Military leaders, Sikorski and Schmidt map Ukraine’s wartime challenges at YES

“I think that in April, Russia will face an existential question: Why and how should it continue the war at all?” Andrii Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps, said confidently from a large screen, speaking from a command post in Donbas to a group of prominent attendees gathered in a hall in central Kyiv.

Biletskyi’s remarks, along with many other speeches and views on war and peace, were part of the latest Yalta European Strategy (YES) meeting, held in Ukraine’s capital on Sept. 11–12.

The forum, traditionally organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, brought together about 700 politicians, diplomats, businesspeople, military personnel, veterans, civic activists and experts from 28 countries.

The theme of YES 2026 was “Peace Through Strength NOW!”

After the forum, NV surveyed participants to determine which speeches had made the strongest impression on them. The newsroom received a list of 24 speeches. Five — four individual speeches and one group appearance — received the most votes. NV summarizes them below.

Five military officers

Participants in NV’s survey most often cited not one speaker but five senior Ukrainian military officers, most of whom joined the panel discussion online directly from combat zones.

One of them, Andrii Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps, told YES participants in Kyiv from northern Donetsk Oblast that the winter would be difficult and that “victory or defeat here will depend on whether we close Ukraine’s skies this winter.”

“This task has two components: protecting the skies from the missile threat, from ballistic missiles, and protecting the skies from jet-powered Shaheds and jet-powered drones of the ‘Shahed parcel’ type,” Biletskyi said. “If we get through these challenges with dignity and effectively, I think that in April, Russia will face an existential question: Why and how should it continue the war at all, because it will not achieve any of its strategic objectives.”

Denys Prokopenko, commander of the National Guard’s 1st Azov Corps, stressed that confronting Russia is a major challenge for all civilized Western nations.

“This isn’t a war between two armies; this is war and terror against civilians, the daily destruction and devastation of our energy infrastructure, the torture to death of our prisoners of war, and the forced mobilization of Ukrainians in temporarily occupied territories,” the corps commander said. “And, unfortunately, all of this awaits European countries if Ukraine stops resisting.”

Prokopenko stressed that Ukraine is giving Europe, the United States and the entire civilized world the most valuable resource before a large-scale war begins — time.

Yevhen Lasiichuk, commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps of the Air Assault Forces, said Ukraine is now on the verge of the next technological step: partially replacing people with robots. That would mean fewer people on the line of contact and fewer personnel losses.

“But to implement this plan, our partners’ support in scaling up successful practices and technologies is crucial,” Lasiichuk said.

He stressed that Ukraine is paying a very high price for its experience, “which tomorrow could save our partners’ lives.”

Oleh Apostol, commander of the Air Assault Forces, told the YES audience that Russian aggression poses a long-term threat beyond Ukraine because the Kremlin has shown no intention of stopping even if it hypothetically achieves its goals in Ukraine.

“You can see there are signs that he is considering a strike on the Baltic states,” he said. “All right, would he stop at the Baltic states? No, he wouldn’t.”

Another military speaker, Ihor Obolenskyi, commander of the National Guard’s 2nd Khartiia Corps, explained in straightforward terms the critical role Ukraine now plays in NATO’s security.

“It isn’t the war that is deterring Russia from attacking the West, but Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” he stressed. “And 12 years passed between ‘let’s not admit Ukraine to NATO’ and ‘thank God Ukraine exists.’”

Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s foreign minister

Poland’s top diplomat and deputy prime minister, Radosław Sikorski, spoke twice at the forum. He first took part in a discussion on Europe’s view of how the war could end and later addressed whether the West could innovate quickly enough.

Sikorski believes Putin began the full-scale war with extraordinarily audacious ambitions and genuinely thought he could restore the Soviet Union and turn Russia into a superpower — one of three powers ruling the world.

“I think he understands that this plan is unattainable,” Poland’s foreign minister said. “His fallback plan was to regain control over at least Ukraine’s foreign policy. But that failed too. And now it seems to me that he wants to get out of this war with at least some kind of victory. That is why he keeps setting deadlines for capturing Donbas.”

Sikorski believes the war could end in one of two ways: through negotiations or by gradually petering out when Putin runs out of resources. To bring about the latter, he said, Ukraine should focus on striking Russian oil refineries.

Sikorski told participants that if more than half of Russia’s refineries were damaged badly enough that they could not be quickly repaired, the Kremlin would be physically unable to continue the war.

