Olena Prokopenko

Senior Fellow, Ukraine Reform Working Group
Brussels Office
Democracy
Resident Fellow
English
Russian
Ukrainian
My Areas of Expertise:
Civil Society Democracy Democratic Decline Transatlantic Relations Ukraine Reconstruction War in Ukraine
Central and Eastern Europe European Union Ukraine

Olena Prokopenko is a senior fellow at GMF. She formerly managed Eastern Neighborhood programs at the European Endowment for Democracy in Brussels and served as a development adviser at the Danish embassy in Kyiv. 

Prokopenko previously chaired international relations at RPR Coalition, Ukraine’s largest civil society platform, and advised Ukraine’s finance minister on donor relations. She served as a civil society expert for the UN Development Programme and the Council of Europe, and worked as a government relations manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Prokopenko is a co-founder of the Transatlantic Task Force for Ukraine and a government relations trainer at the Kyiv School of Economics. Her analysis of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Ukraine’s reform progress is regularly featured intop international media, including the BBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, TIME magazine, Newsweek, and Le Monde.

Prokopenko is a lawyer by training and an alumna of the US State Department’s Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program. She holds a master’s degree in political science from Western Illinois University.

Media Mentions

by
Olena Prokopenko
“ 186 children died. Russia's armed forces use illicit weapons and rape women and children. Russian troops deport people using filtration camps. One in four Ukrainians has left home, and 44% of people are separated from their families. ”
Translated from Ukrainian
Detector Media
by
Olena Prokopenko
“ The Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) is an integral part of the resistance and significantly increases Ukrainians’ chances of holding back Russia’s invasion. ”
TIME
by
Olena Prokopenko
“ People don't understand what to do in case of escalation, so they just choose to carry on, hoping that the military and the government will take care of things. ”
NPR
by
Olena Prokopenko
“ The escalating rhetoric of recent weeks feels very different to previous periods of heightened tension between Russia and Ukraine, partly because there is uncertainty as to the scale and methods that Russia can use. ”
iNews

Featured Work