On Wednesday, February 16, 2022, the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Board came to Dnipro to support Ukrainians in the eastern part of the country, learn about the current situation, and pass their analysis to international leaders at the Munich Security Conference where Victor Pinchuk Foundation and YES will hold the Ukrainian Lunch on February 19.

The YES board held meetings among others with students, including scholars of the Zavtra.UA program, representatives of the mayor's office, ATO veterans and activists and employees of Interpipe Steel.

The Board was represented by its Chairman Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005); Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014), Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994); Stephane Fouks, Vice President of Havas Group, Executive Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide; Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia (2016-2021), United Nations Secretary-General's Global Advocate for Every Woman Every Child; and Victor Pinchuk, Founder and Member of the Board, YES and Founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne group.

Addressing the press, Kersti Kaljulaid, said: “While the whole world is talking about the beginning of the war, the potential of the beginning of the war, the war has been ongoing. It’s the eighth year of war for Ukrainian people and that is also why we stand here today - to remind the world.”

 “We still hope that Russia will deescalate. There is still space to deescalate. But it is only Russia who can do it, because nobody else has escalated. Therefore, it has to be their decision. We are ready to continue our diplomatic work, and we are ready to insist, and we will always insist for the right of Ukraine to choose their partners and allies freely.” 

Aleksander Kwasniewski said: "Certainly, we hope that there won't be a war. But everything that is happening now is very dangerous. Unfortunately, I think that even if this most tragic scenario does not take place, the Kremlin and Putin, as president of the Russian Federation, will all the time work and think how to make sure that the whole of Ukraine ends up in his zone of influence, in Russia's zone of influence. This means that this struggle will continue in different formats."

He warned that the time ahead would be difficult for Ukraine and called on for international solidarity and support for Ukraine.

Commenting on his impressions from a visit to the ATO Museum in Dnipro, Carl Bildt noted “impressive determination, resilience of the Ukrainian nation in protecting and indeed, if worse comes to worst, defending your unity, your integrity, your independence and democracy.”

 “If it’s allowed somewhere for someone to invade, and to dismember and to attack another European country, that is something that is a danger for all other European countries,” he stressed.

Victor Pinchuk said: "Together with the YES Board members we wanted to demonstrate unity here today. The Munich Security Conference starts in two days. For the fifth time in a row, we are holding the Ukrainian Lunch there. This time it will be a very high-impact event with lots of politicians and decision makers attending. And it is important for us to send the right message, a very strong message, which of course we don't want to come up with on our own. We want to hear it, that's why we came here - to listen to the people, the people of Dnipro, and then to share everything we saw, heard and understood here."

"It is very important to show the whole world and Ukraine, naturally, that Ukrainian business is here in Ukraine. For us, Ukraine is our only homeland, the only thing that matters to us, this is the place in which we invest, the place for which we will fight together. Ukrainian business will be here, will invest and help," he stressed.

Stephane Fouks said: “There is no European future without the freedom of Ukraine. We understand that today is the moment to tell you how much you are important for us.” 

Speaking about the current situation in the country, Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov recalled what 2014 and 2015 were like. "There is no 'Russian world', there are no problems with the Russian-speaking population, there are no contradictions in the country. There are only huge lies on the part of our northern neighbour. Unfortunately, we are now living in a post-truth world. In a world where people's minds are greatly influenced by the media and social media. But Ukraine is threatened by one country, which is its neighbour and which does not want to stop at anything," Borys Filatov said. He pointed out "that people in Ukraine want peace and will defend their country no matter what".

ATO veteran Pavlo Khazan, Russian-Ukrainian war veteran, said: “We all have to protect our civilization from this terrible post-Soviet regime and we have enough international legislation to make a pressure. I believe that all our friendly countries have enough strength. We thank everybody who sent us weapons and big support. Of course we have to protect ourselves. We have a huge army and our army has been very much improved since 2014 when it was in a very bad condition. Now we have a very well trained army.”  

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide.

For over 15 years, YES has initiated dialogue between leaders from Ukraine, the EU, the US, the Russian Federation, and beyond. Within Ukraine, it provides a platform for the government and opposition. It brings together leaders from politics, business, media, civil society and the expert community.

YES began in 2004, when Victor Pinchuk invited some 30 European leaders to debate the future of Ukraine and the EU at the first Annual Meeting.

YES Annual Meeting took place at the symbolic Livadia Palace in Yalta from 2004 to 2013. The location where Europe was divided in 1945 thus became the venue for uniting a wider Europe. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the YES Annual Meeting moved to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.Previously, YES meetings have brought together heads of state and government like Tony Blair, Kersti Kaljulaid, David Cameron, Bill Clinton, Dalia Grybauskaitė, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Bronisław Komorowski, Mario Monti, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, Sauli Niinistö, Shimon Peres, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Among the speakers were also heads of international organizations like Kofi Annan, José Manuel Barroso, Suma Chakrabarti, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Ronald Noble, James Wolfensohn, Lamberto Zannier and Robert Zoellick. Senior officials, such as Hillary Clinton, Valdis Dombrovskis, Robert Gates, Newt Gingrich, Will Hurd, John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, Leon Panetta, David Petraeus, Condoleezza Rice and Martin Schulz, have spoken at the meetings. Also, renowned thought leaders like Bono, Richard Branson, Vitalik Buterin, Jared Cohen, Olafur Eliasson, Niall Ferguson, Bill Ford, Richard Haass, Yuval Harari, Walter Isaacson, Elton John, Stephen Hawking, Ray Kurzweil, Arthur Laffer, Jonathan Littell, Steven Pinker, Nouriel Roubini, David Rubenstein, Larry Summers and Jimmy Wales have been among the panelists. Presidents and Prime Ministers of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s political, business and civil society leaders, regularly speak at the meetings.

The YES board includes Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the YES Board; Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014), Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994); Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Founder of Rasmussen Global, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014), Prime Minister of Denmark (2001-2009); Stephane Fouks, Vice President of Havas Group, Executive Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide; Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Senior Professor, Hertie School of Governance; Kersti Kaljulaid, President of Estonia (2016-2021), United Nations Secretary-General's Global Advocate for Every Woman Every Child; and Victor Pinchuk, Founder and Member of the Board, YES and Founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne group.

Official site: www.yes-ukraine.org