VATAHA co-founders Oksana Savchuk and Uliana Bun report from their visit to Café Kyiv on February 24. Hosted in Berlin, Café Kyiv is an initiative from the prestigious Konrad Adenauer Foundation and is one of the largest conferences on Ukrainian culture and politics in Europe.
The program was incredibly expansive: 11 stages running in parallel, covering culture, politics, and social initiatives. There was also a marketplace and plenty of Ukrainian treats. Our absolute favorite was the coffee brewed on sand by Crimean Tatars — unforgettable!
We tried to attend as much as possible, but the schedule was so packed that it was simply impossible to see everything.
The first panel discussion we joined focused on decolonization. There were no representatives from Ukraine on that panel, but scholars from Cambridge, Georgia, and Armenia shared their countries’ experiences of Russian colonization. We were deeply struck by how similar these processes are to what is happening in Ukraine today.
We also listened to a speech by activist, human rights defender, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk. The phrase that resonated with us most was: “In occupation, torture does not disappear. Torture becomes silent.” It powerfully summed up her message that giving up territories would not stop people’s suffering — because war is ultimately about people.
The same panel featured a former political prisoner Leniie Umerova of Crimean Tatar origin, who was imprisoned for over a year simply for attempting to cross the border into Crimea to visit her father, who was ill with cancer. She now advocates for the rights of Crimean Tatars in Germany. We also heard from the sister of a political prisoner who was jailed in 2022 after raising a Ukrainian flag on the administration building of a Russian-occupied city.
Later, we attended a speech by Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who emphasized: “This war is not only Ukraine’s war. It is our war as well.”
[Translated into English: (…) Fear is one of the primary motivators of human beings, yet despite this fear, [Ukrainian soldiers] return to the front lines. They face danger head-on. They demonstrate heroism. They fight not because they want to, but because they have to. Because Moscow forced them into war. And they know what their responsibility is and what is at stake: their freedom, the dignity of a free country, the right to self-determination, essentially the future of their families (…). ]
And visually, this message was clearly reflected in Berlin: flags on government buildings were flown at half-mast, and the Brandenburg Gate was illuminated in blue and yellow.
The day concluded with a beautiful presentation of Crimean Tatar culture — collective dancing and singing. It was vibrant and captivating; we had personally never experienced anything like it before. It was also wonderful to reconnect with activists and leaders of partner organizations we have long known and collaborated with. We felt inspired, exchanged experiences, and shared future plans.
Overall, there was a strong spirit of unity, dialogue, and genuine engagement throughout the event.
Reporting by Uliana Bun