Ukraine: The Frontline and The Future

Yevhenii Malik and Alexandra Vacroux of the Kyiv School of Economics, in conversation with FPI Senior Fellow Dan Serwer. Can Ukraine continue undermining Russian control of Crimea and Russia’s ability to export oil and gas? Can Russia achieve a military breakthrough? Will Russia’s efforts to mobilize more troops jeopardize Ukraine’s ability to hold the frontline? By many accounts, Ukraine achieved more military successes in 2026 than it had in years. But this winter promises to be the most difficult yet—Russia has been steadily degrading Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and extensive blackouts are all but certain. In this talk, two experts from Kyiv will discuss the military situation, as well as the political and economic factors that will determine how Ukraine and Russia will fare this winter. The outcome of the next six months will be critical to positioning for negotiations in 2027. About the Speakers Yevhenii Malik is a former Marine Infantry sergeant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a veteran of the Ukraine War. He has extensive frontline experience, having fought in Mariupol and across the Joint Forces Operation zone, where he led combat missions, amphibious operations, and coordinated tactical planning under extreme conditions. From April 2022 to September 2024, he endured captivity in Russia. Malik holds degrees in law, public administration, and a reserve officer qualification. He is recognized for his expertise in military leadership, crisis management, and strategic and tactical planning. Since October 2025 he has been the Head of National Security and Defense Education at the Kyiv School of Economics. Alexandra Vacroux is vice president for strategic engagement at the Kyiv School of Economics . She develops partnerships with top faculty, schools, and programs around the world to help Ukraine train the human capital that it will need to survive and thrive after the war. She has been instrumental in standing up a new bachelor’s in engineering with Olin College and is currently focused on building national security studies. Alexandra lived in Moscow from 1992 to 2004 and worked as a consultant for the Russian Privatization Agency, partner and head of sales at the Brunswick Warburg investment bank and was an active member of the board of United Way Moscow. She holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University and wrote her dissertation on corruption in Russian pharmaceutical markets. She was the Executive Director at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard from 2010 to 2025. Daniel Serwer is a Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. He is the author of Strengthening International Regimes: the Case of Radiation Protection (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024) as well as From War to Peace in the Balkans, the Middle East and Ukraine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Righting the Balance (Potomac Books, November 2013). He edited (with David Smock) Facilitating Dialogue (USIP, 2012) and supervised preparation of Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction (USIP, 2009). Guiding Principles is the leading compilation of best practices for civilians and military in post-war state-building. As vice president of the Centers of Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Serwer led teams working on rule of law, peacebuilding, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, overseeing its peacebuilding work in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Iraq and Sudan and serving as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. As a minister-counselor at the U.S. Department of State, Serwer directed the European office of intelligence and research and served as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton Peace Talks; from 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, leading a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War. Serwer is a graduate of Haverford College and earned masters degrees at the University of Chicago and Princeton, where he also did his PhD in history of science.