Author
Maryna Starodubska photo

Maryna Starodubska

Maryna Starodubska is an Adjunct Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, a cross-cultural researcher and consultant, and the author of Understanding Ukrainians: Cross-Cultural Perspective and Ukraine Layer by Layer: Freedom and Friction in a Frontier Society.

Articles

Thousands attend a rally protesting the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Aug. 16, 2026.

Corruption, flawed democracy, unjust courts — and other myths about Ukraine the data don't support

by Maryna Starodubska
Ukraine marked 35 years of independence this August, in the 12th year of Russia’s war on Ukraine – the fourth since the full-scale invasion. Anniversaries invite stock-taking, and this one prompts an observation that's long overdue. We Ukrainians have grown so used to self-inflicted inferiority that we recycle stereotypes about our own society, which data don't support. No wonder the West has done the same: for all that time, and through this war, it has kept reading Ukraine through a handful