Through War, Resilience: Impressions from a Country Shaping Europe’s Future
Through War, Resilience: Impressions from a Country Shaping Europe’s Future
As of 11 June 2026, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now lasted longer than the First World War.
To mark this significant moment, the IDM invites you to watch its special series, “Through War, Resilience: Impressions from a Country Shaping Europe’s Future.” The seven episodes follow IDM Director Sebastian Schäffer on his journey through Ukraine, witnessing the realities of war and the strength of a society that continues to stand.
This trip offers a record of the resilience and determination of Ukrainians fighting a war whose consequences will shape the future of Europe for generations.
Through the train windows: the journey from Vienna to Kyiv
Taking the train from Vienna to Kyiv is an experience that stays with you. Ukraine remains connected to Europe, even in the middle of a war. It is a long journey, but also a remarkably ordinary one in many ways. What makes this route different is whatinterrupts the ordinary: air raid alerts that remind you where you are heading to and what is happening.
The ever-changing face of Kyiv
Kyiv is one of those cities that does not leave you neutral. Walking through it means walking through layers of history that still very present: the Maidan, where people took the streets to fight for Ukraine’s European future, and countless other places thatreflect both the trauma and the determination of this city. What struck most were the reminders of loss alongside signs of everyday life carrying on: it seems that Kyiv is grieving and building at the same time. That tension is something you cannot fullyunderstand until you see it in person.
A new normality amid extraordinary circumstances
One of the most important things we wanted to convey from this trip is what daily life in Ukraine actually looks like. From the outside, it is easy to imagine a country paralysed by war. The reality is more complex, and in some ways more unsettling. Curfews,shelter routines, and constant awareness of security risks have become part of everyday life across most of the country. And yet people continue to work, study, make plans or watch a football match. What stays with us is this duality: the coexistence of theordinary and the extraordinary.
Witness to a fight for Europe’s future
Travelling between Kyiv and Lviv, you are confronted with things that are hard to look at and impossible to ignore. The evidence of Russia’s aggression is not abstract here: it is in the landscape, in the towns you pass through, in the stories people tell you alongthe way. But so is resilience. Sebastian has been to Ukraine many times, and every visit reinforces the same conviction: what is happening here is not only about Ukraine. It is shaping the future of Europe.
A painful but necessary walk of remembrance
There are places between Kyiv and Lviv where the ashes of history are still burning, where today’s war connects to older stories of resistance, survival, and European sentiment. These moments of historical depth matter, not as an escape from the present, but as a way of making sense of it. Ukraine is not just fighting for its territory. It is fighting for the idea that a country can choose its own future. That is a deeply European idea, and one Europeans should take for granted.
Continuing under air raid alarms
One thing that is difficult to convey from a distance is what it means to live with air raid alarms as part of everyday life. During Sebastian’s time in Ukraine, he observed and experienced how people navigate this: checking Telegram channels for real-time updates, making quick decisions about risk, carrying on when it is possible or heading to the nearest shelter when it isn’t. There is a kind of practised calm that develops. It is both impressive and sobering. Life continues in Ukraine, but it continues underconditions that most of us in Western Europe have never had to imagine for ourselves.
Heavy backpack, heavy heart: time to go back to Vienna
Sebastian’s last stop before heading back to Vienna was the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, where I gave a lecture. It felt like a fitting end to the trip, a reminder that Ukrainian academic and civic life continue despite everything. Looking back on theweek, what stays with us is not one particular moment or conversation. It is the cumulative weight of it all: the people Sebastian met, the things he saw, the gap between how Ukraine is often discussed in European capitals and what it actually feels like on theground. IDM will keep engaging with Ukraine directly, because there is no substitute for showing up.
An IDM series presented by Sebastian Schäffer, supported by Ninon Bouteloup, Elena Marko, and Amélie Petiaux.
