RUSSIA’S INVASION OF UKRAINE - A YEAR IN REVIEW: Webinar Chronicle

At European Guanxi we have organised a series of content to raise awareness on global implications on EU China relations in relation to around the devastating Russian invasion of Ukraine, which reached its one-year mark on February 24, 2023. To do this we have offered special content and publications, including the culminating webinar event titled, Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: A Year in Review on February 28. European Guanxi invited four distinguished scholars to discuss the geopolitical ramifications of the year-long war, not just for Ukraine, but also for the wider global context, with a particular focus on China and the EU. The four panellists were:

Ivana Káráskova: China Research Fellow and a China Projects Lead at the Association for International Affairs (AMO). In 2016, she founded and has been since coordinating two international projects on China: MapInfluenCE, which analyses China and Russia’s influence in Central Europe, and China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE), a networking platform bringing together more than 100 China researchers from 27 different countries, analysing China’s activities in Europe (and beyond).

Yurii Poita: Head of the Asia-Pacific section at Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies (CACDS), and the Asian Section at the New Geopolitics Research Network (NGRN), Ukraine. His research focuses on regional security issues, the development of the socio-political situation in the countries of Central Asia, China's influence in the post-Soviet space, Ukrainian-Chinese relations, and hybrid methods of influence.

Marina Rudyak: Interim Professor for Chinese Society and Economy at the University of Göttingen and for Chinese Politics at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her research focuses on China's international development cooperation, China’s relations with Russia and Central Asia, and the international discourse system of the Chinese Communist Party.

Grzegorz Stec: Analyst at MERICS (Brussels office). His research focuses on EU-China relations, including their institutional framework, strategic discourse deployed by the two sides and the EU's common foreign policy building efforts. He also monitors Poland-China and wider Central and Eastern Europe-China relations.

All panellists are originally from Eastern European countries, and one of them is Ukrainian. This attests to European Guanxi’s commitment to elevate the voices from those regions more prominently affected by the war.

The event was presented and moderated by Lukian de Boni, President of European Guanxi. Alejandro Cordero, member of the Events team, was the moderator during the Q&A section.

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