Show Notes
This episode traces one young woman's journey home to a new kind of war—and Ukraine’s fight for survival.
Host:
Gabrielle Sierra, Director of Podcasting, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Guest:
Catarina Buchatskiy, Co-Founder & Director of Analytics, Snake Island Institute
We discuss:
The story of a young Ukrainian woman who left college in the U.S. to join the fight at home within days of the invasion. How Ukraine transformed its drone manufacturing from garage shops to a sophisticated, rapidly scaling defense industry. Ukraine’s surprising dependence on China in its drone supply chain, and its push to make ‘China-free’ drones by 2026. Stories of Ukrainian resilience and resolve. How the Snake Island Institute bridges the gap between the battlefield and Western policymaking by connecting Ukrainian military insights to the allies who are shaping defense strategy. As Buchatskiy puts it: “The overarching definition of victory is that the Ukrainian nation is whole, that the state is legitimate, that we have control over the state, that we have our democracy, and that we’re at peace and can live freely.”
Want to keep up with Why It Matters? Sign up to receive an email alert when new episodes drop.
Why It Matters is a production of the Council on Foreign Relations. The opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host and guests, not of the Council, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
More from Why It Matters
What happens if the world’s pharmacy decides to close? From ibuprofen to amoxicillin, a majority of the essential medicines used in the United States depend on ingredients from China. This dependence has left the United States vulnerable to a geopolitical rival that could decide to cut off its access at any time. On this episode of Why It Matters, Rush Doshi, senior fellow at CFR, and Olivia Kosloff, senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, unpack how the dependency came about and what’s at risk if the pharma supply chain snaps.
GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic have become some of the world's most-wanted medicines, but soaring demand has also turned them into a stress test for the global drug system. On this episode of Why It Matters, Gabrielle Sierra and CFR Senior Fellow Prashant Yadav trace how the GLP-1 trend led to shortages, a booming gray market, and steep price gaps driven by patent laws that vary across borders.
This episode explores how drones, cell phones, and other widely-available intelligence tools are turning civilians and aid workers into frontline witnesses—documenting war in real time, guiding humanitarian aid, and helping build evidence that could power future war crimes cases.
This episode outlines the global network sustaining both sides of the war in Ukraine, with NATO allies on one side and Russia with backing from China, Iran, and North Korea on the other, and how the limits and tensions within these alliances are shaping the war’s next phase and raising broader global security risks.
This episode explores how the emergence of drone warfare and innovation under fire is transforming power and forcing nations to rethink strategy and military capacity.