CWRU Weatherhead School of Management Associate Professor Roman Sheremeta spoke to the Cleveland Club from Cleveland on April 22.
Prof. Sheremeta was born, raised and educated in Ukraine but came to the United States for a PhD in Economics from Purdue. He joined the faculty at CWRU in 2013 and has won numerous awards for his work on behavioral economics. He is the founding rector of American University of Kyiv, and he has presented his views on Ukraine in major U.S. media outlets.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prof. Sheremeta has worked to rebuild his native country, including delivering humanitarian aid, working with the National Recovery Council, which advises President Zelenskyy, and serving on the boards of Save Ukraine and Ukrainian American House, which concentrates on returning kidnapped Ukrainian children to their families. This effort, he says, has returned six hundred Ukrainian children to their parents at the cost of $3,000- $5,000 per returned child.
Prof. Sheremeta began by discussing the traditionally close ties of Ukraine and the United States, including their two constitutions, which share similar language.
Prof. Sheremeta pointed out that for centuries Russia has been trying to occupy and control Ukraine and that the two have fought dozens of wars over the last 300 years.
“Ukraine,” he said, “is fighting for its existence against” a ferocious Russia that he says is “genocidal.” The invasion so far, he said, has damaged 210,000 buildings and killed more than six hundred children. “A hundred to two hundred soldiers are being killed each day.”
Prof. Sheremeta said that although having slacked a bit since 2021, the morale of the Ukrainians remains high and that the vast majority of Ukrainians are in favor of fighting for all Ukrainian land as established before the invasion.
He countered arguments of some U.S. politicians who say that the United States should reduce its support of Ukraine. “To those who say U. S. support is too expensive, we say that losing the war to Russia would in the long run be far more expensive because the United States would have to significantly increase its defense spending," he said. “In addition, most U.S. spending for weapons are to pay private companies in the United States, so that the money stays in the United States and helps the U.S. economy. Others arguments can be more difficult to counter but these are generally fueled by deceptive Russian propaganda.”
Prof. Sheremeta said that the average Russian believes Russia has engaged in a just war.
“Russians only receive information from state-controlled media,” he told Club members. “Furthermore, the casualties are not felt in Moscow and St. Petersburg because the Russian government recruits soldiers from Siberia and other remote areas.”
He said that Ukraine is now making 60% of the weapons it uses and continues to build up its military-industrial complex. He noted that President Zelenskyy still enjoys firm support from Ukrainians, who think of him as a kind of Winston Churchill.
He said that despite most Ukrainians standing firm for holding onto territory, negotiations might take the form of a cease fire in place and Ukraine not conceding any conquered land as a concession to Russia. “Even if the United States were to say Crimea could be called Russian, Ukrainians would never agree.” He added that no Ukrainian president or administration could cede territory; the Ukrainian constitution says only a people’s referendum could do so.
Persons who wish to follow Prof. Sheremeta’s views and activities can do so at LinkedIn here. He also has accounts on Facebook, X, and YouTube.