ABOUT
To form a common understanding of how modern information reality is being transformed in the context of «cognitive warfare», and to define new, effective approaches to countering influences on the consciousness of societies.
The Forum proposes to identify the main challenges to the internal and external resilience of Ukraine and partner countries.nian war.
The event aims to analyze Ukraine’s experience as a unique environment for cooperation between the state, civil society, technology communities, and international partners, and to draw practical conclusions that will help adapt security strategies to the pace and complexity of modern information threats.
AGENDA
Time slot: 9:00 – 10:00
Registration of participants and guests, morning coffee
Time slot: 10:00 – 10:15
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Andrij Sybiha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
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Peter Wagner, Director – Head of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) at the European Commission.
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Gediminas Navickas, Deputy EU Ambassador
Time slot: 10:30 – 11:00
Interviewer: Yarema Dukh, comms expert, “Effective Communications” NGO.
Time slot: 11:05 – 12:30
Objective: to discuss the divisions within Ukrainian society and ways to improve internal resilience. The civic, governmental, and parliamentary dimensions of internal resilience.
Artem Zakharchenko on the lines of division, Head of CAT-UA (Communication Analysis Team – Ukraine)
Further discussion by panel participants:
- Oleg Shymanskyi, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine
- Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Member of the Verkhovna Rada
- Olga Aivazovska, OPORA
- Nataliia Lygachova, Detector.media
Moderator: Liubov Tsybulska, Director of NGO «Join Ukraine»
Time slot: 12:30 – 13:30
Objective: Cognitive threats have ceased to be local or even regional, and already have a global dimension. The largest autocracies spend tens of billions of dollars annually on coordinated influence operations in dozens of countries simultaneously. They use modern technologies that exponentially increase the ability to influence the perception of millions in any location. At the same time, democracies have not yet formed a cognitive security infrastructure. The cognitive domain is increasingly becoming a decisive element in the modern struggle for democracy.
Participants:
- Mariana Betsa, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine
- Matthew Reece, Director of Policy Planning and Strategic Communication Directorate, European External Action Service (EEAS)
- Mélodine Allaire, Head of the Strategic Communications Unit at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France
- Andrei Tarnea, Director general for Communication and Public Diplomacy in Romanian MFA
- Serhii Cherevatyi, Director General of the Ukrainian National News Agency “Ukrinform”
Moderator: Mykola Balaban, Center for Strategic Communications
13:30 – 14:30
Time slot: 14:30 – 15:30
Objective: Authoritarian countries (Russia, Iran, and others) pose the greatest threat to the world, as they direct their resources toward destroying the world order. Countering this harmful influence involves not only building a defense system, but also “active defense” – on the enemy’s territory.
The discussion plans to clarify the peculiarities of Russia’s information operations and channels through which its disinformation reaches major media. Also, to identify weaknesses and vulnerabilities of Russia’s information space. In addition, to discuss Russia’s plans for organizing its controlled activities on the Internet and the Russian administration’s plans for social networks or digital services in Russia’s future development.
Also, conduct a review of Ukraine’s cognitive influence infrastructure.
Participants:
- Vadym Skibitsky, Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
- Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
- Riho Ühtegi, Military expert at PractNet
- Yuliia Bin, Director General of the State Enterprise “Multimedia Platform for International Broadcasting of Ukraine”
- Roman Tsymbaliuk, Expert on Russia and enemy disinformation, a journalist, and a blogger
- Mykolai Sierha, Officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, founder and head of the “Cultural Forces” association
Moderator: Ihor Solovei, Center for Strategic Communications
15:30 – 15:45
Time slot: 15:45 – 16:45
Objective: to form a coordinated vision and practical solutions for protecting the information space by countering FIMI influences, strengthening LLM security, assessing the effectiveness of sanctions and restrictions, developing proactive AI solutions, as well as updating regulatory mechanisms and cooperating with Big Tech to limit hostile actors’ access to disinformation dissemination channels.
Topics for discussion:
- How to protect LLMs from malicious interference?
