The Eastern Front

About a week into Ukraine's counteroffensive, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia spoke with military expert and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy Ian Brzezinski about what we should expect moving forward. While Brzezinski said whether or not Ukraine's recent success will be a turning point is "yet to be seen," it has displayed the Russian Armed Forces' lack of discip...

As the Ukrainian army begins to enjoy success on several fronts, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges to consider what this moment might mean. Hodges—who once assumed Russia had enough operational experience to win the war—now believes Russia's logistical system has been exhausted, calling rumors of Putin's attempts to buy ammunition from North Korea a "sign of d...

Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia sit down with Moldovan journalist Paula Erizanu to discuss the risks of Russia's presence in Moldova and Transnistria. Erizanu highlights the terror attacks that have moved from Transnistria into Moldova, disruptions to Moldova's political and economic activity, and the efforts needed by the Moldovan government—as well as by Ukraine—to solidify the security of the count...

Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia learn from Mykola Bielieskov, Senior Analyst for Ukrainian NGO "Come Back Alive" which provides support for Ukraine's military, about the strategy of Ukraine's long-anticipated counteroffensive; Ukrainian civilian support for the military campaign; Western resolve in supporting Ukraine; Russian military capabilities (or lack thereof) in countering the Ukrainian military...

In the wake of Ukrainian Independence Day, Giselle and Iulia reflect on the past six months of the war and what developments could come in the winter and spring from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries, especially given high-level indications that the fall will be a turning point in the war. In celebration of Ukraine's Independence Day this week, they discuss how the incredible will of the Ukrain...

Giselle and Iulia are joined by Yevgeny Simkin, co-founder of "Samizdat Online", an organization which aims to gather all voices of the world that suffer under autocratic repression and reunite those voices with their audiences. Yevgeny explains how his organization reaches Russians, inundated with propaganda from the Kremlin, by collecting stories and news articles - which otherwise would be bloc...

Dr. Ulrike Franke, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, joins The Eastern Front to unpack Germany's support of Ukraine, its more controversial foreign policies, and Germany's potential for greater European leadership. She explains how German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's significant February speech on Germany's zeitenwende (roughly translated "turning of the times") was no...

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor are joined by Benjamin Wittes from AEI's next-door-neighbor, The Brookings Institution, where he is a Senior Fellow for Governance Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare . Ben Wittes also orchestrates pro-Ukrainian demonstrations around Washington D.C. in symbolic locations to raise awareness about Russia's war against Ukraine. He joins Eastern Front to recall his lates...

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor anticipate the new phase of the war in Ukraine. Giselle provides a breakdown of the Ukrainian military's long-anticipated counter offensive in the Kherson Oblast - the "next phase" of the war - where she believes the pendulum will swing in favor of the Ukrainians. Iulia offers updates on a wave of war-related treason accusations around the world, from Ukraine to the Uni...

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor are joined on today's episode by The Eastern Front's youngest guest to date: Catarina "Cat" Buchatskiy, co-founder of The Shadows Project and a Foreign & Defense Policy intern at AEI. As a young Ukrainian and international relations student at Stanford University, Catarina speaks about her struggle with discovering and defining her Ukrainian identity and about the i...

The Eastern Front welcomes back special guest and friend, Fred Kagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, for another update on the war in Ukraine and discussion, specifically, on the military balance in Ukraine. Fred explains how the Russian military's short-lived "operational pause" reveals many of its weaknesses. Yet he underscores th...

Hungarian Member of European Parliament Katalin "Katka" Cseh, who serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Human Rights, and Delegation for relations with the United States, joins Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia on today's episode. Ms. Cseh unpacks how Hungary is Russia's "Trojan Horse" within the EU and NATO; Hungary's troubled relationship with the EU; European energy supplies, th...

Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia are joined by the honorable Batu Katelia, former Georgian Ambassador to the United State and Deputy Secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council and current member of the board at the Atlantic Council of Georgia and a Next Generation Leader Fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership. Amb. Katelia shines the light on Georgia's "collaborationist" gove...

Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia are joined by special guest David Cattler, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Intelligence and Security. ASG Cattler briefs The Eastern Front on the recent, "transformative" NATO Summit in Madrid; NATO force operability and mobility; NATO support of Ukraine; NATO's intelligence and information battles against Russian propaganda throughout the war in Ukraine; and he di...

Giselle and Dalibor interview Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament who has survived three assassination attempts by the Kremlin. He retells his story in which he experienced, firsthand, the barbarism and insanity of the Kremlin's political agenda. He also weighs in on the current state of corruption in the Ukrainian government; discusses the trajectory of the war in Ukraine; and u...

In this episode, Iulia, Giselle, and Dalibor discuss the international implications of the EU and G7 summits and what to expect at the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid. Iulia examines how the decisions made during the recent EU summit will affect Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Furthermore, Iulia sheds light on how countries consider membership in the European Union. Then, Giselle and Iulia take a look a...

In this special edition of The Eastern Front recorded from Ukraine, Giselle interviews Iulia and Dalibor who are on the ground in Ukraine alongside Ambassador Daniel Baer, former U.S. Ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. This special recording includes a small audience and is hosted in a roundtable format by Jeff Gedmin, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Amer...

Dalibor and Iulia report live from Kyiv, Ukraine alongside Jeff Gedmin, co-founder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose magazine. Dalibor, Iulia, and Jeff share their astonishing eyewitness accounts from Kyiv, Bucha, and Irpin of how Ukrainian society is coping with, recovering from, and preparing for future war; Ukrainians' resolve to win the war against Russia; the brutal destruction of Ukrai...

From the Eastern Front, Iulia and Dalibor join Giselle for a conversation with Slovak Ambassador to the Czech Republic Rastislav Káčer. The ambassador outlines how Putin is already losing the war in Ukraine. All discuss the questions: When will Putin lose the war? And what will the costs be? The ambassador also sheds light on Central European support for Ukraine, comparing and contrasting the Czec...

Giselle and Dalibor are joined by Iulia and guest Oana Serafim, former Director of Moldovan Service for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, live from Bucharest, Romania. Oana brings her personal connection to Moldova and nearly thirty years of expertise in Eastern European media to The Eastern Front Podcast. While Moldova is not a part of the European Union nor NATO, and historically has partly rem...

Iulia and Dalibor are joined by Pavel Fischer, Senator and Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security of the Czech Republic. They exchange thoughts on the Czech Republic's exemplary support for Ukraine, the sustainability of that aid, and the levels of urgency felt by the Czech Republic and other European allies to deliver relief to Ukraine. Sen. Fischer sheds light on the per...

Iulia joins The Eastern Front from Romania! In this episode, Iulia, Giselle, and Dalibor analyze and banter about a range of factors in Russia's war against Ukraine such as military strategy, drawing historical analogies, values, sanctions, allied resilience, and more. Iulia offers a situation report from Romania, sharing what she has witnessed about its support for Ukraine and how Romania is expe...

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor are joined by Elisabeth Braw, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and expert on "grayzone" warfare (warfare below the kinetic threshhold), to discuss Finland and Sweden's pivot towards NATO application and how Finland and Sweden combat neighboring Russian "grayzone aggression". Other topics include where Finland and Sweden would fit into a perceived "East...

As the UN continues to sound the alarm about the global consequences of the war in Ukraine, Estonia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Sven Jürgenson, joins Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia for the Eastern Front's 50th episode. Ambassador Jürgenson discusses the UN's founding purpose and how that translates to its response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He also responds to warnings about famine an...

Giselle, Iulia, and Dalibor are joined by Vlad Davidzon, a nonresident fellow in The Atlantic Council Eurasia Center and European culture correspondent for Tablet Magazine . Vlad shares his personal experience among journalists in Kyiv just days before the Russian invasion began, and he shares stories of reporting from and evacuating relatives from Ukraine during wartime. As a European cultural co...