In this edition of Wilson Center NOW, Update on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: The View From Parliament, John Milewski, Moderator of the Wilson Center NOW series, interviews Kira Rudik, Member of Parliament of Ukraine, First Deputy Chairwoman of the Parliament Committee on Digital Transformation, Leader of the Golos Liberal Political Party, and Vice-President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). Rudik has spoken with the Wilson Center twice before, as the onset of the war and at its one-year anniversary. This NOW interview centers on updates on the war, the role of government and allies, and the continued resolve of the Ukrainian people.

“War is central to history. History has been written (and painted) by men. This exhibition provides a platform for women narrators of history and also examines gendered perspectives of war,” said art curator Monika Fabijanska, referring to the exhibit “Women at War” she recently put together, which was on display at the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery from January through March 2023.

Nearly a year ago, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Wilson Center’s Sarah B. Barnes spoke with Member of Parliament Kira Rudik about the impact of the war on Ukraine’s women and children. Barnes and Rudik spoke again a few days ago, as the first anniversary of the conflict approached. Their conversation touched on the current state of the war, including impacts on infrastructure, the ongoing refugee crisis, schooling for Ukraine’s children, and retaining Ukraine’s heritage.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, it was not only a geopolitical and humanitarian disaster. The conflict has detrimentally impacted the environment.

War and environmental damage are inextricably linked, but the invasion of Ukraine has caused further deterioration in pre-existing environmental issues. “Before 2014, Ukraine was already a country which faced environmental challenges,” observed Ian Anthony, Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Initiative’s European Security Program (SIPRI) at a December 14 webinar titled Beyond War Ecologies: Green Ways forward for Ukraine. “Russia’s first aggression in 2014 exacerbated problems. The second aggression extended some of the problems to other parts of Ukraine and not just to Donbas.”

The world has plenty of reasons to avoid conflict already. Yet attendees at the recently-concluded COP27 climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt were presented with another compelling argument: Warfare is bad for global warming. So much so, in fact, that Ukraine’s delegation to the conference organized a special session at the conference of parties on “War Related Emissions,” bringing along a tree trunk bearing scars from Russian shell fragments as tangible evidence.

The negative impacts on global food security wrought by Russia’s war in Ukraine are obvious. But recent news that Russia currently occupies more than one fifth of Ukrainian farmland, draws attention to another dimension of this politically-induced food and agricultural crisis: land itself. Of course, territory has long been an object of conflict and warfare. But agricultural land—in particular—is also a key, though understated, dimension of the geopolitical ambitions undergirding Russian activity at home and abroad.

In Iraq, climate change is adding stress to an already precarious situation. Weak public services,  growing unemployment, fossil fuel-related environmental and health hazards, and other factors have generated high levels of social vulnerability and contributed to recent protests. In the top post for May, Dylan O’Driscoll and Shivan Fazil write about how, against this fragile backdrop, insecurity is heightened by increasingly deadly flash floods and more frequent dust storms that pose a public health threat.

“I want this war to be over. I want all of us to rebuild our societies. We are a force that can do that, and we will do that; we are doing it. But I think we also need to see the bigger picture, that women in the world, and now in our region, are not protected from violence – any form of violence,” said Marina Pisklakova-Parker, Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Every Woman Treaty, during a recent Wilson Center event on Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian women’s voices in the anti-war movement.