Touching Words

For several years now, RWTH has contributed to the Charlemagne Prize supporting program with the events hosted by the RWTHextern Citizens Forum in collaboration with the Charlemagne Prize team and the City of Aachen. This year, three events were offered at the University. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk and two ambassadors shed a very personal light on the current situation in Ukraine.

A Nobel Laureate and Human Rights Activist

Oleksandra Matviichuk's words strongly resonated with the audience. 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. Furthermore, as a representative of the Ukrainian people, the human rights activist was presented with the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament in the same year.

As part of this year's events program running up to the Charlemagne Prize ceremony for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate visited RWTH Aachen University. Hosted by Professor Ute Habel, RWTH’s Vice-Rector for International Affairs, and Ukrainian-born Professor Andrij Pich, Matviichuk discussed the situation in her home country with students from the Leonardo project and other attendees of the event.

Her emotional words were both moving and distressing, visibly touching many in the audience.

High Level of Solidarity and Support

Like few others, 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. When numerous diplomats from the Western world had already left their missions in Kyiv 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 prestigious think tanks such as the Warsaw Center for Eastern Studies, worked 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. His talk at RWTH was titled “By the Side of Ukraine: Keeping Watch in Kyiv”. Cichocki gave the audience a very vivid impression of what it is like to be in Kyiv during the war.

The Ambassador of Ukraine Visits RWTH

When the decision on the 2023 Charlemagne Prize winner was announced, H.E. Oleksii Makeiev, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the Federal Republic of Germany, joined the ceremony live on the air – it was 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.” In a conversation with Sabine Scholt, member of the Charlemagne Prize Directorate and Head of WDR’s Current Affairs program group, Europe and Abroad, and the chairperson of the Charlemagne Prize Directorate, Dr. Jürgen Linden, Ambassador Makeiev focused on the current situation in Ukraine during his talk in the Aula of the RWTH Main Building. 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. In his talk and in conversation with Scholt and Linden, he gave a lively account of the sorrows and hardships of his people. The event was organized in cooperation with the Rotary Clubs of the Aachen-Düren-Heinsberg-Monschau region.

– Author: Thorsten Karbach