Varvara Pakhomenko

Varvara Pakhomenko has spent nearly two decades analysing armed conflict and security policy in the post-Soviet space, with particular focus on Russia's counter-insurgency approach in the North Caucasus and the war in Ukraine.

From 2011 to 2016, she served as Analyst on Europe and Central Asia for the International Crisis Group, focusing primarily on the North Caucasus - tracking the evolution of insurgency, radicalisation, and Russian state counter-terrorism policy in Chechnya, Dagestan, and the wider region. This built on earlier human rights fieldwork in Chechnya from 2006 to 2009 with the Demos Center, and broader Caucasus with the Stichting Justice Initiative (2009-2011).

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she has worked in the humanitarian and security response: from 2022 to 2024 she led the Crisis Analysis Team at Mercy Corps' Ukraine Response, providing conflict and risk analysis to guide humanitarian and development programming. Earlier, from 2018 to 2020, she was Geneva Call's Head of Mission in Ukraine, engaging armed actors to strengthen respect for international humanitarian law and protect civilians, and from 2016 to 2017 she worked as Early Recovery Adviser to UNDP Ukraine in the non-government-controlled areas of Donbas.

She holds a Master's degree in International Relations.