On September 12, 2025, conversation with General Keith Kellogg, the Assistant to the US President and Special Presidential Envoy for Ukraine, was organized on the occasion of the 21st YES Annual Meeting in Kyiv.
Moderator: Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
The YES Annual Meeting 2025 was organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and Yalta European Strategy (YES).
We Are Impressed by Ukraine’s Progress in the Counter-Offensive – Victoria Nuland
10 September 2023
The Ukrainian counter-offensive is difficult,
but the progress achieved, considering the conditions in which it is
taking place, is impressive. That was said by the acting US Deputy
Secretary of State Victoria Nuland at the Yalta European Strategy (YES)
Annual Meeting “The Future is Being Decided in Ukraine”, organised by
YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
“This counter-offensive has been kilometre by
kilometre but we are impressed by the progress made, especially in the
south," she said.
According to Victoria Nuland, Russia has built, over
months, a strong defence in the occupied south of Ukraine, which can be
overcome under condition that there is close cooperation between the
governments of the United States and Ukraine.
“The defences that Russia has put in place are the largest
in 100 years. We need to understand what Ukraine needs to clear these
defences, and we cannot do that until Ukraine confronts the defences. We
got a good sense of what was needed when we were here. That is why we
are trying to work closely with the Ukrainian government, providing
equipment for mechanized demining, long-range artillery, and other
tools," stressed the US Acting Deputy Secretary of State.
She emphasized that the US had been explaining to all
partners in Europe, Asia, and Africa what negative consequences there
would be for global security, if Ukraine did not win that war
“If Ukraine does not win, if Putin succeeds, this type of
evil will be normalised across the world. Ukraine stands on the right
side of democracy and needs our support” she summarised.
"On 16 Jan 2024, Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted “What if Ukraine Loses?” discussion during the WEF in Davos (Switzerland). The event was held as a part of the Deciding Your Tomorrow project, organized by Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Message
of compassion for Ukrainians not enough already, it’s necessary to
convince partners of their interest in Ukraine's victory – Pinchuk
The
national interest of the United States, Poland, Lithuania and many
other countries lies in helping Ukraine defeat its "crazy enemy", it is
necessary to convince partners of this, since previous arguments about
the expediency of helping Ukraine are already working worse, businessman
and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk said at the opening of the project
"Your Country First – Win with Us" on the sidelines of the World
Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Tuesday.
"In
the previous three years, in 2022, 2023, 2024, we tried to get under
the skin of those who make decisions with a message of compassion for
brave Ukrainians. We tried to show here Russia's war crimes, the
suffering of Ukrainians, and... it worked: we understood that if Western
decision makers saw this, they would supply more weapons and faster,
and it worked, but now it almost doesn't work, because people in the
West very often think, no, we have already helped Ukrainians a lot. Of
course, we are together with Ukrainians, it's a pity that brave
Ukrainians are suffering so much, but we have our own problems," Pinchuk explained the change in the theme of the exhibition at the WEF-2025.
"Therefore,
we organized this exhibition to show that it is in your deepest
national interests to fight, you cannot let our insane enemy win," the businessman stressed.
According
to him, not everyone likes the words that "your country is first,"
because someone thinks that this is isolationism. However, Pinchuk
believes that it is the duty of every head of state to put the interests
of his country first.
"But
if your national interest is first and foremost, it means that Ukraine
must win, because national security is at the top of the United States'
priorities, and this means that America cannot allow our crazy enemy to
win in Ukraine.… You must fight for your national interests here, and
this is our message for this 2025 exhibition," Pinchuk said.
He
drew attention to one of the works at the exhibition, which shows how
easy it is to destroy the beautiful Western world if you don't fight for
it.
Another piece of art that opens the exhibition is the riddled name of the village of Volia on the front line.
"Volia
means freedom and will at the same time in Ukrainian. This means that
if you want to protect and preserve your freedom, you must have the
will. Please have the will to win together with Ukraine!" Pinchuk summed up.
Education: PHD, Dniepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2
Profile
Lavished
$5 million on himself and his wife for a joint birthday party in
Courchevel, France that featured acrobats from Cirque de Soleil and
celebrities including Steven Spielberg.
A
week earlier in Kiev, announced the winner of his $100,000 art prize
for young artists; Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Miuccia Prada were on
hand for the fete.
Seventh year hobnobbing at Davos.
Meanwhile his pipemaker Interpipe struggling to refinance reported $900 million in debt.
Instead
using proceeds from 2008 sale of his Ukrsotsbank to Italy's UniCredit
Group for $2.2 billion to create investment portfolio.
New ventures include insurance and oil explorer Geo-Alliance, which he considered IPOing on the Polish bourse in December.
