Author: TheConversation

By Najmedin Meshkati, Professor of Engineering and International Relations, University of Southern California Russian forces occupy Europe’s largest atomic energy plant, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. Russian and Ukrainian forces are fighting nearby, and shelling has damaged power and communication lines to the plant, prompting fears for the plant’s safety and evoking painful memories in a country still scarred by the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986. In addition, Russian authorities have developed plans to disconnect the plant from Ukraine’s power grid as a prelude to switching the plant to the...

By Marta Dyczok, Associate Professor of History and Political Science, Specializing in Ukraine, Western University On August 24, 1991, I was one of a handful of foreign journalists working for a British newspaper and in the Ukrainian parliament when legislators surprised the world and voted for Ukraine’s declaration of independence. This year Ukraine is once again surprising the world with its resilience in the face of Russia’s ongoing attack on its statehood. That is possibly because prior to the February 2022 invasion, the world did not know much about Ukraine. Some continue to have impressions of the country that...

By Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program, Harvard University I stood on Kyiv’s main boulevard, Khreshchatyk, one year ago, on August 24, 2021, celebrating along with thousands of Ukrainians who were watching the Independence Day parade. The parade featured newly obtained weapons such as the lightweight missile systems known as Javelins. There were flyovers by Ukraine’s air forces, including the largest plane in the world at the time, known as the “Dream.” At the time, Kyiv felt like a modern European city amid its thriving cafe culture and nightlife. Many Ukrainians have long participated in building...

By Ronald Suny, Professor of History and Political Science, University of Michigan The war being waged by Russia in Ukraine has been described in many ways – an attempt to recreate the USSR, a militant attempt to create a new Eurasia civilization, or a proxy war between Russia and the West. But whatever Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions and aspirations were in the past, they have become ever more blatantly imperial and colonial as the fighting continues. A colonial war, like Russia’s in Ukraine, is one in which a self-styled superior people believes it has the right, even the...