The PG Newsletter #2: Mongolia, Presidential Debate, and Government Shakeup
Welcome to the second edition of our newsletter! Today we will take a look into Putin's visit to Mongolia, the UK's most recent aid package to Ukraine, Tuesday's US presidential debate, Ukraine's government shakeup, and Russia's hybrid warfare against the West.
This Week’s Quick Takes
On September 3, Vladimir Putin visited Mongolia to sign bilateral agreements. In this Quick Take, our Director of Operations Anatolii Frolov observes how Mongolia’s interests took precedence to its obligations towards the Statute of Rome.
This Quick Take by our Senior Research Analyst Colby Rogers details the most recent pledges of air defence equipment to Ukraine, as well as the larger ￡3 billion aid fund donated to Kyiv by London.
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In the News
US Presidential Debate
The first US Presidential debate opposing Harris and Trump was held on September 10. Second only to the economy, foreign policy was a major subject of contention between the two candidates (The Insider). Trump claimed his plan with Ukraine was to “get this war finished and just get it done, negotiate a deal” while Harris claimed “Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe” (Kyiv Independent). On NATO, Trump continues to accuse discrepancy between American and European contributions in defence, while Harris attached herself to the partnership with NATO and Ukraine (Lawfare).
Ukrainian Government Shakeup
On September 4, Zelenskyy announced a major reshuffle of his government, claiming to bring “new energy” to his cabinet while opposition MPs claim it seeks to concentrate power in the presidential office. Among the 21 ministers and deputy ministers, 10 of them were shuffled, including the Foreign Affairs Minister, the Strategic Industries minister, the Justice Minister, the Deputy Minister for “reintegration of temporarily occupied territories”, and the Deputy Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic (Kyiv Independent). Dmytro Kuleba was Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war and many theories have been advanced to explain his resignation; burn-out, tensions with the presidential office, and lack of recent results (CEPA). His successor, Andriy Sybiha - previously his deputy - is a career diplomat who was ambassador to both Turkey and Poland, and has a close relationship with Andriy Yermak, the President’s chief of staff (Atlantic Council). This shakeup comes less than a year after the dismissal of Valery Zaluzhny, previously commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and in the suspension of the electoral process (Carnegie).
Hybrid Warfare
On September 7, the CIA and MI6 accused the Kremlin of being engaged in a “reckless campaign of sabotage” in Europe. Among the suspected targets are undersea communications cables, around which increased Russian activity has been detected (Atlantic Council). In response to threats developing in recent years, the European Parliament recently passed the Cyber Resilience Act, introducing cybersecurity requirements on commercial digital products (Lawfare). In Ukraine, a similar resilient digital environment was developed in the last years, emanating from the most direct threats both businesses and state had to operate under (CEPA). In the US, the Foreign Agents Registration Act has been used since 2016 to counter Russian influence agents, but is reported to be struggling under the mass of their actions and numbers (Kyiv Independent).