Historians will spend eternity trying to explain exactly why Donald Trump and his administration turned against Ukraine and Europe, but one fact is already clear: on 12 February 2025 the post-Cold War era ended, and the post-WWII international system with its norms and assumptions came to a grinding halt. On that date, President Trump spoke at length to President Putin and they agreed to “start negotiations immediately” without Ukraine or the EU at the table. Subsequent events were no less surprising, including an anti-European tirade by US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference, a US demand of Ukraine to sign away most of its rare earth resources, a first US-Russia meeting in Riyadh, and finally President Trump accusing Ukraine of starting the Russian war of aggression against it, and calling President Zelensky a dictator.
Europe — and many other parts of the world — is still reeling from these developments but it is undoubtedly Ukraine that is in the eye of the storm: from trying to deny it a say over its own destiny to attempting to impose elections upon it, and from cutting defence assistance to undermining funding to its civil society, the Ukrainian reality has changed rapidly, and for the worse.
To understand this reality better, Ilana Bet-El is joined by two leaders of civil society in Ukraine: Olena Tregub is Secretary General of NAKO – the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission in Ukraine, and Inna Pidluska is Deputy Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation. In a brave no-holds-bar discussion, they reflect on the sense of betrayal by the US, the opposing sense of Ukrainian dignity, and the deep-felt sense that might is not right.
This episode was recorded on 20 February 2025.
Chapters
- How is Ukraine reacting to the Trump administration’s shift?
- What does Ukraine expect from Europe now?
- Is Ukraine’s civil society at risk?
- What kind of deal would be acceptable for Ukraine?
Mentions
- James Joll, “Unspoken assumptions”
- Ukraine civil society
- BBC, Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia
- Fact-checking Trump claims about war in Ukraine
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- Ilana Bet-El
Credits
- Production: Florence Ferrando
- Music: Let Good Times Roll, RA from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll License code: ZXIIIJUU2ISPZIJT
The European Leadership Network itself as an institution holds no formal policy positions. The opinions articulated above represent the views of the authors rather than the European Leadership Network or its members. The ELN aims to encourage debates that will help develop Europe’s capacity to address the pressing foreign, defence, and security policy challenges of our time, to further its charitable purposes.
Image credit: Florence Ferrando
