Ukraine Strategy Seminar 2026
After Certainty
Rethinking Security, Democracy and Society
Montag, 30.11.2026
| 13:30 Uhr |
Arrival and Check-in for Bus travelers Bus departs at 12:50 from Wunstorf train station |
| 14:00 Uhr |
Words of Welcome Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Program Director International Affairs, Protestant Academy Loccum |
| 14:15 Uhr |
KICK-OFF SESSION | Scenarios of Futures: Ukraine and Europe 2036 Kateryna BOTANOVA, Head of Media Projects, Frontier Institute, Kyiv Pavlo KLIMKIN, Co-Founder, Center for National Resilience and Development and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014-2019), Kyiv* Oleksiy MOLCHANOVSKY, Head of Analytics, Frontier Institute, Kyiv Vitaliy RUDENKY, Head of Security and National Resilience Program, Frontier Institute, Kyiv Moderation: Yevhen HLIBOVITSKY, Director of Frontier Institute and Supervisory board member at Suspilne (Ukrainian public service broadcast), Kyiv |
| 16:00 Uhr |
Coffee, Tea & Cookie Break |
| 16:30 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION |The Battlefield Today and the Security Scenarios of Tomorrow Sarah ASHTON-CIRILLO, Staff Sergeant Category 3, 46th AirMobile Brigade, Ukrainian Defense Forces Bohdan DANYLIV, Head of Military Department, Serhiy Prytula Foundation, Kyiv Michael KOFMAN, Senior Fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Washington D.C. Oleksii REZNIKOV, Distinguished Senior Fellow, GLOBSEC’s Future of Security Program and former Ukrainian Defence Minister (2021-2023), Kyiv** Thomas RÖWEKAMP, MP (CDU), Chairman, Defence Committee of the Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin/Bremen Moderation: Melinda HARING, Senior Advisor at Razom for Ukraine and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council, Washington D.C. |
| 18:30 Uhr |
Dinner |
| 19:30 Uhr |
High-Level Conversation | Europe after Certainty: Ukraine, Leadership, and the Future of the West Rebecca HARMS, Vice Chair, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom and former Member of the European Parliament (2004-2019), Uelzen Dmytro KULEBA, former Foreign Minister of Ukraine (2020-2024), Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University and Associate Professor, Institute of Political Studies, Sciences Po, Kyiv Nico LANGE, Founding Director of IRIS (Institute for Risk Analysis and International Security), Senior Fellow at Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and Senior Advisor at Rasmussen Global, Berlin Roman WASCHUK, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, former Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine and Ex-Business Ombudsman of Ukraine (2022-2026), Toronto Moderation: Yaroslav TROFIMOV, chief foreign-affairs correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, New York/Kyiv |
| 21:00 Uhr |
Informal Get Together |
| 21:15 Uhr |
NIGHT OWL SESSION |
| - |
*invited ** prel. confirmed |
Dienstag, 01.12.2026
| 07:15 Uhr |
Invitation to Morning Run |
| 08:30 Uhr |
Breakfast |
| 09:30 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION | Ukraine’s Defence Ecosystem: From Wartime Innovation to European Deterrence Falko DROßMANN, MP (Social Democrats) Spokesperson on Defense Policy for the SPD Parliamentary, Deutscher Bundestag, Hamburg/Berlin Maksym ERISTAVI, writer and journalist Stefan KÄGEBEIN, Head of Unit Eastern Europe, German Chamber of Commerce and Trade, Berlin Line RINDVIG, Chief Strategy & Defence Investment Officer at Baryon Fund, Kyiv/Copenhagen Taras YEMCHURA, Defence Policy Sector Head, Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), Kyiv Moderation: Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf |
| 11:00 Uhr |
Coffee & Tea Break |
| 11:15 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION | Ukraine’s Wartime Governance Balázs JARÁBIK, Founder, Minority Report, Budapest Vitalii SHABUNIN, Co-founder and Head of Board, Anti-Corruption Action Center (AntAC), Kyiv Oleksiy SOROKIN, Co-founder and Deputy Chief Editor, Kyiv Independent, Kyiv Victoria VOYTSITSKA, Advocacy Director, International Center for Ukrainian Victory, former Member of Parliament, Secretary at the Committee on Fuel Energy, Nuclear Policies and Security (2014-2019), Kyiv Moderation: Oleksandr IAKYMENKO, Democratic Governance & EU Integration, Democratic Reporting, Berlin |