Son-in-law of ex-president Leonid Kuchma used his Ph.D. in pipe design to found Interpipe in 1990.
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide. For 18 years, YES has initiated dialog between leaders from Ukraine, the EU, the US and beyond. Within Ukraine, it provides a platform for the government and opposition.
It brings together leaders from politics, business, media, civil society and the expert community.
YES began in 2004, when Victor Pinchuk invited some 30 European leaders to debate the future of Ukraine and the EU at the first Annual Meeting. YES Annual Meeting took place at the symbolic Livadia Palace in Yalta from 2004 to 2013. The location where Europe was divided in 1945 thus became the venue for uniting a wider Europe. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the YES Annual Meeting moved to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
YES meetings have brought together heads of state and government such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Dalia Grybauskaitė, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Bronisław Komorowski, Mario Monti, Shimon Peres and Donald Trump.
Among the speakers were also heads of international organizations like Kofi Annan, José Manuel Barroso, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Ronald Noble, James Wolfensohn, Lamberto Zannier and Robert Zoellick.
Senior officials, such as Hillary Clinton, Valdis Dombrovskis, Robert Gates, Johannes Hahn, Chrystia Freeland, Victoria Nuland, Condoleezza Rice and Martin Schulz, have spoken at the meetings.
In addition, thinkers and social leaders like Richard Branson, German Gref, Richard Haass, Niall Ferguson, Alexei Kudrin, Arthur Laffer, Yurii Milner, Larry Summers, Nouriel Roubini and Strobe Talbott have been among the panelists. Presidents and Prime Ministers of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s political, business and social leaders, regularly speak at the meetings.
The YES board includes Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the YES Board; Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014), Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994); Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament (2002-2004), Member of the European Parliament (1989-2004); Stephane Fouks, Vice President of Havas Group, Executive Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide; Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Senior Professor, Hertie School of Governance; Victor Pinchuk, Founder and Member of the Board, YES and Founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne group; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Founder of Rasmussen Global, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014),
Kiev cannot make its backers agree to its idea of a tribunal for top officials in Moscow, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said
Ukraine has made no progress in making the US and its allies agree to its idea of a tribunal for top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said in a speech on Friday.
The nation’s top diplomat blasted the West’s “divisions” and “lack of will” on the issue at the Yalta European Strategy forum in Kiev.
Western nations are just as reluctant to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine, Kuleba said, adding that there has been little progress on this matter as well. “Unfortunately, we are in a kind of deadlock on both,” he said.
The G7 group, which includes the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan, “stands firmly” in favor of what the diplomat described as a “hybrid tribunal,” in which Putin, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, would maintain immunity from prosecution, Kuleba said, stressing that this is absolutely unacceptable for Kiev.
“The special tribunal is needed to create a precedent for punishing the Russian leaders,” he said. “The hybrid tribunal does not answer the question as to how to prosecute those three,” the top diplomat said, noting that he “simply cannot remember” the name of the Russian prime minister.
Those who are against the “special tribunal” make a “clear statement that they consider Russia’s crimes in Ukraine less important than the crimes committed during the Yugoslavia war,” Kuleba said. Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andrey Kostin, also said it would be “impossible to explain to Ukrainians that we could have a tribunal without Putin on the defendant’s bench.” The Ukrainian foreign minister also said he sees no way to resolve these differences between Kiev and its Western backers. “President [Vladimir Zelensky] has recently asked me what has been done [to push through the idea of a tribunal] and I have admitted for the first time in my ministerial capacity that I cannot suggest a solution,” he said. Kuleba claims that any legal constraints preventing Kiev from achieving its desired results can be altered. “If a law does not fit an idea of attaining justice, the legislation should be changed,” he said. Kiev continues to push for Zelensky’s ‘peace formula’, which includes Russia withdrawing from Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye, and Crimea, as well as paying reparations to Ukraine and submitting to war crimes tribunals. Moscow has dismissed these demands as “nonsense” and has said it is ready for peace talks that reflect “the reality on the ground.”
Liberating territories, returning people home, bringing war criminals to justice and integrating Ukraine into the Euro-Atlantic community: opinion leaders name criteria for Ukraine's victory
The Ukrainian counter-offensive is difficult, but the progress achieved, considering the conditions in which it is taking place, is impressive. That was said by the acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting “The Future is Being Decided in Ukraine”, organised by YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
All the money that Ukraine earns is spent to finance defence-related needs as a matter of priority, said Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting “The Future is Being Decided in Ukraine”, organized by YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
The mental health problem is relevant for the whole world, and everyone should understand that taking care of oneself is primarily a responsibility, not selfishness.
