Faculty Available for Interviews on Ukraine Aid

If you are in need of an expert for your story ahead of the Senate vote on foreign aid to Ukraine, please review our Syracuse University faculty experts below. If you’d like to schedule an interview with any of them, please reach out to Vanessa Marquette, media relations specialist, at vrmarque@syr.edu.

1. Tetiana Hranchak, who fled Ukraine after the invasion and is now a visiting assistant teaching professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, writes: “The current decision regarding aid to Ukraine – if it is adopted – is important, although it does not allow to solve the problem of Russian aggression and terror systematically. I hope that the change in the rhetoric of Speaker Mike Johnson will become the first step in a rethinking of the Russian threat by American politicians and will make it possible to withdraw the defense of liberal values and the interests of the country beyond the outlined by a Kremlin tyrant limits.”
2. Brian Taylor, the author of The Code of Putinism and an expert in Russian politics at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says the delay in aid to Ukraine has benefited Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Back in January, he specifically said “Vladimir Putin has some of his swagger back, despite the fact that a war that was supposed to last one week has already lasted two years, because he thinks that time is on Russia’s side. Key to his confidence is the months-long failure in Congress to pass another assistance package for Ukraine. If the Congress cannot pass more aid for Ukraine, this will undoubtedly be a win for Putin and a loss for not only Ukraine but U.S. standing in Europe and around the world.”
3. Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute and a professor of political science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says “This is a moment where the pressure is rightfully on Democrats as well as Republicans. Aid for Ukraine is supported broadly in the entire House of Representatives and is viewed by many as existentially needed by that country.  If a small fringe of Republicans tries to stop it by deposing the Speaker, then Democrats need to come to the aid of Ukraine by propping up the Speaker, even though they disagree with them on most issues.  Some Democrats like Tom Suozzi in New York have made this intention to help the Speaker clear, but more need to do so in order to push this aid through a closely divided House.”