Alyona Getmanchuk, Director of the New Europe Center will take part in the Chatham House online-event “One Year of Zelenskyy’s Presidency: Is Ukraine’s Foreign Policy in Lockdown?”.
20 May 2020 will mark one year since Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inauguration as president. His victory in the elections led many in Ukraine to hope for an economic breakthrough and an end to the armed conflict in Donbas. Inexperienced in international politics, Zelenskyy and his team have struggled with managing many of the foreign policy crises that hit them. Their efforts to resolve the conflict in the east have not borne results, and US President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial and the downing of a Ukrainian passenger airplane in Iran have dominated Kyiv’s foreign policy agenda in the past year.
The speakers will discuss the major events that shaped Ukraine’s foreign policy in the first year of Zelenskyy’s presidency. As advancing Ukraine’s national interest is becoming increasingly difficult, where does the country stand with regard to sustaining international support for its sovereignty and territorial integrity? What are the prospects for the next Normandy Format meeting and for resolving the conflict in Donbas? Is there a diplomatic gridlock with Washington? Has progress been made in implementing Ukraine’s EU and NATO integration agendas? How can Ukraine cope on the diplomatic front during the COVID-19 pandemic?