Our goal is to preserve independent Ukraine and give our children the opportunity to choose their future, said Denys Zaikov, Assistant Chief of Section S-2, 25th Independent Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, when answering the question about what he was fighting for at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting “The Future is Being Decided in Ukraine”, organized by YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
The war has not benefited the Putin regime, it is not as powerful as it wants to appear, the economy is failing and Russia's military power has degraded significantly.
Mike Pompeo (seen at left in official CIA portrait 2018) is an American politician who served as Donald Trump;s
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2017 to 2018 - and as the 70th United States Secretary of State from 2018 to 2021.
Since then he's shed more than a few pounds in his new public image you see in this YouTube upload from the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation and he's also written a new book -Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love.
Both are clear signs that he's probably planning to solidify his statecraft credentials for some future election campaign.
Bio Details: Early career
After graduating from law school, he worked as a lawyer for Williams & Connolly in Washington.[22]
In 1996, Pompeo moved to Wichita, Kansas, where he and three West Point friends, Brian Bulatao, Ulrich Brechbuhl, and Michael Stradinger, acquired three aircraft-parts manufacturers there (Aero Machine, Precision Profiling, B&B Machine) and in St. Louis (Advance Tool & Die), renaming the entity Thayer Aerospace after West Point superintendent Sylvanus Thayer.[23][24][25][26] Venture funding for the private organization included a nearly 20% investment from Koch Industries[23] as well as Dallas-based Cardinal Investment, and Bain & Company (Brechbuhl worked for Bain at the time).[27][24] Brechbuhl and Stradinger left the company shortly after it was founded, but Pompeo and Bulatao continued.
In February 2021, Pompeo founded the Champion American Values PAC (CAVPAC).[175]
Pompeo expressed support for the Biden administration's extension of the withdrawal timeline of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to August 2021. He ultimately distanced himself and the Trump administration from the situation facing Afghanistan post-withdrawal, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.[155][176][177][178]
Pompeo was paid by the Taiwanese government-affiliated thinktank Prospect Foundation to deliver a speech on March 4, 2022.[179]: 339 Reporting of Pompeo's pay varied, with $150,000 being the most commonly reported figure.[179]: 339 In his speech, Pompeo called on the United States to recognize the Republic of China as an independent and sovereign country.[179]: 339
In August 2022 it emerged that Pompeo was the target of an assassination plot by Iran.[180]
Pompeo considered a candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and toured early primary states, but ultimately announced his decision not to run in April 2023.[182]
In 2023, Pompeo joined the board of directors of Cyabra, an Israeli counter-disinformation company which has recorded a 20% revenue growth in recent years.[184]
Yalta European Strategy (YES) is a leading forum for discussing Ukraine’s European future and global context. YES fosters new ideas. It connects Ukraine to international partners, supports forces for change in the country, and builds networks of supporters for a new Ukraine worldwide.
For 18 years, YES has initiated dialog between leaders from Ukraine, the EU, the US and beyond. Within Ukraine, it provides a platform for the government and opposition. It brings together leaders from politics, business, media, civil society and the expert community.
YES began in 2004, when Victor Pinchuk invited some 30 European leaders to debate the future of Ukraine and the EU at the first Annual Meeting.
YES Annual Meeting took place at the symbolic Livadia Palace in Yalta from 2004 to 2013.
The location where Europe was divided in 1945 thus became the venue for uniting a wider Europe.
After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the YES Annual Meeting moved to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
YES meetings have brought together heads of state and government such as Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Bill Clinton, Dalia Grybauskaitė, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Bronisław Komorowski, Mario Monti, Shimon Peres and Donald Trump. Among the speakers were also heads of international organizations like Kofi Annan, José Manuel Barroso, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Ronald Noble, James Wolfensohn, Lamberto Zannier and Robert Zoellick. Senior officials, such as Hillary Clinton, Valdis Dombrovskis, Robert Gates, Johannes Hahn, Chrystia Freeland, Victoria Nuland, Condoleezza Rice and Martin Schulz, have spoken at the meetings. In addition, thinkers and social leaders like Richard Branson, German Gref, Richard Haass, Niall Ferguson, Alexei Kudrin, Arthur Laffer, Yurii Milner, Larry Summers, Nouriel Roubini and Strobe Talbott have been among the panelists. Presidents and Prime Ministers of Ukraine, as well as Ukraine’s political, business and social leaders, regularly speak at the meetings.
The YES board includes
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, President of Poland (1995-2005), Chairman of the YES Board;
Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden (2006-2014), Prime Minister of Sweden (1991-1994);
Pat Cox, President of the European Parliament (2002-2004), Member of the European Parliament (1989-2004);
Stephane Fouks, Vice President of Havas Group, Executive Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide;
Wolfgang Ischinger, Ambassador, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Senior Professor, Hertie School of Governance;
Victor Pinchuk, Founder and Member of the Board, YES and Founder of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and EastOne group;
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Founder of Rasmussen Global, Secretary General of NATO (2009-2014),
The 17th Annual Meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES) – “Ukraine: Defending all Our Freedom” – was held from September 9-10, 2022 in Kyiv. Over 400 leading politicians, diplomats, businessmen, ...
