Ukrainian Culture

Culture as a Battlefield: The Strategic Risks of Russia’s Cultural Offensive

Written by Elisa Garbil – 05.12.2025 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2014, has unfolded across multiple dimensions: military, economic, informational, and psychological. Yet one of its most significant and underexamined fronts is cultural. The Kremlin has reframed culture not as an organic expression of society but as a strategic tool where a weapon legitimises aggression,…

Episode 294: Russian Culture War with Olha Mukha

Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil In this episode, we journey into the heart of a cultural battleground shaped by war, identity, and resistance with Olha Mukha. Our conversation unpacks how Ukraine’s cultural resilience has become a force of national survival, even as attempts at cultural erasure intensify. We explore grassroots efforts to preserve language, art, and memory,…

Olha Mukha

Olha Mukha

Olha Mukha, PhD, is a cultural analyst and philosopher, cultural manager, curator and expert on international communication and human rights. Known for her extensive work in cultural diplomacy and human rights. She is Co-Founder and Programme Director of the Ukrainian Association of Cultural Studies – Lviv and Head of Educational and International Department of Memorial…

Sahel

The Sahel at a Crossroads: Mapping the Intersecting Risks of Fragility, Conflict and Resilience

Written by Elisa Garbil – 10.11.2025 Across the dry savannahs that stretch from Mauritania to Chad, the Sahel stands as one of the world’s most fragile regions. A place where political instability, violent extremism, displacement, and climate stress are converging into a perfect storm. Once viewed mainly as a buffer between North and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Sahel…

Episode 283: Humanitarian Crisis in the Sahel with Dr. Jessica Moody

Coordinated and Produced by Elisa Garbil The Sahel stands at a crossroad, it is torn by crisis, instability, and shifting power. Join Dr. Jessica Moody and Dominic Bowen as they dive deep into the region’s unfolding humanitarian emergency. What does ECOWAS’s withdrawal mean for the people? How is Russian influence rewriting the rules? And why are jihadist groups gaining ground?…

Dr. Jessica Moody

Dr. Jessica Moody

Dr. Jessica Moody is a political risk, due diligence and peacebuilding consultant in West Africa. She conducts open source and on the ground research into political, economic and security developments in West Africa and provides timely forecasts as well as scenario planning to clients, enabling them to better plan their operations. She also provides detailed…

The Ukraine War: Balancing Economic Risk and Global Security in the Oil Arena

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 marked a pivotal moment in history and international risk. The assault, orchestrated by President Putin, swiftly escalated into the largest European conflict since World War II, with the legacy of that dark period in which 50 million lives catapulted from our collective memory to the present. On…

For Ukraine’s Women, the Risk of Rape Has Skyrocketed

 By its very nature, conflict transforms territories into arenas of international risk. For well over a year, the ongoing war waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin against Russia’s former Soviet territory, Ukraine, has allowed the world to witness this transformation first-hand.   For the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian men drafted into the war,…

Episode 129: Nerida Williams on the Gendered Dynamics of the Ukraine war

In today’s episode, we are joined by Nerida Williams. Nerida has over thirteen years of experience as a media and communications specialist in the humanitarian and development sectors, including with the United Nations and several INGOs. Currently, Nerida works as the International Planned Parenthood Federation’s Senior Humanitarian Communications Advisor. IPPF is the world’s largest sexual and reproductive…

Nerida Williams

Nerida Williams has over thirteen years experience as a media and communications specialist in the humanitarian and development sectors, including with the United Nations and several INGOs. Her field experiences include Ghana, Lebanon, Nepal, Somaliland, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, Tonga, Indonesia, India, Palestine, Kiribati, Sudan, the Cook Islands, the Maldives, and most recently to the Ukrainian…