- Instrumentalization of social platforms for FIMI
- How to increase information security: cooperation with Big Tech (Meta, Google, TikTok, X) and update of Ukraine/EU regulatory tools
Participants:
- Natalia Tkachuk, Head of the Information and Cyber Security Directorate at the Office of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Coordination Center for Cyber Security
- Andrii Davydiuk, visiting scholar at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)
- Amber French-Griette, Co-founder and Executive Director, Organization for Nonviolent Movements (Paris)
- Oleksandr Melnychenko, Representative of the Security Service of Ukraine Cyber Security Department, Colonel
- Lukasz Olejnik, Independent researcher and consultant on security and data protection
- Volodymyr Styran, Special Assistant to the Chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) and a co-founder of Berezha Security Group
Moderator: Roman Vybranovskyy, Co-founder of the Ukraine Facility Platform
Time slot: 16:50 – 17:50
Objective: to analyze modern forms of Russian information aggression and determine how developing competencies in strategic communications and countering disinformation at all levels – from regional communicators to foreign diplomatic missions – strengthens Ukraine’s information resilience.
Key thematic blocks:
- From spot training to the educational system: how training in strategic communications and countering disinformation was institutionalized in Ukraine during the war
- Regions as the first link of information vulnerability – problems and challenges, experience in strengthening resilience
- Diplomatic dimension: communications of foreign missions in promoting the Ukrainian information agenda
- Formation of sustainable methodology. How the experience of local projects was converted into an educational system built on practical experience
Participants:
- Viktoriia Merlych, Head of the Educational Department and the School of Strategic Communications
- Viktoria Lyalina-Boiko, Director of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
- Yulia Lykhach, Director of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications High school of Public Governance
- Maria Berlinska, Head of the Victory Neurones and Victory Drones projects, co-founder of the Dignitas charitable foundation, and founder of the NGO “Aerial Intelligence Support Center”
Moderator: Oleksandr Gorokhovsky, Analyst at the School of Strategic Communications, Center for Strategic Communications
17:55
Side events
Time slot: 15:40- 16:40
Objective: To analyze how knowledge of the past influences collective identity, international perceptions of the country, and societal resilience in times of war, as well as to determine the role of historical manipulation in Russia’s hybrid aggression.
- Vladlen Maraiev, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanitarian Issues of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, creator of the YouTube channel “History Without Myths”
- Anton Liagusha, Ph.D., Academic Director of the Master’s Program Memory Studies and Public History in Kyiv School of Economics, Swedish Distinguished Professor
- Artem Zibalov, Instructor at the Colonel Yevhen Konovalets Military Commanders’ School
Moderator: Serhii Zhukov, Lead Analyst at the Center for Strategic Communications
18:00 – 19:30
ORGANIZERS
MEDIAPARTNERS
PARTNERS
SPEAKERS
Peter Wagner
Director – Head of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) at the European Commission
Peter Wagner heads the Support Group for Ukraine and works at the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission. Previously, he served as an adviser to the Task Force for Greece, led the defence, aviation, and maritime sectors, and was responsible for policy coordination and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. Before joining the European Commission in 1999, he worked at a German research institute and was also a journalist and newspaper editor.
Гедемінас Навіцкас
Deputy EU Ambassador
Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine. He has many years of experience working in European institutions and is actively involved in Ukraine’s integration into the EU, legislative harmonisation, support for reforms, as well as humanitarian missions – including advocacy for the rights of national minorities and the return of Ukrainian children deported by Russia.
Andrij Sybiha
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Andrii Sybiha is a Ukrainian diplomat and statesman serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Previously, he worked as Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Ambassador of Ukraine to Türkiye, and held a number of positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. He specialises in international negotiations, Euro-Atlantic integration, and Ukraine’s foreign policy.
Yarema Dukh
Communications expert
Strategic communications expert. He has been working in strategic communications since 2014. Co-author of the official Twitter account of Ukraine (2016-2019). Previously, Yarema worked as the Head of Press service at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (2014), as a Foreign media coordinator at the Presidential Administration of Ukraine (2015-2018), and the Press secretary for the Holos party (2019-2021).
Oleg Shymanskyi
Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine
In April 2022, he joined the Reform Support Office at the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. In May 2024, he initiated the establishment of the Reform Donors Council to mobilize international assistance for the defence sector, bringing together 35 donor governments. He negotiated and secured funding for key digitalization initiatives at the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, including: Army+, Reserve+, eVLK (electronic Military Medical Commission), the opening of recruitment centers, and equipping the “Oberih” state register with IT infrastructure. On March 11, 2025, he was appointed Deputy Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn
Member of the Verkhovna Rada
Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech, Deputy Head of the Temporary Investigative Commission on Investigating Crimes Committed by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Against Journalists and Media Workers. Executive Director (2016–2018) and Chair of the Board (2018–2019) of Transparency International Ukraine.
