Home › Politics › Who took the helm of Ukraine's science academy?
Who took the helm of Ukraine's science academy?
Summary
A look back at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine's leadership vote and the EU sanctions decision on Belarus that preceded it.
Who would lead Ukraine's main scientific body? On 7 October 2020, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine answered by electing a new president: Anatolii Zahorodnii, professor and director of the Institute for Theoretical Physics.
The vote put a physicist from within the academy's own institutes at the head of the organisation.
A regional backdrop
A few days earlier, on 2 October 2020, the European Council had agreed on sanctions against Belarus, part of the international reaction to the Belarusian presidential election and the protests that followed it. Cyprus had opposed the move. Its objection was lifted when the Council also agreed on a warning to Turkey.
The two developments were unrelated, but both marked early October 2020: one a change of leadership in Ukrainian science, the other a European decision on Belarus.
