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2026 Securing Ukraine’s Future Symposium

Securing Ukraine's Future
Andrew Kravchenko/Pool/Reuters

Event date



As the war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, the international context is changing rapidly, including the prospects for a negotiated settlement. Much is at stake, and it is essential that the challenges ahead be fully appreciated. Panelists will explore three critical issues for securing Ukraine’s future: achieving a just and durable peace, ensuring its long-term security, and helping it rebuild and recover from the ravages of war.

This event is part of the Council’s Special Initiative on Securing Ukraine’s Future which provides timely, informed analysis and practical policy recommendations for U.S. policymakers and the American public.

Click here to view the full agenda.

This event is part of the Wachenheim Center for Peace and Security which is made possible by the generous support of the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim Foundation.

In-Person Session I: Europe’s Approach to the War in Ukraine

Panelists discuss European efforts to sustain Ukraine’s military and economic resilience, facilitate negotiations toward a durable ceasefire or peace agreement with robust security guarantees, and advance Ukraine’s integration into the continent’s security architecture.

Speakers

Presider

  • Greg Myre
    National Security Correspondent, NPR; CFR Member

Introductory Remarks

Transcript

FROMAN: Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming. Welcome to our Securing Ukraine’s Future Symposium. As we enter the fifth year of the war in Ukraine the stakes have never been higher. At the Munich Security Conference earlier this month Western intelligence and military officials revealed the latest estimate of Russian casualties, 65,000 over the course of December and January. That’s about 1,000 casualties a day. But the Russians are not winning this war, which has lasted longer than the Great Patriotic War, and resulted only in Russian control of an incremental 12 percent of Ukraine’s territory since the full-scale invasion.

The question, though, that is still very much open is how do we secure a Ukraine that is prosperous, independent, and embedded in the West? More than a year ago the Council launched this initiative, led by senior fellow Paul Stares, to take on three major questions: How to achieve peace and secure a just and durable end to the war; how to drive Ukraine’s economic reconstruction and recovery, spur growth, and rebuild critical infrastructure; and how to strengthen Europe’s long-term security framework. And those priorities are now reflected in a series of new policy briefs published by Paul, and...

In-Person Session II: A Conversation With Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna of Ukraine

Ambassador Stefanishyna discusses the current state of the war in Ukraine, ongoing efforts to advance peace negotiations, and the evolving dynamics of U.S.-Ukrainian relations.

Speaker

Presider

Transcript

KELLY: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. Welcome to our second session today, a conversation with Ukraine’s Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna. Welcome. Welcome to the Council. Welcome to Washington. You haven’t been here that long.

I’m Mary Louise Kelly. I host NPR’s All Things Considered. I also host our national security podcast, Sources and Methods. So I will be asking the questions for the first part of this, and then the ambassador has generously agreed to take all of your questions. So get them ready.

I would love to start. We’re going to get to policy. We’re going to get to diplomacy. We’re going to get to some big, abstract things. But would you paint us a picture? You were just back from Ukraine. You were there last week in Kyiv, in Odessa. How are people feeling? What is life like four years into this war?

STEFANISHYNA: Well, thank you for this question. And greetings to everybody. So many familiar faces. Also I understand that many of you have been to Ukraine also in course of, like, last four years. And it’s very different. It’s very different from 2022 and ’23, and all the years which followed after the beginning of full-scale...

In-Person Keynote Session: The U.S. Vision for Ukraine

Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Senator Thom Tillis discuss the role of the United States in the peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia and the stability of the region.

Speakers

  • Jeanne Shaheen
    U.S. Senator from New Hampshire (D); Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Member, Senate Armed Services Committee; CFR Member
  • Thom Tillis
    U.S. Senator from North Carolina (R); Chair, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property; Member, Senate Finance Committee

Presider

  • Jonathan Karl
    Chief Washington Correspondent and Coanchor, This Week, ABC News; CFR Member

Transcript

KARL: All right. Well, welcome to the final session of today’s symposium “The U.S. Vision for Ukraine.” I’m Jonathan Karl, chief Washington correspondent for ABC News and co-anchor of This Week.

And it’s a great honor to be on the panel with Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who is the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, also the former governor of New Hampshire—senator from New Hampshire. Great to have you here.

SHAHEEN: Thank you.

KARL: And Thom Tillis, another Republican member of the Foreign Relations Committee and—

TILLIS: No, I’m a—I’m a senator without portfolio. (Laughter.) I’m not on either Foreign Relations—

KARL: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. That’s right. Let—

TILLIS: —and I was eight years on Senate Armed Services.

KARL: And—and—and—and—

TILLIS: Oh, and the SNOG, of course.

KARL: And we can call you chairman because you’re chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property.

TILLIS: Yeah.

KARL: And the former Speaker of the House from North Carolina. So great to have both of you here, and both with a—with a keen interest in Ukraine.

So I wanted to start with last night. The president spoke for almost two hours and I counted two sentences on...