Ukraine’s Strategic Choices and Future Geopolitics

On November 25 it will be nine months since the beginning of Putin’s three-day blitzkrieg. Ukraine is resolutely holding out and showing notable progress in repelling the aggressor. Having failed on the battlefield with its army largely degraded and in rout, the Russian regime has doubled down on missile and drone attacks on the energy grid, and resorted to a nuclear blackmail aiming to undermine Ukraine’s will to resist and the Western resolve to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom. During this event, Professor Oleksandr Bogomolov will present the Ukrainian perspective on the current situation and various future scenarios.

The international response to the aggression has been largely driven by a shared understanding that it is not only Ukraine that is threatened, but a wider Europe and the very notion of the international rules-based order. While the proverbial fog of war has not dispersed yet, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the world will not be the same again when the war has ended. Hence, it’s time to start reflecting on what the future holds for both Europe and Ukraine. What will become of Putin’s Russia? What will be the new European security architecture? Finally, where’s the rest of the world on all that: China, Asia and the Global South in general? Together with Sudha Rajagopalan, Professor Bogomolov will discuss various future scenarios. Their conversation will be followed by an open discussion in a Q&A format.

About the speakers

Oleksandr Bogomolov is director of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, Kiev. He is a leading researcher in the fields of Arab and Ukrainian political discourse; MENA politics; modern Islam, Muslims in Europe and identity politics.

Sudha Rajagopalan is Assistant Professor Eastern European History, at the University of Amsterdam.

Michael Kemper (moderator) is professor and chair of Eastern European Studies at the University of Amsterdam.