We Are Impressed by Ukraine’s Progress in the Counter-Offensive – Victoria Nuland
10 September 2023
The Ukrainian counter-offensive is difficult, but the progress achieved, considering the conditions in which it is taking place, is impressive. That was said by the acting US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland at the Yalta European Strategy (YES) Annual Meeting “The Future is Being Decided in Ukraine”, organised by YES in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation.
“This counter-offensive has been kilometre by kilometre but we are impressed by the progress made, especially in the south," she said.
According to Victoria Nuland, Russia has built, over months, a strong defence in the occupied south of Ukraine, which can be overcome under condition that there is close cooperation between the governments of the United States and Ukraine.
“The defences that Russia has put in place are the largest in 100 years. We need to understand what Ukraine needs to clear these defences, and we cannot do that until Ukraine confronts the defences. We got a good sense of what was needed when we were here. That is why we are trying to work closely with the Ukrainian government, providing equipment for mechanized demining, long-range artillery, and other tools," stressed the US Acting Deputy Secretary of State.
She emphasized that the US had been explaining to all partners in Europe, Asia, and Africa what negative consequences there would be for global security, if Ukraine did not win that war
“If Ukraine does not win, if Putin succeeds, this type of evil will be normalised across the world. Ukraine stands on the right side of democracy and needs our support” she summarised.
"On 16 Jan 2024, Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted “What if Ukraine Loses?” discussion during the WEF in Davos (Switzerland). The event was held as a part of the Deciding Your Tomorrow project, organized by Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Message of compassion for Ukrainians not enough already, it’s necessary to convince partners of their interest in Ukraine's victory – Pinchuk
The national interest of the United States, Poland, Lithuania and many other countries lies in helping Ukraine defeat its "crazy enemy", it is necessary to convince partners of this, since previous arguments about the expediency of helping Ukraine are already working worse, businessman and philanthropist Victor Pinchuk said at the opening of the project "Your Country First – Win with Us" on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on Tuesday.
"In the previous three years, in 2022, 2023, 2024, we tried to get under the skin of those who make decisions with a message of compassion for brave Ukrainians. We tried to show here Russia's war crimes, the suffering of Ukrainians, and... it worked: we understood that if Western decision makers saw this, they would supply more weapons and faster, and it worked, but now it almost doesn't work, because people in the West very often think, no, we have already helped Ukrainians a lot. Of course, we are together with Ukrainians, it's a pity that brave Ukrainians are suffering so much, but we have our own problems," Pinchuk explained the change in the theme of the exhibition at the WEF-2025.
"Therefore, we organized this exhibition to show that it is in your deepest national interests to fight, you cannot let our insane enemy win," the businessman stressed.
According to him, not everyone likes the words that "your country is first," because someone thinks that this is isolationism. However, Pinchuk believes that it is the duty of every head of state to put the interests of his country first.
"But if your national interest is first and foremost, it means that Ukraine must win, because national security is at the top of the United States' priorities, and this means that America cannot allow our crazy enemy to win in Ukraine.… You must fight for your national interests here, and this is our message for this 2025 exhibition," Pinchuk said.
He drew attention to one of the works at the exhibition, which shows how easy it is to destroy the beautiful Western world if you don't fight for it.
Another piece of art that opens the exhibition is the riddled name of the village of Volia on the front line.
"Volia means freedom and will at the same time in Ukrainian. This means that if you want to protect and preserve your freedom, you must have the will. Please have the will to win together with Ukraine!" Pinchuk summed up.
Education: PHD, Dniepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute
Marital Status: Married
Children: 2
Profile
Lavished $5 million on himself and his wife for a joint birthday party in Courchevel, France that featured acrobats from Cirque de Soleil and celebrities including Steven Spielberg.
A week earlier in Kiev, announced the winner of his $100,000 art prize for young artists; Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Miuccia Prada were on hand for the fete.
Seventh year hobnobbing at Davos.
Meanwhile his pipemaker Interpipe struggling to refinance reported $900 million in debt.
Instead using proceeds from 2008 sale of his Ukrsotsbank to Italy's UniCredit Group for $2.2 billion to create investment portfolio.
New ventures include insurance and oil explorer Geo-Alliance, which he considered IPOing on the Polish bourse in December.
Son-in-law of ex-president Leonid Kuchma used his Ph.D. in pipe design to found Interpipe in 1990.
#336 overall
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