Olha Aivazovska
Head of the Board of the Civil Network OPORA
Co-founder of the All-Ukrainian Civic Organization “Civil Network OPORA” and Head of its Board (since 2009). From 2016 to 2018, she served as an expert on the Ukrainian side in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk.
Наталія Лигачова
Editor-in-Chief of the online publication “Detector Media” (since 2015).
Board member of the International Renaissance Foundation (since 2015). Chair of the Board of the NGO “Detector Media” (since January 2004; from 2004 to 2016, the organization was called the NGO “Telekritika”; on April 27, 2016, the NGO “Telekritika” was renamed “Detector Media”).
Liubov Tsybulska
Director of the NGO Join Ukraine, expert in strategic communications
First Head of the Center for Strategic Communications. She worked as a journalist, editor, and screenwriter for several Ukrainian television channels. She served as a strategic communications advisor to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and headed the press service of the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration.
Matthew Reece
Director of Policy Planning and Strategic Communication Directorate, European External Action Service (EEAS)
Serhii Cherevatyi
Director General of the Ukrainian National News Agency “Ukrinform”
Mariana Betsa
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Мелодін Аллер
Head of the Strategic Communications Unit at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Graduate of the CELSA and the College of Europe, she has been involved in the organisation and communications of several international events, including the French G7 Presidency in 2019 and the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2022. She then spent three years as deputy to the President of the Republic’s adviser on international communications at the Élysée Palace before joining the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in October 2025.
Romanian MFA
Andrei Bogdan ȚĂRNEA
Ambassador Andrei Țărnea is Director General for Strategic Communication, and spokesperson of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a career diplomat since 1999.
Andrei Tarnea has covered bilateral affairs, communication, and served as head of the early warning unit in the policy-planning department of the MFA.
He served as advisor to the foreign minister.
He was on foreign posting in Brussels as director of the Romanian Information Center in Brussels, and Councilor to Romanian Embassy.
In 2017 he was appointed Commissioner general for the French Romanian Season.
Outside the MFA, Andrei Tarnea was executive director of the Aspen Institute in Romania and co-director of the Aspen European Strategy Group.
Prior he worked for the Centre for Policy Studies and Comparative Analysis and co-led political and social affairs think tank. He also worked in the private sector and the Romanian Senate where he served as a staffer for the legal affairs committee.
He has regularly published in the Romanian and foreign media on current affairs and international security.
Andrei Tarnea has a BA in psychology from the Bucharest University, a graduate degree in political science from SNSPA and a MA in international law and security studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
He was awarded the National Order for Merit and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
Mykola Balaban
Deputy Head of the Centre for Strategic Communication SPRAVDI
He worked on project development and research in the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He was the co-founder and the president of NGO Prometheus Centre for Studies of Security Environment; later, he headed the situation centre of the Communications and Public Diplomacy Department of the MFA of Ukraine as an adviser.
He has several publications, including Narrating Conflicts in Post-Truth Era: Facing Revisionist Russia. Ukraine and Georgia in a Comparative Perspective From the book Instrumentalizing the Past. Malkhaz Toria and Mykola Balaban (2022), Nachtigall in the battle for Lviv Ledge.
Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
Vadym Skibitsky
Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
Peter Pomerantsev
Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins University
He is a Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins University. Pomerantsev has written two books about Russian disinformation and propaganda — Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible (2014) and This Is Not Propaganda (2019) — and a third, How to Win an Information War: The Propagandist Who Outwitted Hitler (2024), on Sefton Delmer, a British propagandist during World War II.
Riho Ühtegi
Military expert at PractNet
Civil education – Lawyer (MA);
Studied military science in Estonia, the Netherlands, Germany, USA;
33 years of service in the Estonian Defence Forces, including as a commander of:
• military intelligence;
• special operations;
• the Defence League;
Participated in the development of the Estonian doctrine of total defence and the doctrine of resistance
Yuliia Bin
Director General of the State Enterprise “Multimedia Platform for International Broadcasting of Ukraine”
Roman Tsymbaliuk
Expert on Russia and enemy disinformation, a journalist and a blogger
Ukraine’s “Voice” in Russia — for many years, Tsymbaliuk was the only accredited Ukrainian journalist in the Russian Federation. He regularly attended press conferences held by Putin and other high-ranking officials, where he asked pointed, uncomfortable questions about Russian aggression against Ukraine, the occupation of Crimea and Donbas, and the fate of Ukrainian political prisoners. Roman established himself as a principled journalist who, in a hostile environment, consistently defended Ukraine’s position for many years and exposed the lies of Russian state propaganda and hostile disinformation.
