After a stellar 2019, 2020 was for Ukraine a year of dashed hopes. 2021 will see the country return to a variation on the pre-2019 norm: balancing between reform and vested interests. Persistent financing difficulties should produce enough pressure to see at least some reform progress.
A year ago, the picture in Ukraine was rosy. After an unprecedented reform drive in the second half of 2019, after Volodymyr Zelensky clinched the presidency and a parliamentary majority, Ukraine seemed ready to embark on a path of sustainable growth, demolishing the oligarchic structures that have throttled the country’s development since independence in 1991.
