Q: Balázs, you are a well-established analyst and a recognized authority on Central and Eastern European affairs, particularly Ukraine. For those less familiar with your background, could you briefly outline your professional profile?

I am an ethnic Hungarian, born in communist Czechoslovakia and raised in a dissident family. This upbringing profoundly shaped my professional life, influencing both my political perspectives and my approach to analysis. It made me particularly attuned to minority viewpoints and skeptical of mainstream narratives. The saying "Trust, but verify," famously articulated by President Reagan in reference to a Russian proverb, became a guiding principle in my work across Eastern Europe.

My political engagement began during the Velvet Revolution. By 1998, I was already active in Slovakia’s democratic transition and was invited to Ukraine that year to observe the parliamentary elections. That marked the beginning of a long professional focus on Ukraine. I returned in 1999 to support civic organizations and monitor the presidential election. Between then and the Orange Revolution, I worked with local groups and international organizations in Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova.

After the Orange Revolution, I moved to Kyiv, where I gained essential insight into the distinction between political narratives, appearances, and actual actions. After Euromaidan, I joined the Carnegie Endowment in Washington and later took a deep interest in Zelensky, well before his election, because he represented a different kind of political figure. I believed then—and still do—that Ukraine could find stability from within. That belief eventually led me to the EU Advisory Mission, where I served as Head of Policy and Analysis from 2019 to 2023.

Q: You’ve worked in and around Ukraine for over two decades. What made you decide to take on Essential Ukraine now?

This is a personal transition. After six years in government, I’m returning to the private sector—and to public writing. I’ve lived nearly eight years in Kyiv, starting in 1998, and Ukraine has been at the center of my professional life ever since.

When many of my peers focused westward, I was drawn east. I fell in love with Ukraine’s complexity, contradictions, and people. So for me, this isn’t just gepolitics - it’s personal. With everything at stake, I felt a responsibility to use that experience to offer something grounded, honest, and strategic. Essential Ukraine is my way of doing that.

Q: Who is Essential Ukraine for? Who should be reading it?

In 2019, I was among the first to write about Zelensky’s rise and the fragile hope of reconciliation in Donbas. I joined foreign service in part to support that hope—knowing that failure could lead to something much worse. Unfortunately, it did.

Essential Ukraine is built on decades of fieldwork, deep-rooted experience in Ukraine, and years of producing analysis for Western think tanks and intelligence reporting for EU institutions. Whether you're shaping policy, driving aid programs, or managing risk, it is for those who want a realistic, nuanced understanding of the country: its internal dynamics, motivations, and the real factors behind its decisions and direction.

Q: What can readers expect in terms of tone and content?

My work blends OSINT, HUMINT, and something harder to quantify, lived experience. I approach this as a classic political analyst—still believing in critical thinking and long-form analysis.

In today’s landscape of clashing narratives, spin, and information warfare, strategic clarity is more urgent than ever. What I aim to provide is a deeper understanding of Ukraine’s internal political dynamics: extended martial law, the indefinite postponement of elections, the real economy versus the macroeconomic headlines, growing social fatigue, and rising tensions over conscription and governance.

These domestic factors—explored through the main pillars of Essential Ukraine: security, statecraft, and society—will be central not just to the resolution of the war, but to shaping the kind of Ukraine that emerges as a long-term partner in European and transatlantic security.

Q: You’ve seen Ukraine through some major turning points. What’s different about this moment?

The stakes, especially for Ukrainians, are unprecedented. This isn’t just about resisting aggression. It’s about defining what kind of country Ukraine becomes, and how it fits into a changing European order.

Everything is in motion: U.S. diplomacy, European strategy, Ukraine’s extraordinary—but strained—resilience, and Russia’s recalculations. Together, they’re not only shaping the war’s outcome, but also what comes after.

Ukraine is essential. Geopolitically,  but also as a test of what kind of peace and order we build next. Understanding its internal and external pressures isn’t just timely. It is imperative.