Mykolai Sierha
Officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, founder and head of the “Cultural Forces” association
Musician, TV host, poet, and public figure. Following the start of the full-scale invasion, he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is engaged in developing cultural diplomacy and providing moral and psychological support to military personnel through art and communication.
Ihor Solovei
Head of the Centre for Strategic Communications SPRAVDI
He is a journalist, media expert and international analyst. He has an extensive knowledge of the media market and its mechanisms. Since 2005, he has been working in the leading Ukrainian media. As a staff writer for Ukrinform, he spent eight years in Moscow, Russia, where observed Kremlin disinformation campaigns even before the events in 2014.
With the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, he focused on the illegal occupation of Crimea and the war in the East. Ihor also worked as a reporter covering events at the Government and was in charge of foreign affairs and Ukraine’s national security.
He has experience in development and delivery of the training on information security and analysis for young journalists. Ihor also wrote several articles revealing and explaining Russian information operations.
In the work of the Centre Ihor will focus on the development of strategic vision, representation of the Center at the national and international level, development of stakeholders network and institutional capabilities.
Олександр Мельниченко
Representative of the Security Service of Ukraine Cyber Security Department, Colonel
Representative of the Department for Counterintelligence Protection of State Interests in the Field of Information Security of the Security Service of Ukraine
Наталія Ткачук
Head of the Information and Cyber Security Directorate at the Office of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Coordination Center for Cyber Security.
Ms. Tkachuk has 20 years of practical experience in the sector of national security and defense of Ukraine. She is responsible for providing coordination and control over activities of main state actors on information and cyber security. Nataliya Tkachuk has PhD in law in the field of national security.
Amber French-Griette
Co-founder and Executive Director, Organization for Nonviolent Movements (Paris)
Amber French-Griette (Paris) is a Franco-American nonprofit leader and subject matter expert in wartime civic resistance and asymmetrical conflict dynamics. In 2025, she co-founded the Organization for Nonviolent Movements (ONM), a French think tank studying how civilian agency is a strategic counter to hybrid warfare and authoritarian overreach. She served as panel lead and moderator of “The Democracy Arsenal: Ukraine’s Civic Power Against Putin” at the Paris Defense and Security Forum (March 2026). Her edited volume, Ukrainian Freedom: Collective Agency in National Defense, is forthcoming with Columbia University Press (November 2026). Amber brings 20 years of experience in research, editing, policy, and program direction and holds advanced degrees in International Relations and French & Francophone Studies.
Roman Vybranovskyy
Co-founder of the Ukraine Facility Platform.
Roman Vybranovskyy is advocacy and policy communication expert specializing in energy security, cybersecurity, and anti-corruption, with a strong focus on crisis communications and hybrid threats. He coordinated the preparation of reports on Russian cyberattack tactics targeting critical infrastructure at Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and
Information Protection (SSSCIP) during the full-scale war in Ukraine. Roman had also advised the Head of the Service on strategic communications at the intersection of cybersecurity, energy resilience, and national security. In parallel, he worked as an advisor to the CEOs of two Ukrainian strategic state-owned companies – Ukrzaliznytsia and Ukrenergo – both subjected to combined kinetic, information, and cyberattacks by Russia. His experience bridges policy, operational reality, and strategic communications under wartime conditions.
Lukasz Olejnik
Independent researcher and consultant on security and data protection
He is a visiting senior research fellow at Department of War Studies (King’s College London). He holds a PhD in Computer Science from INRIA (France) and an LLM in Information Technology Law from the University of Edinburgh. He was a cyberwarfare advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross. He has published in leading venues and authored scientific papers, policy reports, and books, including Philosophy of Cybersecurity and Propaganda: From Disinformation and Influence to Operations and Information Warfare (CRC, 2024).
Andrii Davydiuk
Visiting scholar at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE)
Andrii Davydiuk holds a PhD in Cybersecurity and is a visiting scholar at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). He serves as Deputy Branch Head at the State Cyber Protection Centre under the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine. Additionally, he is a senior research scientist at the G.E. Pukhov Institute for Modelling in Energy Engineering at National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Volodymyr Styran
Special Assistant to the Chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) and a co-founder of Berezha Security Group
Volodymyr Styran is a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine (SSSCIP) and a co-founder of Berezha Security Group with OSCP, CISSP, and CISA credentials. He specializes in techniques, frameworks, and strategy of cyber conflicts. He co-founded NoNameCon conference and OWASP Kyiv chapter, co-hosts the No Name Podcast. In 2022, he joined Ukraine’s cyber defence forces in response to the russia’s full-scale invasion.