| 12:30 Uhr |
Lunch |
| 13:30 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION | The City that Refused to Break – Kharkiv and the Future of the Whole-of-Society Defence Oksana HUSS, Research Centre Trustworthy Data Science and Security, University Alliance Ruhr Duisburg and 2026 Partnership for Peace Research Fellow, NATO Defence College, Duisburg Martin VAN DER PÜTTEN, Chief International and Diplomacy Officer (CIDO), City of Dortmund Meriam YOL, Chief Operating Officer, Volonterska Foundation, Kharkiv Moderation: Kateryna PAVLOVA, Fellow, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Kyiv |
| 15:00 Uhr |
Coffee & Cake |
| 15:30 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION | Ukraine as a Security Provider: Ukraine’s Role in Europe’s Emerging Security Architecture Arne Bård DALHAUG, Lieutenant General (Ret.), Royal Norwegian Army, President of the Norwegian Defence Association, and Senior Adviser to the Norwegian Atlantic Committee, Oslo Anders Puck NIELSEN, Military Analyst, Naval Officer, Researcher, Royal Danish Defence Academy Lesia OGRYZKO, Head of the Reform Support Office of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Co-founder & Director of the Sahaidachnyi Security Center Moderation: Elena DAVLIKANOVA, Associate Senior Fellow, Sahaidachnyi Security Center |
| 17:00 Uhr |
Coffee & Tea Break |
| 17:15 Uhr |
BREAKOUT SESSIONS | Deep Dives & Sight Seeing Tour |
| - |
Option 1 | Tour to Monastery Loccum Meeting point (Reception) |
| - |
Forum 1 | “Black-out” Simulation Lead: Natalia ZUBAR, Citizen War Crime Investigator, Kharkiv** |
| - |
Forum 2 | Military Deep-Dive Lead: Gustav GRESSEL, Senior Lecturer and Researcher National Defence Academy, Austrian Armed Forces |
| 18:30 Uhr |
Dinner |
| 19:30 Uhr |
LITERARY SALON | Yaryna Chornohuz: Poet. Soldier. Woman – How Do We Stay Human in War? Yaryna CHORNOHUZ, Poet, Writer, Translator, and Marine, Servicemember of the 30th Marine Corps, Ukrainian Armed Forces, Kyiv Moderation: Kateryna RIETZ-RAKUL, Head of Ukrainian Institute in Germany, Berlin |
| 21:00 Uhr |
Informal Get Together |
| - |
*invited ** prel. confirmed |
Mittwoch, 02.12.2026
| 08:30 Uhr |
Breakfast |
| 09:15 Uhr |
PLENARY SESSION | The Black Sea Front: Russia’s Maritime Challenge and Lessons for Europe and Beyond Antonia COLIBASANU, Lecturer in International Relations at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) and Chief Operating Officer at Geopolitical Futures, Bucharest Yevgeniya GABER, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, Kyiv Wilfried JILGE, Senior Researcher, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Berlin Robin WAGENER, Member of Parliament (The Greens), Member in the Defence and in the Foreign Affair Committee and Head of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentarian Group, Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin/Bad Salzufen Moderation: Daria MALLING, Project Lead, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Copenhagen |
| 10:45 Uhr |
Coffee & Tea Break |
| 11:15 Uhr |
CONCLUDING PANEL | Increasing the Odds – What Ukraine and Europe Need to Get Right Kristina BERDYNSKYKH, freelance journalist (Il Foglio, Italy), Liberation (France) Volodymyr DUBOVYK, Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at the Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University, Germany Nataliya PRYHORNYTSKA, Co-Founder and Board Member of Open Platform/ Alliance of Ukrainian Organizations, Berlin Brian WHITMORE, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council and Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Texas-Arlington Moderation: Inna NELLES, Co-Founder, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf |
| 12:20 Uhr |
Wrap-Up & Words of Farwell Inna NELLES, Co-Founder, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Protestant Academy Loccum |
| 12:30 Uhr |
Farewell Lunch |
| 13:30 Uhr |
Bus Shuttle to Wunstorf train station |
| - |
*invited ** prel. confirmed |