The 13th Annual Meeting of the Yalta European Strategy (YES) “The World, Europe and Ukraine: storms of changes”, organized by the international civil platform YES, in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, will be held in Kyiv on September 15-17.

"The annexation and the war in the heart of Europe have broken the basic international rules. Ukraine has found itself in the center of a “global storm”, but if its initial causes are not removed, it will sooner or later reach everyone. I hope that our western partners realize why our country should remain their priority: without solving the Ukrainian issue, European issues will not be solved," the founder and member of the Board of the Yalta European Strategy, Victor Pinchuk said in a Thursday press release of YES

The chairman of the YES Board, President of Poland (1997-2007) Alexander Kwasniewski said that Ukraine’s future may be discussed only in the global context and it is not possible any more to talk about the future of the modern world without a debate on Ukraine.

"Ukraine is a test for us all, a test of our commitment to the fundamental values such as freedom of nations, the right of states to sovereignty, peaceful coexistence," he said.

According to the press release, the plenary sessions and special sections of the forum will take place at the Mystetsky Arsenal museum and cultural center. More than 350 prominent politicians, diplomats, businessmen, civil activists and experts from 20 countries of the world will take part in the work of the forum.

The key topics of the 13th Annual Meeting include possible implications of the forthcoming presidential election in the United States; issues that the united Europe is facing following the Brexit, refugee crisis and growth of populism in the politics; global threats of terrorism and radicalism, and the issue of social inequality and the ways to overcome it on the global scale.

The situation in Ukraine will occupy a particular place in the discussions: the participants will address the state of the reform process and transformations in the country, and what stands in their way, the issues of supporting the democratic development of Ukraine from the part of the West and the prospects for further development of the country. A special discussion will be focused on the relations between Russia and the West under the geopolitical circumstances that have changed.

Special partner of 13th Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting is Metinvest belonged to Rinat Akhmetov. Other partners are Arawak Energy, Alfa-Bank (Ukraine), DCH Group and the International Renaissance Foundation.

Yalta European Strategy (YES) is the largest social institution of public diplomacy in Eastern Europe, providing an open and equal dialogue on global issues affecting the European Union, Ukraine, Russia and other countries. This non-partisan organization was established in 2004 by the Ukrainian businessman and public figure Victor Pinchuk.