“We have to support Ukraine when it comes to gas and electricity,” the diplomat added. “Europe will manage. We have done a much better job diversifying our energy sources. Scandinavia uses renewable energy, France uses nuclear power. In Poland, gas storage facilities are already 80% full. Our households consume about one-third of all gas — we can meet those needs with our own production even if supplies stop completely. Putin may partially restrict our fertilizer production, but he won’t be able to stop us.”

Serhiy Koretskyi, prime minister of Ukraine

Serhiy Koretskyi addressed the forum for the first time as head of government, and many participants awaited his speech with keen interest.

Koretskyi said that despite the difficult period, Ukraine, with support from its partners, has enough strength and determination to make it through the winter while carrying out tactical tasks and continuing the country’s strategic development.

“We have enough optimism, enough strength, and enough determination among the team and everyone else to overcome these difficulties,” the prime minister said. “The fact that this is a difficult period is undeniable. I am counting on support and joint work so that we can make it through the winter with dignity, continue tackling tactical tasks and strategically develop the country.”

The head of government also spoke about the need to decentralize energy and logistics, strengthen cooperation with businesses and neighboring countries, and introduce flexible border-crossing rules to keep transportation moving without interruption.

“So we have a clear plan with retailers and logistics companies. We know how to implement it. We have a plan for putting certain logistics procedures in place with our neighboring countries. We are discussing a flexible border-crossing system — fast and uninterrupted, a kind of fast track for freight movements in both directions,” he added.

Koretskyi also said the government is considering separate funding for war-risk insurance for businesses.

“We believe the traditional form [of insurance] does not work,” he explained. “We have a clear plan with the economy minister and finance minister to create a separate budget line to which the state would allocate a certain amount of money.”

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO

Eric Schmidt spoke during a discussion about whether the West could innovate quickly enough in the face of future wars.

The former Google CEO said virtually all traditional assumptions about warfare and certain types of military equipment are probably already outdated.

“Ships are big targets. Tanks are a terrible idea,” he said. “Drones may look like toys, but especially when used in swarms, they are extremely powerful.”

Schmidt also argued that after four and a half years of war, Ukraine knows what it is doing. Moreover, he said, the country is organized to win the war. It lacks only two things — money and scale.

“This is a big war,” Schmidt concluded. “You need a lot of everything. The right solution is to bring in contract manufacturers in the West to help provide Ukraine with the defensive and offensive systems it needs.”

Jonathan Powell, U.K. prime minister’s national security adviser

Many forum participants also remembered the remarks by Jonathan Powell, national security adviser to the British prime minister.

Powell reflected on how the full-scale war might end. He believes that at some point, when everyone least expects it, Putin will agree to negotiations.

“This is the only way the war will end,” Powell said. “Putin will not take Ukraine. He will not subjugate Kyiv. Negotiations will happen. And he will have to take part in them. The key is to make him take those negotiations seriously. And I think our strategy is beginning to work.”

Powell also said dialogue should be maintained with these “terrorists” — meaning Russians — so contact is not lost. But that does not mean making concessions to them.

Powell also said Ukraine and its partners do not need to play Russia’s game to succeed because Putin already has plenty of problems.

“He is escalating and trying to scare us precisely because he understands that his strategy is not working,” the adviser stressed. “He is failing to seize territory. He is failing to break the Ukrainians’ morale.”

Participants in the survey to identify the top speakers included:

• Hlib Vyshlinskyi, executive director of the Center for Economic Strategy
• Oleksiy Haran, political scientist and professor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
• Maria Hryhorovych, COO and creative director of GSC Game World
• Nataliya Gumenyuk, journalist and documentary filmmaker
• Matthew Day, journalist and head of online news at TVP World
• Agnès Callamard, French human rights advocate and secretary-general of Amnesty International
• Kersti Kaljulaid, former president of Estonia (2016–2021)
• Dmytro Koshovyi, editor-in-chief of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency
• Roksolana Pidlasa, Servant of the People lawmaker and chair of the Verkhovna Rada Budget Committee
• Kristi Raik, director of the Estonian International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS)
• Serhiy Sydorenko, editor-in-chief of European Pravda
• George Scutaru, former member of Romania’s Chamber of Deputies and co-founder and CEO of the New Strategy Center
• Yehor Firsov, former Verkhovna Rada lawmaker and officer with the Third Army Corps’ Kraken 1654 Unmanned Systems Regiment
• Yehor Cherniev, Servant of the People lawmaker and deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence
• Hanna Shelest, director of security programs at the Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism.”