This week’s political conferences will highlight Ukraine’s threefold challenge of wartime resilience, recovery, and EU accession. Kyiv’s partners must adjust to thinking in all three dimensions simultaneously.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is driving Georgia’s government toward closer alignment with Moscow and other illiberal states

Being pro-EU does not win politicians many votes in the Western Balkans and the Caucasus. There, Viktor Orbán’s version of an illiberal Europe appears to be the union’s top-rated political export.

Deploying troops to Ukraine, even for non-combat duties, entails risks most European countries are currently unwilling to take. The priority right now must be ramping up aid to Kyiv.

Putin’s war on Ukraine marks the end of the near abroad—the idea that Russia enjoys a special status in much of the post-Soviet space. But while Russia’s neighbors are seeking greater independence, they are not necessarily turning West.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to some shifts in the European order, but EU governments and institutions remain in short-term crisis mode.