With this video, the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists once again draws attention to the devastating reality of the war in Ukraine. The footage shows the current situation in the country. The aim is to raise awareness, because one thing is clear: No, we must not resign ourselves to it.

In 2022 and 2023, the Center hosted two international conferences under the title Voices from Ukraine, bringing together women philosophers, activists, and scholars from Ukraine to share their perspectives, experiences, and analyses.

A central topic of the 2023 conference was ecocide – the deliberate destruction of the environment and vital resources as a strategy of war. In a powerful talk, the renowned Ukrainian philosopher and writer Oksana Zabuzhko, recipient of the French Legion of Honor, spoke about her recent essay “The Longest Journey”, written for a Western audience. In it, she outlines the cultural and historical roots of Russia’s war of aggression and criticizes the Western policy of appeasement. The parallels to 20th-century dictators are undeniable, Zabuzhko said: “We have behind us a whole century of mass madness – what have we learned from it if we do not recognize history repeating itself in a new guise?” She emphatically challenged the Eurocentric notion that Ukraine is a nation without its own history and emphasized how deeply education, cultural identity, and self-determination are rooted in the Ukrainian reality.