22 February 2022, 10:00 – 12:00 CET

DRA (Germany), Center for Civil Liberties (Ukraine), Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (Poland), AEC (France), PAX (The Netherlands), Drukarnia (Ukraine), Luhansk Human Rights Center « Alternativa » (Ukraine), Memorial Deutschland e.V. (Germany) would like to invite you to an online event to receive security updates from civil society working in eastern Ukraine and together identify how the EU civil society could support Ukraine and amplify its voice in the European Union.

According to different sources, there are about 140,000 Russian troops – from tanks to artillery and air power on the border – posing a real danger of a full-scale invasion into sovereign Ukraine any day now. The Russian government’s military buildup on the border with Ukraine bears high risks of war for the entire Europe. This aggression against Ukraine touches upon European values – beyond the principle of sovereignty it endangers democracy, human rights and international norms. Almost eight years later and after more than 13.000 people’s lives, European leaders have started to understand the need for joint effort in order to stop the aggressor and to demonstrate the EU’s backing for Ukraine to prevent another military invasion from Russia.

Amid this context, EU civil society could support Ukraine by advocating for more decisive joint response on a political level to prevent the outbreak of a massive war in Europe, and possible humanitarian disaster in case of military action. Any other answer on the EU side to aggressive politics of escalation would postulate the hollowing out of the principles of peaceful co-existence of independent European states.

Following questions frame the discussion: How is Ukrainian civil society dealing with the risks of escalation? What is the support the EU civil society could provide? How could we work closer for stronger advocacy messages towards the EU institutions and decision makers? Participants will have an opportunity to:

• Hear the most recent updates on the security situation from Ukrainian civil society experts working in the conflict-affected region and those actively promoting resolution of the conflict on the national and international levels.
• Come up with concrete suggestions on how to support the Ukrainian civil society.
• Discuss ways to cooperate with Ukrainian civil society under conditions of a possible large-scale military escalation, as well as in case of any military escalations by Russian forces, including powerful advocacy support on the EU level.

Agenda:

10:00 – 10:15 – Welcome and introduction by the organisers

10:15 – 11:15 – Updates from Ukraine – situation on the ground (hybrid attacks, current uncertainty, contradictory messages) and expectations towards the EU civil society

• Oleksandra Matviychuk, Center for Civil Liberties
• Valeriy Novikov, Alternatyva
• Darya Romanenko, Civil Society Center Drukarnia

11:15 – 11:45 – Input and questions by EU CSOs: your position on the current developments in eastern Ukraine and proposed course of joint action as a response to mounting military tensions

11:45 – 12:00 – Summary remarks, next steps, agreed joint actions

Moderation by Andriy Kulykov, Hromadske Radio 

Working languages: English and Russian. Simultaneous interpretation to English and Russian will be provided.

To join the event, please register here:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUudOuuqz4vEtNvNbMZa6i5ib_zl22zTYuR