled by Russia’s war against Ukraine, is wearing off. To make political conditionality work, the union must prioritize securing buy-in from candidate countries’ elites and civil society.
France, Germany, and Poland have concrete ideas for making EU foreign policy more coherent and effective. The union’s incoming leadership should use these proposals to strengthen the bloc.
This week’s political conferences will highlight Ukraine’s threefold challenge of wartime resilience, recovery, and EU accession. Kyiv’s partners must adjust to thinking in all three dimensions simultaneously.
Russia’s war on Ukraine is driving Georgia’s government toward closer alignment with Moscow and other illiberal states
Being pro-EU does not win politicians many votes in the Western Balkans and the Caucasus. There, Viktor Orbán’s version of an illiberal Europe appears to be the union’s top-rated political export.
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Thirty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine marked a historical juncture for countries beyond Ukraine and Russia.
