Our Pro­jects

LibMod runs several Ukraine-related pro­jects, making the center the largest Ukrai­nian initia­tive (by the number of pro­jects, areas of inter­ven­tion, and human resour­ces invol­ved) by a German non-profit organization.

I           Ukraine ver­ste­hen (Under­stan­ding Ukraine)

Our website is a unique online resource for ana­ly­sis, inter­views, and back­ground reports about Ukraine, and its rela­ti­ons with Germany and the EU, ranging from poli­tics and eco­no­mics to culture, from inter­na­tio­nal rela­ti­ons to history. The site aims to raise awa­re­ness about Ukraine as an inte­gral part of Europe among German-spea­king audi­en­ces through mul­ti­face­ted and impar­tial exper­tise. Moreo­ver, Ukraine ver­ste­hen regu­larly hosts public dis­cus­sions on Ukraine in German and English, which are archi­ved on the website.

Archive of past events.

II          Ukraine in Europe: the par­lia­men­tary dimension

The project is funded by the German Federal Foreign Office from 2021 to 2022. It con­sists of two key com­pon­ents.  First, it aims at deepe­ning par­lia­men­tary dia­lo­gue between Ukraine and Germany and making it more sub­stan­tial. Our key issues are the reinte­gra­tion of Donbas and Crimea, as well as the mutual Remem­brance Culture in Germany and Ukraine. Also, we include French and Polish MPs and their staff to offer a broader per­spec­tive. Within this com­po­nent, four closed-door mee­tings of MPs, their office staff, and staff of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the German Bun­des­tag, the Polish Sejm, and the French Natio­nal Assem­bly, as well as two public events will take place in 2021 and 2022. Strong expert input through sepa­rate expert mee­tings and policy papers will bring more sub­s­tance to the par­lia­men­tary debates. Also, part of the pro­gramme is a field trip to Ukraine for MPs and experts from outside Ukraine.

The second com­po­nent focuses on enhan­cing the Verkhovna Rada’s capa­city to promote the Green Deal agenda in Ukraine and support the imple­men­ta­tion of neces­sary reforms. Issues like CO2 pricing, cir­cu­lar economy, rene­wa­ble energy, and waste manage­ment will be raised throug­hout the project. Expert brie­fings for MPs and their staf­fers, closed-door dis­cus­sions, public round tables, and the pre­pa­ra­tion of ana­ly­ti­cal reports and short papers are key acti­vi­ties of this component.

The project is being imple­men­ted in part­ner­ship with the East Europe Foun­da­tion (Kyiv).

List of publi­ca­ti­ons and infor­ma­tion about past events and future acti­vi­ties.

III        Ukraine Insights

Ukraine Insights is a series of closed-door policy and expert mee­tings on Ukraine. It regu­larly brings tog­e­ther a select group of govern­ment offi­ci­als, think-tank experts, and prac­ti­tio­ners based in Berlin. Exter­nal experts are also invited on an ad-hoc basis. It pro­vi­des an infor­mal plat­form for an in-depth dis­cus­sion of deve­lo­p­ments in Ukraine, and for iden­ti­fy­ing future trends and exchan­ging views on EU and German policy options. We cover a broad range of issues, inclu­ding Ukraine’s party poli­tics, formal and infor­mal decis­ion-making, the reform process in various policy areas, and Ukraine’s rela­ti­ons with its inter­na­tio­nal partners.

List of past meetings

IV        Expert dis­cus­sions on long-term EU policy towards Ukraine

The project aims at offe­ring input for the EU’s long-term policy towards Ukraine through a series of closed-door expert dis­cus­sions.  Experts from EU member states, but also from the US and Ukraine, will be invol­ved. Altog­e­ther, 5 expert mee­tings will take place between Sep­tem­ber 2021 and January 2022, with policy input papers written exclu­si­vely to offer in-depth exper­tise. The mee­tings will not only focus on future policy options but will also look cri­ti­cally at the array of current pro­grams and approa­ches and suggest how (if) they can be impro­ved and/​or better imple­men­ted. This project is funded by the German Foreign Office.

V         Remem­brance Culture

This initia­tive aims at raising awa­re­ness about little-known chap­ters of Ukrai­nian history and German-Ukrai­nian rela­ti­ons in the his­to­ri­cal per­spec­tive. In Novem­ber 2020, we published a coll­ec­tion of essays titled „Under­stan­ding Ukraine. On the foot­s­teps of terror and vio­lence“. In autumn 2021, a second edition of the book will be published within the series “Ukrai­nian voices” by the ibidem publi­shing house.

Our remem­brance project aims to reveal the largely unknown fate of the Jewish pop­u­la­tion in Ukraine during World War II. On October 22, 2021, the foun­da­tion stone was laid for a new memo­rial in Odesa. The inau­gu­ra­tion of the memo­rial itself was planned for autumn 2022, but has been post­po­ned inde­fi­ni­tely due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. However, the project team hopes that Ukraine will win soon so that the memo­rial “Against Obli­vion” can be com­ple­ted. Here is the picture report on the laying of the foun­da­tion stone. 

This project is funded by the German Society for Inter­na­tional Coop­er­a­tion (GIZ).

Read more about this project (in German)

VI Under­stan­ding Ukraine: Pro­mo­ting Ukraine Com­pe­tence in Germany

Since Russia’s large-scale inva­sion of Ukraine and the resul­ting eco­no­mic, social, and huma­ni­ta­rian cata­stro­phe, German public atten­tion to Ukraine has been higher than ever. However, there is a lack of under­stan­ding and know­ledge about the pro­found dif­fe­ren­ces between Ukraine and Russia and the origins of the Ukrai­nian struggle for freedom. In this regard, Germany is making a signi­fi­cant con­tri­bu­tion to sup­port­ing Ukraine. The project “Under­stan­ding Ukraine” aims to make the pro­found pro­ces­ses in state and society com­pre­hen­si­ble and to address German-Ukrai­nian rela­ti­ons. In the form of freely acces­si­ble reports, ana­ly­ses, and reports by Ukrai­nian and inter­na­tio­nal experts and jour­na­lists, events are clas­si­fied, com­men­ted on, and effec­tively com­mu­ni­ca­ted to the target groups. In addi­tion to the website, the focus is incre­asingly on audio-visually appe­al­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion in social media. Pod­casts are pro­du­ced, and photo reports are published. Tar­ge­ted work with jour­na­lists and mul­ti­pli­ers in the form of press clubs/​workshops increa­ses the target groups‘ com­pe­tence in Ukraine. Thus, in line with the BMZ’s concept of deve­lo­p­ment infor­ma­tion and edu­ca­tion, the project raises awa­re­ness of deve­lo­p­ment issues, imparts rele­vant know­ledge, and thus empowers the target groups to make infor­med decis­i­ons and act for a just society.

Project dura­tion: 01.08.22 – 31.07.23