Perhaps nowhere in the world are local and global geopolitics mixing to create as volatile a situation as in Ukraine. Situated between Vladimir Putin’s resurgent Russia and a NATO that in recent years seems to have lost its collective sense of purpose, Ukraine is quite literally a country in the middle. Since its emergence as a modern nation-state following the fall of the Soviet Union the people of Ukraine have struggled with internal crisis and external threats. Today, as was the case so many times in the past, powerful external forces are seeking to chart Ukraine’s course. To help us understand these issues we have pulled together three of Canada’s leading Ukrainian experts.