Director of the Center V. Dubovyk has had a presentation and a discussion at the Department of foreign affairs and trade of the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on February 3rd, 2016. This meeting was chaired by Jim Kelly, director of the policy planning of the department.

The discussion was focused on the challenges before Ukraine in the realms of politics, economics and national security. It has touched on the ways to facilitate reforms and fight corruption, the specific Odesa experience in dealing with these tasks. The conversation has also addressed the role that the international community, the EU, and the Republic of Ireland, in particular, play in helping Ukraine to go through these testing times.

On that same day Prof. V. Dubovyk has delivered a public lecture "The Challenges Facing Ukraine: Revolution, War, Reform". This lecture was held at the Centre for European and Eurasian Studies, Maynooth university.

This event was chaired by Prof. John O'Brennan. In his presentation V. Dubovyk has stated that the last two years have been a difficult time for Ukraine. The country has seen a massive political protest movement, which has led to a change of the ruling regime. Three elections(presidential, parliamentary and local) have followed. Ukraine has come under aggression of Russia.

In the meantime, Ukrainian economy has plunged, desperately seeking outside financial support. The country has struggled with an ambitious plan to proceed with reforms and eradicate corruption, introduce decentralization of power and improve the quality of governance. These and other questions were addressed in a course of the public lecture and the following discussion with the audience.