This article analyzes key reforms in secondary and higher education in Ukraine since independence, which resulted from a combination of the unique characteristics of the country’s internal development and global and regional trends. We argue that Ukrainian education has evolved from a typical post-Soviet case, plagued by corruption, underfunding, mismanagement, inertia, and low performance into a more modern, transparent, and efficient system. While the pre-2014 reform process was rather incoherent, characterized by a “stop and go (back)” dynamic due to high levels of politicization and anti-reform vested interests, after the “Revolution of Dignity” reform-minded policymakers have seized the window of opportunity of the broader modernization and Europeanization context and pushed through a more coherent reform agenda. While the transformation is not yet complete and much remains to be done to align Ukraine’s education sector with EU standards, these changes provided both secondary and tertiary education with a remarkable degree of capacity for adaptation and resilience that helped the sector to cope first with the COVID-19 pandemic and then with an even greater threat, Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.