 Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a watershed historical event. It has not only threatened Ukraine's independence, but also appended the strategic balance in Europe and the world. Ukrainians feel the most immediate damage. They have lost their loved ones and had to flee their homes. The fighting which began in the spring of 2022 has created more than 5 million Ukrainian refugees and more than 7 million Ukrainians are displaced within their own country, many of whom are women and children. This is also a crisis for LGBTQ plus and other minority communities who face challenges on the border when fleeing Ukraine and seeking refuge in neighboring countries that are hostile to their rights. The Ukraine war has shown that we now live in an increasingly shock-prone, unpredictable world. These trends have highlighted the growing importance of the United States Institute of Peace and the importance of its vital mission. The Center for Russia and Europe, one of the newest centers at USIP, works with other instituted units to carry out the organization's mission at a time of flux in the international system. Our work is shaped by the heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow, the emergence of China, the acceleration of great power competition more generally, and the development of new lethal high-technology weapons unregulated by the traditional arms control architecture. Russian nuclear threats through the invasion of Ukraine have underscored the importance for a renewed focus on these issues. Our Center for Russia and Europe seeks to advance strategic stability in this new and dangerous environment by analyzing these new trends, relying on prominent experts and providing its findings to the US government. USIP has been active in Ukraine since 2017, even before the creation of the Center. Along with our partners on the ground, we are working to develop options to end Russia's war, support local organizations and rebuild peace. This includes dialogues with Ukrainian, US and European policy experts to develop proposals that would help bring peace. We also seek to forge such partnerships in other regions afflicted by violence in Eastern Europe and South Caucasus, such as Nagorno-Karabakh, an area subject to its own conflicts, most recently between Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020. By developing a robust set of tools and a methodology, we identify and assess the levels of Russian involvement in violence-afflicted states and examine the most effective ways these countries can counter Russian influence and deter conflict. While we understand how challenging our work is, we believe it is worth it, and that peace is practical and possible in this new complex era.