In the past year, major reforms in Ukraine have proceeded more slowly than previously against the background of consolidation of executive power under President Petro Poroshenko, resistance from oligarchs, opposition in the parliament, and conflict in the country’s east and with Russia. Nonetheless, despite a slim and fragile parliamentary majority, the government has maintained reform momentum. At this pace, can Ukraine manage to overcome the daunting political, economic, social, and security challenges still facing the country?

In continuation of its Reforming Ukraine project, the Carnegie Endowment is relaunching the Ukraine Reform Monitor, which provides regular independent, fact-based, rigorous assessments of the scope and quality of reforms in Ukraine.

To mark the launch of the April 2017 edition of the Ukraine Reform Monitor, Carnegie Europe hosted a panel discussion featuring Ukrainian experts Anastasiya Leukhina, member of the Monitor team, and Valerii Pekar, co-founder of the New Country civic platform. Dirk Schuebel, head of division for the Eastern Partnership at the European External Action Service, and Dmytro Shymkiv, deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, weighed in on the discussion from EU and Ukrainian standpoints, respectively. Carnegie nonresident scholar Balázs Jarábik moderated.

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Anastasiya Leukhina

Anastasiya Leukhina is the rule-of-law and policing coordinator at the U.S. Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training Program in Kyiv, a member of the Expert Council on Reform at the Ministry of Interior of Ukraine, and a contributor to Carnegie’s Ukraine Reform Monitor.

Valerii Pekar

Valerii Pekar is a co-founder of the New Country civic platform. Follow him on Twitter @ValeriiPekar.

Dirk Schuebel

Dirk Schuebel is the head of division for the Eastern Partnership and for bilateral relations with Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and the Southern Caucasus at the European External Action Service.

Dmytro Shymkiv

Dmytro Shymkiv is the deputy head of the Administration of the President of Ukraine and secretary of Ukraine’s National Reforms Council.

Balázs Jarábik

Balázs Jarábik is a nonresident scholar in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow him on Twitter @BalazsJarabik.

This event is part of Carnegie’s Reforming Ukraine project and is supported in part by grants from the Centre for East European and International Studies (Zentrum für Osteuropa- und internationale Studien, ZOiS) and the Open Society Foundations.