YES Board Members Arrived in Ukraine to Discuss Ways to Increase International Support of Ukrainians

On June 22, 2022, the Yalta European Strategy (YES) members of the Board visited Ukraine to increase international support. They also discussed how YES and its upcoming 17th Annual Meeting can contribute to keeping Ukraine on the international agenda.

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); Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, ex-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Senior Professor of 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.

On the day of the visit, which coincided with the 81st anniversary of the bombing of Kyiv by fascist Germany, the YES Supervisory Board visited the suburbs of Kyiv, destroyed by the rushists: Hostomel, Bucha and Borodyanka.

“When the whole world for the first time saw what happened in Bucha, that war crimes were committed here, it changed their attitude towards the war. Only after that, the Western politicians decided to supply us with modern heavy weapons. We need to tell more about the Russian war crimes. The world should not forget what happened in Ukraine. They should continue to help us, tighten sanctions against Russia. And the more we talk about what happened in Ukraine, the more chances we have to get, without bureaucracy, the heavy weapons, that are critically lacking in the east of Ukraine,” said Victor Pinchuk, founder and member of the YES Supervisory Board.

“The price of this war is very high. Of course, Ukraine is the first victim of this war, but historically Russia will lose a lot. Ukrainians need to fight. We need to help, we need to supply weapons. I am glad that the political decision that Ukraine will become a member of the European Union in the future will be made very quickly,” said Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the YES Supervisory Board.

The YES Board held meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba; Minister of Defence Oleksii Reznikov; First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko; ambassadors, members of the Parliament, experts and media.