Oleksiy Haran, PhD, is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and a Research Director at the Democratic Initiatives Foundation (since 2015), a leading Ukrainian analytical and sociological think tank. In 1991 93, he was a Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the re-born Kyiv Mohyla Academy. Since 2002, he has served as Founding Director of the UKMA School for Policy Analysis. He is the co-editor of “Constructing a Political Nation: Changes in the Attitudes of Ukrainians during the War in the Donbas” (2017), “Ukraine in Europe: Questions and Answers” (2009), “Russia and Ukraine: Ten Years of Transformation” (2003) and several other books. His recent book is “From Brezhnev to Zelenskyy: Dilemmas of Ukrainian Political Scientist” (2021). Also, he is a frequent commentator on Ukrainian and international media. In 2014-2015, as a political scientist, Prof. Haran spent several weeks at the frontline near Mariupol, Luhansk, Avdiivka, and Donetsk Airport. He was a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and a member of the Washington-based Program on New Approaches to Research and Security in Eurasia (PONARS-Eurasia).
While Ukrainian citizens’ resistance has surprised the world, it has not been seen as a miracle by Ukrainians themselves, who since 2014 have been involved in volunteer movements and knew well what aggression means. Despite the inevitable concentration of power during the war-time martial law, there is a widespread belief among Ukrainian experts that there…
