Putin’s aggression and its local impacts

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has shocked the world into fears of nuclear war, famine, and energy crises. With war ravaging Ukraine and sending millions of refugees into Eastern and Western Europe and beyond, the conflict’s immense global repercussions include new political and economic impacts on Middle Eastern countries in general and Lebanon in particular. Executive sat down with Ihor Ostash, the ambassador of Ukraine, to discuss relationships between smaller countries and their belligerent neighbors, assess regional responses to the Russian aggression and chart how “Putin’s war” might alter the region’s political circumstances and in the long term even create new opportunities for Lebanon. We bring you central excerpts from the extensive conversation that was conducted in Executive’s offices one month after the invasion was first unleashed. From the average person’s perspective, the war between Russia and Ukraine came as a tremendous shock. It reveals the fallacy, widely held