A Nobel Peace Prize laureate and two ambassadors will visit RWTH Aachen University as part of the supporting program for the award of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people. Lectures and discussions of the Civic Forum RWTHextern and the project Leonardo of RWTH in cooperation with International Charlemagne Prize have been an established part of the supporting program for many years. There will be no less than three events featuring international guests – this is all taking place in cooperation with the city of Aachen and the Rotary Clubs of the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg-Monschau region.

“At Ukraine’s Side: On Site in Kiev”: Discussion with H.E. Bartosz Cichocki, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Kyiv.

H.E. Ambassador Bartosz Cichocki is virtually symbolic of the high level of solidarity and support Ukraine receives specifically from its northwestern neighbor, the Republic of Poland. He is symbolic of this in a way that few others are. When numerous diplomats from the Western world had already left their missions in Kiev after the Russian invasion in February 2022 in view of the ongoing rocket fire on the capital, Cichocki demonstratively stood by the Ukrainians – and stayed. The 46-year-old political scientist and historian, who began his career at renowned think tanks such as the Warsaw Center for Eastern Studies, was at the Polish Embassy in Moscow in 2015/16. In 2017, he was appointed Undersecretary of State for Security, Eastern and European Policy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since March 2019, he has been his country’s ambassador to Kyiv. He will speak about and discuss his experiences there with students of the Leonardo project at RWTH Aachen University on Thursday, May 4, at 6:30pm in the C.A.R.L. Lecture Hall Center, Claßenstr. 11.

“On the Current Situation in Ukraine”: H.E. Oleksii Makeiev, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany.

When the decision on the 2023 Charlemagne Prize winner was announced, the Ambassador of Ukraine joined the ceremony live on the air; that’s a first in the history of the Charlemagne Prize. The prize, he said, was a very important sign of support and solidarity with his country. “It encourages us in our struggle for European and democratic values, for freedom and a future peaceful life.” H.E. Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev will speak on the award ceremony and he will focus on the current situation in Ukraine during a conversation with both Sabine Scholt, member of the Charlemagne Prize Directorate and head of the WDR program group Current Affairs, Europe and Abroad, and the chairman of the Charlemagne Prize Directorate, Dr. Jürgen Linden. This will all take place on Friday, May 5, at 5pm in the auditorium of the RWTH main building, Templergraben 55. The 47-year-old joined the diplomatic service in 1996. In 2014, he became head of the Foreign Ministry’s political department, and in 2020, special envoy for sanctions policy. Since October 2022, he has been Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin.

“For Peace, Freedom and Human Rights,” Oleksandra Matviichuk, Chairwoman of the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), Kyiv

“We are fighting not only for a democratic election, but for the right to have a choice. It is a conflict of civilizations – between democracy and the totalitarian ‘Russian world’. And the question is not only what Ukraine should do under these circumstances. The main question is what democratic countries will do to protect European values,” says Oleksandra Matviichuk.

She is the chairwoman, face and voice of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), and she took receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 as well as the Right Livelihood Award, the “Alternative Nobel Prize” on behalf of the Center. As a representative of the Ukrainian people, the human rights activist was awarded the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament in the same year. On Friday, May 12, the Ukrainian lawyer will speak at 4pm at the C.A.R.L. about her struggle for peace, freedom and human rights and engage in a discussion with students from Project Leonardo. The event will be moderated by Professor Ute Habel, Vice-Rector for International Affairs at RWTH Aachen University, and Professor Andrij Pich.