The Russo-Ukrainian War: Ten Years of Challenging the Rules-Based Order

23 February 2024 

10:00 a.m. MST | 12:00 p.m. EST

This year in February we mark ten years since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War and two years since the start of its full-scale invasion stage. On 20 February 2014, Russian forces began the seizure of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea. That year, using hybrid warfare tactics Russia also occupied numerous districts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. On 24 February 2022, Russia’s army crossed Ukraine’s borders from several directions, evidently planning to capture Kyiv within several days. 

In this round table, the speakers will provide an overview and detailed analysis of critical events that have shaped the flow of the war since its start. Based on historical background, the discussion will centre on questions about international structures and their presumed preparedness to respond to Russia’s aggression, the situation on the battlefield and the military needs of Ukraine to liberate its territories, and the situation inside Russia and its socio-economic and political capacity to continue the war. 

Roundtable participants: 

Dr. Rajan Menon

is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Chair in Political Science Emeritus at the City College of New York. He is also a senior research scholar at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. 

Dr. Mariana Budjeryn

is a senior research associate with the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center’s Project on Managing the Atom (MTA). She is also a senior non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution and a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her research focuses on the international non-proliferation regime, arms control, nuclear crises, and post-Soviet nuclear history. Budjeryn is the author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine (2023).

Dr. Frank Ledwidge

is a Senior Lecturer in Military Strategy at the University of Portsmouth, and he also teaches at the Royal Air Force College (UK). He is a former UK Military Intelligence Officer and also worked with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe investigating war crimes and torture cases. Ledwidge is the author of several books, including Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan (2011) and Aerial Warfare: A Very Short Introduction (2018).

Dr. Jade McGlynn

is a Leverhulme EC Research Fellow in the War Studies department at King’s College London. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford. She is a frequent contributor to international media. McGlynn’s recent books include Russia’s War, (2023) and Memory Makers: The Politics of the Past in Putin’s Russia (2023).

Moderator: Dr. Oleksandr Pankieiev, editor-in-chief of Forum for Ukrainian Studies

The round table is organized by Forum for Ukrainian Studies, a research magazine for experts, practitioners, and academics to discuss, explore, reflect upon, develop, and transform international understanding about contemporary Ukraine. Forum is run by a team with the Contemporary Ukraine Studies Program at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.