Plans for a new Baltic–Black Sea waterway, passing through Ukraine, Belarus and Poland, have the potential to revolutionize the geopolitics of Europe’s East as well as exacerbate East-West tensions (see EDM, February 18). The European Union has labeled the project “E40,” and the United States... MORE

Following the large coronavirus outbreak in Iran, neighboring countries quickly closed their borders with the Islamic Republic. More than a thousand Turkish trucks carrying goods to Central Asia found themselves stuck at checkpoints due to the closure of the Iran-Turkey and Iran-Turkmenistan borders (Daily Sabah,... MORE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made an official visit to the southeastern coastal oblast of Zaporizhzhia, on April 11. During his trip, local officials familiarized the commander-in-chief with the operational situation in the Sea of Azov. Additionally, Zelenskyy visited the port of Berdyansk, located in close... MORE

The Belarusian government’s decision to try to fight the COVID-19 pandemic without a nationwide quarantine dominated international coverage of this East European country for several weeks. And yet, that perhaps understandable focus muscled out attention to a number of other key stories related to Belarus.... MORE

On March 30, the European Union announced it would provide substantial support to the six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine—to mitigate the health and socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic (Ec.europa.eu, March 30). About a week later, additional details of... MORE

For as long as official cases of COVID-19 have remained manageable inside the Russian Federation, Moscow was able to exploit the global coronavirus pandemic to try to pursue various foreign policy goals (see EDM, April 13). This activism, combined with most international governments’ strong preoccupation... MORE

*To read Part One, please click here.   The Romanian Danube Flotilla is Europe’s largest riverine naval force, representing a unique capability, unmatched by any of the other European allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (see Part One in EDM, April 6). The... MORE

On Friday, April 10, 1,793 patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were kept in hospitals across Belarus (Sputnik.by, April 10); but by the following day, April 11, the number had already risen to 2,031. As of Saturday, most patients’ condition was fair; just 52 were in... MORE

Moscow’s dispatch of medical equipment and expertise abroad during the coronavirus pandemic has been anything but disinterested. Instead, it is clearly intended to serve Russia in a variety of ways. The Kremlin is using this aid to shore up alliances, as in the case of... MORE

On March 12, the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration hosted a retreat session of the Ukrainian parliament’s Committee on Economic Development. The main subject on the lawmakers’ agenda was the prospects of reviving the Ukrainian rocket industry as well as launching a national space program. Dnipro—nicknamed... MORE