News
24.01.2025
Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosts discussion “Security and Military Production – Is the West Losing? How to Prevail in Ukraine, and Why It Is Our Best Option” on the occasion of WEF 2025
Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted the discussion “Security and Military Production – Is the West Losing? How to Prevail in Ukraine, and Why It Is Our Best Option” during WEF in Davos (Switzerland). The event was held as a part of the project ‘YOUR COUNTRY FIRST – WIN WITH US’, organized by Victor Pinchuk Foundation and PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine. The project, which combines an ongoing discussion program and an exhibition, is an immersive intellectual and visual experience, and a space for dialogue and action.
Among the participants of the discussion were: Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia; Oleksandr Kamyshin, Advisor to the President for Strategic Affairs, Office of the President of Ukraine; Oleg Rogynskyy, Founder and CEO, People.ai; and Moritz Schularick, President, Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Moderator: Charlie Gasparino, Senior Correspondent, Fox Business News.
Moderator Charlie Gasparino, Senior Correspondent, Fox Business News, asked the panellists what they thought about Ukraine’s current military capabilities and opportunities in the future.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, Advisor to the President for Strategic Affairs, Office of the President of Ukraine: “We strongly believe Ukraine will be the artillery of the free world. This is the next big thing; we can produce a lot of things in great quantity. We spend our whole budget on the war. This year we received 40 billion in taxes, all of this goes into the war.”
Moritz Schularick, President, Kiel Institute for the World Economy said: “The economic support that Ukraine receives is not a lot. The percentage that the US gives is approximately the same as that given by Germany. It is around 0.1 to 0.15% of GDP in support to Ukraine, that is not much. In Germany, there's a big debate about a tranche of €3bn in military aid that's supposed to go to Ukraine, which the Chancellor is currently blocking.”
Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia: “We are in solidarity with Ukraine. We are giving 2% of our GDP and this will be increased to 5%. This is the highest % per capita of any of the allies, and our people are saying that we should spend more. We remember how it was to live without freedom, we remember how it feels. In other countries freedom is taken for granted.”
Oleg Rogynskyy, Founder and CEO, People.ai, said: “My background is technology. Investing in defensive technologies is more cost effective than buying nuclear weapons. If it costs 100% more to attack a country than to defend, then you will be less likely to attack. Everything in modern warfare needs to be updated. There is so much investment potential in Ukraine’s defence technology.”
Margus Tsahkna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, added:” Putin thinks he can win, he thinks European is still weak and will get bored of the war. And we shouldn’t forget that China is behind Russia and can ramp up support when it wants. So our most important job now is to make sure there is no way it's ever possible that Russia wins this war militarily. Putin's generals have to go back to him and say, Mr. Putin, we cannot win this war. We cannot. It's impossible. Only then is there a chance to talk, and talks must be on Ukrainian terms.”
Moritz Schularick, President, Kiel Institute for the World Economy, said: “Sanctions, and or cuts to oil prices, would seriously impact the Russian economy. If a call was made to the Saudis and the fuel price went down, then that would have huge impact. Americans would benefit and so would Europe. That would hit the Russians hard.”
The project ‘YOUR COUNTRY FIRST - WIN WITH US’ is organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine.
The project ‘ YOUR COUNTRY FIRST - WIN WITH US’ located at Promenade 59, Davos, is a complementary event hosted on the occasion of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, in a space shared with Ukraine House Davos.
Agenda of the discussion program is available here https://www.winwithua.org/agenda
Photos are available here
Video is available here
