title: The Black Sea from a "Safe" Distance: Guest Editor's Introduction
abstract: Why was an academic conference devoted to problems in the Black Sea basin held in landlocked Kharkiv? Those who wish to find the answer to this question would do well to recall that in 2010, Kharkiv was the place where the "Agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine" (widely referred to as the Kharkiv Pact or Kharkiv Accords) was signed. Upon travelling even farther into the depths of history, one would see how important the strategic role of Kharkiv was in Russia's e
journal: East/West Journal of Ukrainian Studies