February 23, 2024
Discussing Two Years of War in Ukraine with Marie Yovanovitch and William Taylor
February 24 marks the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Heading into the third year of war, Ukraine faces a challenging outlook. No longer are U.S. and European leaders talking about Russia’s strategic failure in its invasion. Indeed, the Kremlin appears confident that things are heading in Russia’s direction after Ukraine’s 2023 offensive and signs of U.S. reticence to sustain military support to the Ukrainian effort. Anxiety over this outlook was running high at the Munich security conference, where allies grappled with the reality of a rising threat from Russia underscored by the killing of Alexei Navalny, the disclosure of Russian plans to put a nuclear weapon in space, and the transatlantic community’s lack of preparedness to address Russia’s rising challenge. To discuss where Ukraine stands two years after Russia’s brutal invasion, two former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine, Bill Taylor and Marie Yovanovitch, join Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Jim Townsend on this episode of Brussels Sprouts.
William Taylor is the vice president for Europe and Russia at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Prior to this, he served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009, and as the chargé d'affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv in 2019.
Marie Yovanovitch is a senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a nonresident fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy of Georgetown University. She served as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019, having previously held this post in the Republic of Armenia and the Kyrgyz Republic
More from CNAS
-
Sharper: Russia and the Axis of Upheaval
Commentary
Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine served as a dramatic catalyst for strengthening the global axis of upheaval. To sustain its war effort, Russia has imported Iranian weapons a...
By Charles Horn
-
Russia’s Wartime Economy: Resilient or on the Edge of Collapse?
Podcast
Since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russia's economy has proved to be robust despite sanctions, inflation and labour shortages. But how long can it last? Charles Pelleg...
By Richard Connolly
-
Friends with Benefits: How Russia’s Opportunistic Partnerships Stymie Nonproliferation Efforts
Commentary
To respond to Russia’s increasing disregard for the nonproliferation regime, the United States and its allies must raise the costs of violation....
By Nicholas Lokker
-
Can Ukraine and Europe Win Alone? with Gustav Gressel and Franz-Stefan Gady
Podcast
The Trump administration began negotiations with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia last week, and its exclusion of both Kyiv and its European backers from the table cast doubt...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
