Ukrainian Public Opinion and the War

Ukraine, Kherson region, village of Velika Oleksandrivka on January 22, 2023. In the villages on the banks of the Dnieper river, recently liberated, life is gradually returning. The Ukrainian armed forces are securing the mine-ridden area. Russian forces are located on the other side of the river, about 5 km away, and artillery fire can be heard. On the picture, a couple of inhabitants of the village in the ruins of their house almost destroyed by the occupation of the Russian army.  Herve Lequeux / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect

February 14, 2023

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Zoom Webinar

As the war in Ukraine moves into a possibly critical phase with the likelihood of upcoming Ukrainian and Russian offensives, it is imperative that American policymakers and commentators develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the attitudes of ordinary Ukrainians to issues of war and peace.

To discuss and analyze Ukrainian public opinion, including in the areas occupied by Russia, the Quincy Institute is hosting a panel with leading scholars and journalists with first hand knowledge about opinion in Ukraine, including Volodymyr Ishchenko of the Freie Universitaet Berlin, Gerard Toal of Virginia Tech, and freelance journalist Albina Kovalyova, whose latest project is a documentary of a Ukrainian family living under Russian occupation. The discussion will be moderated by Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute.

Panelists

Volodymyr Ishchenko

Volodymyr Ishchenko is a Ukrainian research associate at the Institute of East European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. His research has focused on protests and social movements, revolutions, radicalization, right and left politics, nationalism, civil society. He is the author of numerous articles and interviews published in Post-Soviet Affairs, Globalizations, New Left Review, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and Jacobin. He is currently working on a collective monograph "The Maidan Uprising: Mobilization, Radicalization, and Revolution in Ukraine, 2013-14."

Gerard Toal

Gerard Toal (Gearóid Ó Tuathail) is a Political Geographer and Professor at Virginia Tech. He has published widely on geopolitics and territorial conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union. He is the author of Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest for Ukraine and the Caucasus and the forthcoming Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Catastrophe, both published by Oxford University Press.

Albina Kovalyova

Albina Kovalyova is a British documentary director/producer, with a focus on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. During her career, she has worked as a television news journalist as well as a director and producer of documentary films. She currently works for BBC Eye Investigations. Her latest documentary, “Occupied,” is a personal account of a family living under Russian occupation in Ukraine.

Anatol Lieven (Moderator)

Anatol Lieven is Eurasia program director and senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College, London. He is a member of the advisory committee of the South Asia Department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe and covered the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and the southern Caucasus.