Hlib Vyshlinsky

With comment from @ces_ukraine

We continue our series on Ukraine’s economic ties with EU countries — this time focusing on the Czech Republic. More details on our cooperation with Czechia and other EU partners: ces.org.ua/en/research-in…

How to boost bank lending for Ukraine’s recovery? Join our discussion on unlocking credit for reconstruction and energy needs. Mar 19 at 15:00 (CET) Registration: ces.org.ua/en/events/how-…

Orban no longer alone. Some European leaders willing to throw Ukraine under the bus due to lure of Russian energy and impact of war in Iran and spiking energy prices. “Belgium’s prime minister has called for the EU to “normalise relations with Russia” to access cheap energy, a rebuff to the bloc’s agreed strategy of maximum support to Ukraine as it seeks to battle Moscow’s four-year invasion. “We must normalise relations with Russia and regain access to cheap energy. That is common sense,” said Bart De Wever, a rightwing Flemish nationalist who has previously challenged wholehearted EU support for Ukraine. He was speaking in an interview with the Belgian newspaper L’Echo. “In private, European leaders agree with me, but no one dares to say it out loud. We must end the conflict in the interest of Europe, without being naïve towards Putin,” De Wever said in an interview published at the weekend.”

"Nowhere is the law of unintended consequences more binding than when crucial commercial chokepoints become casualties of war." My latest essay for @TheFP on the lessons history has to offer those who would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Recently, we brought together experts to talk about what a real economic partnership between Ukraine and its neighbours actually looks like. Ukraine is increasingly seen as a future economic partner — not just a country that needs help.

Prices in Ukraine have risen by about 61% since the start of the full-scale war, CES estimates. Between Jan 2022 and Feb 2026, the biggest price jumps hit electricity (+178%), cigarettes (+122%), fuel (+98%), and food (+74%).

Just recorded a new episode of our podcast (in Ukrainian) «What’s Up with the Economy?» with Oleh Krykavskyi, Director of Government Relations at @ArcelorMittalUA. Coming soon! 🎧 Check out previous episodes here: youtube.com/channel/UCR-oq…

Why? Why the Nordics and Baltics again, when they are already Ukraine's largest bilateral donors? Why not @Bart_DeWever, who sits on the golden egg of taxes on windfall profits from frozen russian assets? Why not Italy, which helped Belgium kill the Reparation Loan? France?

How can Ukraine build a win-win partnership with EU countries? Join our round table with experts from CEE countries to explore opportunities for economic cooperation and challenges ahead of EU accession. Mar 12 at 15:00 (CET). Register: ces.org.ua/en/events/econ…

Not that bad for UA 🇺🇦

How many more times do these people need to get hit in the face by the reality before their publishers finally begin noticing?

For all the striking similarities between Trump and Putin, there is a fundamental difference between them. Trump is a product of a society of abundance, of excess — a lifestyle without limits. Do whatever you want, take everything from life. Step over every barrier, including moral ones. When external obstacles disappear (because all desired things are already accessible), an illusion arises that internal obstacles disappear as well. Other people turn into instruments and objects. They become things that feel nothing. There is no need to empathize with them. This is how excessive hedonism turns into cruelty. Putin is a product of a society of scarcity, of deficit. His defining myth is “the blockade of Leningrad.” His key word is “privation” (lisheniya). In a society of privations are born Russia’s “superfluous people” (lishniye lyudi). In this psychology of suffering, the very idea of joy and pleasure disappears. “My only pleasure” is that someone else suffers more than I do. And so, when these “superfluous people of privations” gain power, they want others to suffer as well. “We suffered — now you must suffer too.” “You must be deprived of what is dearest to you; you must experience privation.” This is how an excessive cult of suffering turns into cruelty. In the end, we have two types of cruelty, two systems of contempt for human dignity — both brutal, yet rooted in different sources. The “martyrdom-driven” cruelty is stronger than the “hedonistic” one. It has greater endurance and knows how to withstand pain. Its sadism is not spontaneous but carefully planned and sustained. It knows how to manipulate hedonistic cruelty, constantly feeding it new “pleasures,” including Epstein-style ones. But the endurance of Ukrainians enrages this sado-Putinism. Because no matter how much we hurt, we do not intend to suffer more than they do. We preserve within ourselves the capacity for joy, even despite pain and loss. And this infuriates the Russian collective Putin. He does not know what to do with it.

Ukrainian refugees after four years abroad. Fifth wave of research Join us for the presentation of a new wave of research on the number of Ukrainian refugees abroad and their socio-economic situation. Feb 26 at 15:00 (CET)/16:00 (Kyiv time). Details: ces.org.ua/en/events/ukra…

Putin - genius: Starts a war he is still fighting 4 years later, 1m casualties, a cost of $1trn + to his econ, exposes how crap RU military tech is - collapsing exports. Loses mates like Assad, Maduro, Iran & Cuba next. Gets more, not less NATO - SWE & FIN

Thank you, dear European friends.

How do Russian attacks on the energy system affect Ukrainian business? Join our Monthly Economic Review: Feb 17 at 4PM. Details: ces.org.ua/en/events/how-…

My story from Kyiv’s Big Freeze. Some have spent three weeks now without heating as temperatures drop as low as -22C. The elderly & ability impaired are paying the heaviest price. Yet far from broken, people say they are more united than ever @ObserverUK observer.co.uk/news/internati…

Three babies and their father were murdered by the russian terrorist attack last night in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv region. The russian drone destroyed a private home covering all five family members w/ the rubble. First responders rescued their mother, she is pregnant, heavily injured.

We will remember this winter. When an entire nation froze in the cold right on the border with the European Union, fought against the Russian army's advance, but did not give up. When Ukrainians lit candles in cold apartments, repaired destroyed power stations, rescued people and animals from under rubble, held their ground in frozen trenches, and, despite everything, organized mass dances in the winter’s streets as a kind of coping strategy. Because the Russians came to take everything from us — our land, our freedom, our joy, our children's future. And we decided not to give them anything. Photo after a Russian drone hit a shelter for spinal cord injury dogs in Zaporizhzhia