Victor Pinchuk Foundation held a conversation with Howard G. Buffet during the YES Special Gathering in Kyiv “Three Years — Time to Win”

On 24 February 2025, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Yalta European Strategy (YES) held a special conversation with Howard G. Buffet, Chairman and CEO, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation, on the occasion of the YES Special Gathering  in Kyiv “Three Years — Time to Win”. The YES Special Gathering is dedicated to the third anniversary of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Politicians and experts discussed strategies for securing Ukraine in a changing world.

Howard G. Buffett, Chairman and CEO, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation “Talking about foreign policy is important to us. We want the war to end for many reasons but one of them is that we have a finite amount of resources.”

Kajsa Ollongren, Minister of Defence of the Netherlands (2022-2024), YES Board Member, moderating the discussion, said:  “Ukraine has been fighting with one arm behind its back, sometimes two. Both the US and Europe have put restraints on them.”

Howard G. Buffett added: “This war needs to be ended justly and fairly for Ukraine. Maybe a result of this will be that Europe will understand how much it can really rely on the US.”

“Both Europe and the US have made the mistake of limiting what weapons Ukrainians can have and how they can use them. This is a war, not a trading zone. People are losing their lives.”

“Ukraine has done an incredible job of ramping up their weapons industry. Ukraine can absolutely win this war.

When Russia implemented the full-scale invasion I knew it was going to have global impact. I felt I had to engage. We’ve doubled our spending because of Ukraine,and we will keep up this level of funding.”

“Everyone who understands what is happening in Ukraine must go on with what they’re doing. Don’t stop.”

Photos are available here

Video is available here