Ukraine Strategy Seminar 2026

Bus departs at 12:50 from Wunstorf train station

Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian

Bureau, Düsseldorf

Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Program Director International Affairs, Protestant Academy Loccum

Yevhen HLIBOVITSKY, Director of Frontier Institute and Supervisory board member at Suspilne (Ukrainian public service broadcast), Kyiv

Sarah ASHTON-CIRILLO, Staff Sergeant Category 3, 46th AirMobile Brigade, Ukrainian Defense Forces

Yaryna CHORNOHUZ, Poet, Writer, Translator, and Marine, Servicemember of the 30th Marine Corps, Ukrainian Armed Forces, 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.

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

Gwendolyn SASSE, Director, Centre for Eastern European and International Studies (ZOIS) and Einstein Professor for the Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at Humboldt-Universität, 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

*invited

** prel. confirmed

Bohdan DANYLIV, Head of Military Department, Serhiy Prytula Foundation, Kyiv

Falko DROßMANN, MP (Social Democrats) Spokesperson on Defense Policy for the SPD Parliamentary, Deutscher Bundestag, Hamburg/Berlin

Kai KIEßLER, Head of Unit Security Cooperation with Ukraine, German Ministry for the Economy, Berlin*

Dmytro PUTIATA, Drone Warfare Expert and Defence Analyst, 20th Unmanned Systems Forces Brigade "K-2”, Kyiv**

Line RINDVIG, Chief Strategy & Defence Investment Officer at Baryon Fund, Kyiv/Copenhagen**

Moderation: Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf

(in partnership with Democracy Reporting International, TBC)

Balázs JARÁBIK, Founder, Minority Report, Budapest

Garry POLUSCHKIN, Consultant and Country Coordinator Ukraine in the German Economic Team*

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

Oksana HUSS, Research Centre Trustworthy Data Science and Security, University Alliance Ruhr Duisburg and 2026 Partnership for Peace Research Fellow, NATO Defence College, Duisburg

Meriam YOL, Chief Operating Officer, Volonterska Foundation, Kharkiv

Natalia ZUBAR, Chair Maidan Monitoring Information Centre, Kharkiv

Moderation: Inna NELLES, Co-founder, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf

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

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Devin R. PEPPER, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Policy at NATO Allied Command Transformation*

Moderation: Elena DAVLIKANOVA, Associate Senior Fellow, Sahaidachnyi Security Center

Lead: Natalia ZUBAR, Citizen War Crime Investigator, Kharkiv

Lead: Gustav GRESSEL, Senior Lecturer and Researcher National Defence Academy, Austrian Armed Forces*

Meeting point (Reception)

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

*invited

** prel. confirmed

Yevgeniya GABER, George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

TBC, Serpens Center for International Security, Kyiv*

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: Wilfried JILGE, Senior Researcher, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Berlin

Kristina BERDYNSKYKH, Freelance journalist with regular contributions to Il Foglio (Italy) and Liberation (France), Kyiv

Nataliya PRYHORNYTSKA, Co-Founder and Board Member of Open Platform/ Alliance of Ukrainian Organizations, Berlin

Oleksiy SOROKIN, Co-founder and Deputy Chief Editor, Kyiv Independent, Kyiv

Brian WHITMORE, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council and Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Texas-Arlington

Moderation: Inna NELLES, Co-Founder, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf

Inna NELLES, Co-Founder, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf

Mattia NELLES, Co-Founder & Executive Director, German-Ukrainian Bureau, Düsseldorf

Thomas MÜLLER-FÄRBER, Protestant Academy Loccum

*invited

** prel. confirmed