Ukraine’s Cooperation with Germany: Successful Experience during the War

The Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine brought death, destruction, deportation, captivity, occupation, tragedies, suffering, separation of families, economic difficulties, business destruction, loss of businesses and jobs, inflation and many other trials to Ukraine and Ukrainians. But at this time, Ukrainian and world society consolidated and the progressive world at all levels helps Ukraine and its armed forces to endure and win.

Since the first days of the war, German institutions have provided great assistance to Ukraine in many areas.

The information is about the assistance of one of the regions of Germany near Mainz , which is the capital of the Rhineland-Palatinate federal land.

German-Ukrainian Society for Economics and Science (Mainz , Berlin, Bonn) together with the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Germany Mr. Hans-Jürgen Doss ( Mainz ) has been cooperating with Ukraine for a long time and very fruitfully. With the start of the war, this cooperation naturally changed its directions and formats.

I am writing about this through my own perception and experience of a Ukrainian university

(Ukrainian-American Concordia University , Kyiv, UACU), a long-time partner of German universities and organizations, a representative of the German-Ukrainian Society for Economics and Science in Kyiv).

A picturesque small German town of Klein-Winterheim (Rhineland-Palatinate ), where I have been staying in evacuation since March 2022 is located not far from Mainz . Klein-Winterheim has become a temporary home for about sixty Ukrainians who feel protected here from the horrors of war. All children are provided with kindergartens and schools, adults work and study German. Everyone can always find advice from the mayor/city hall, meet and chat with Ukrainian and German friends.

Recently, the mayor of the city, Mrs. Ute Granold, took the initiative to start a partnership with a small Ukrainian town in order to support Ukraine during the difficult struggle against Russian aggression. Together, we appealed to the Association of Small Cities of Ukraine, held online meetings with the President of this Association, Mr. Pavlo Kozyrev , and the administration. After some time, we had a potential partner – the Mayaky community in the Odesa region.

Mayaky were repeatedly attacked by the Russian Federation. As of March 6, 2023, the destruction/damage of 26 residential buildings was recorded.

The mayors of both communities agreed on the issue of cooperation, met in a virtual format, exchanged letters, and cooperation began .

Already in June 2023, it is planned to send humanitarian aid from Klein-Winterheim to Mayaky. These are food, medicines, hygiene items, stationery and toys, clothes, shoes, power banks , flashlights, etc. The DUGWW will help with transportation.

The plans are to further develop the partnership between the cities of Germany and Ukraine.

We can learn about the main areas of assistance of the German-Ukrainian Society for Economics and Science in the field of preserving the cultural heritage of Ukraine (and this is only one aspect of cooperation) on the organization’s website .

In order to help as soon as possible, in cooperation with the German-Ukrainian Society of Economy and Science, the Ukrainian Network for the Protection of Cultural Values was founded. It organizes the transportation of humanitarian goods to Ukraine, which are urgently needed, without bureaucratic overprotection, namely of museum collections and monuments. These cargoes include packing and restoration materials, transport boxes, fire extinguishers, fire fighting materials, working equipment for maintaining proper climatic conditions, etc. Since the beginning of March, more than a dozen large humanitarian shipments have been sent by road and rail to Ukrainian museums and cultural institutions in need of assistance. The Working Group of the Network for the Protection of Cultural Values includes a number of experts in the field of art who work on a public basis.

For 25 years, UACU has successfully cooperated with German partners in the field of education – them being universities, professors, organizations, politicians, diplomats, and businesspeople. Thus, since the first day of the war, German universities have provided enormous assistance to the students, teachers and employees of UAUK: University of Trier, University of Applied Sciences Worms, Johannes University Gutenberg Mainz. These are scholarships for our students to study on university campuses, scholarships to study German online, webinars from famous professors, meetings and workshops with teachers and staff, participation in conferences, etc. Assistance in the development of this cooperation is provided by such organizations as DAAD and Erasmus+ .

The war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine continues.

Soldiers risk their lives every moment, many lose it, families are left without fathers, sons, brothers, daughters, sisters; civilians suffer from constant stress due to bombardment, destruction of infrastructure, children and civilians die, people are captured. Millions of people were forced to change their place of residence – moved to other regions of Ukraine, went abroad.

The war violated the world’s stable norms of life – countries are left without Ukrainian agricultural products (and this can mean famine for consumers of Ukrainian grain), trade relations between many countries are disrupted, the world accepts Ukrainian refugees, experiences an imbalance in energy resources, spends a lot of money on armaments and other aspects. The Russian army is bombing, shelling residential quarters of cities, destroying civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and historical monuments.

All this could not have happened if Russia had not started barbaric aggression against independent Ukraine at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century. This is not just a territorial conflict. It is a war for freedom of the people, children, for victory of the democratic worldview of independence. It is a war for values. This is a war for the democratic and international development of education in Ukraine. This is a war for the life and future of the Ukrainian nation.

Українською

Yulia Romanovska 

Vice-Rector

Concordia Ukrainian-American University