Strategic Communications
Viktoriia Merlych
Head of the Educational Department and the School of Strategic Communications
Viktoriia joined the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security with a solid background and professional experience in strategic communications. Prior to that, she worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, where she developed several areas related to countering disinformation, analyzing foreign media, and shaping Ukraine’s image abroad.
At the Center, Viktoriia became one of the co-organizers of the Kyiv StratCom Forum, a platform aimed at advancing approaches to strategic communications and strengthening resilience to disinformation. She currently leads the educational track and the StratCom School, which focus on fostering critical thinking in Ukrainian society and building readiness to counter disinformation and hybrid threats.
Viktoriia Lialina-Boiko
Director of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Ukrainian diplomat and expert in strategic communications and public diplomacy.
She has been serving in the system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine since 2006. She has worked at Ukraine’s diplomatic missions abroad in France and Georgia, as well as at the MFA headquarters.
Since 2020, she has been engaged in the development of Ukraine’s public diplomacy and strategic communications. She held senior positions at the MFA’s Department of Public Diplomacy and Communications, where she was responsible for designing and implementing national communication strategies.
Following the start of the full-scale invasion, she coordinated the transformation of Ukraine’s communication policy to counter disinformation, strengthen international support, and promote Ukrainian narratives globally. She led the implementation of large-scale international information campaigns with global reach, which received a number of prestigious international awards (including Cannes Lions, Effie, The One Show, and New York Festivals).
Since 2024, she has served as Director of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
Yuliia Lykhach
Director of the Higher School of Public Administration, PhD in Public Administration.
An expert in public administration, professional development of public servants, and the implementation of European civil service standards, with more than 20 years of professional experience.
From 2011 to 2022, she worked at the Center for Adaptation of the Civil Service to the Standards of the European Union, where she held senior management positions and coordinated initiatives related to the development of the professional training system, institutional capacity building, and international cooperation.
Since 2022, she has been heading the Higher School of Public Administration. Under her leadership, the School has been developing modern educational programs for civil servants and local government officials, strengthening international partnerships, and introducing innovative approaches to the professional training of public servants.
Oleksandr Horokhovskyi
Analyst of the Center for Strategic Communications, leading trainer of the Stratkom School, expert in countering disinformation and fact-checking.
A media expert with over 30 years of professional experience in journalism and communications. Founder and leader of initiatives focused on countering disinformation, including the “BezBrekhni” project, and Head of the NGO “Center for Analytics and Investigations.” Author of training programs and methodological materials on media literacy, information security, and strategic communications. Has delivered more than 550 trainings and lectures for public sector representatives, media professionals, and civil society actors in Ukraine and internationally. Actively collaborates with international organizations on strengthening independent media and countering information threats.
berlinska-info
Ukrainian public activist, head of the Victory Neurones and Victory Drones projects, co-founder of the Dignitas charitable foundation, and founder of the NGO “Aerial Reconnaissance Support Center”
She is engaged in advocating for the development of Ukraine’s miltech and cognitive ecosystems, operational capabilities, and cognitive resilience, promoting systemic change, educational initiatives, and cross-sector cooperation between the military, government, civil society, and private sector.
The work of the Victory Neurones project is focused on transforming scientific, technological, and operational expertise into educational programs, team development within the state sector, and international cooperation aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s capacity to prevail in the cognitive domain.
Vladlen Maraiev
Historian, creator of the YouTube channel “History Without Myths”
Senior Researcher at the Research Center for Humanitarian Issues of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, creator of the YouTube channel “History Without Myths”
Anton Liagusha
Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, KSE
PhD, expert in public history. Academic Director of the Master’s Program “Memory Studies and Public History” at the Kyiv School of Economics, Distinguished Professor of Sweden. Researcher at the New School University Consortium (New York), lecturer at George Mason University (2021–2023). Member of the Coordination Council for the Development and Implementation of the Concept of Memorialization in Kyiv of the Participants and Events of the Russian-Ukrainian War.
Artem Zibalov
Instructor at the Colonel Yevhen Konovalets Military School of Commanders
Serhii Zhukov
Senior Analyst at the Center for Strategic Communications SPRAVDI
PhD in History, author of scholarly and popular works on history.
