On stage

FF

Francis Farrell

Moderator · Kyiv Independent

SC

Samuel Cook

Borderlands Foundation

Yevhenii Malyk

Marine & ex-POW

Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Vladyslav Klochkov

Ukraine Military History Center

RP

Ruslan Prykhodko

Dep. Min. of Veterans Affairs

The panel discussed why documenting the war's history now — its places, battles and names — matters for Ukraine's future identity, defence and information war. Cook outlined the Ukraine Military History Center's projects, including a military-history podcast and battlefield tours, and argued history should become Ukraine's "national brand." Malyk stressed studying specific places and operations to surface unknown heroes, Klochkov linked historical memory to reclaiming Ukrainian identity from Russian narratives, and Prykhodko framed history as part of the "cognitive war." Audience exchanges raised veteran pensions, wartime crimes documentation and counter-propaganda.

The substance

Key takeaways

1

The founder of the Borderlands Foundation argued that recording this war's history is not a luxury to defer until victory but a survival tool — a way to critically examine what Ukraine did well and badly so lessons are captured before the participants and their memories are lost.

2

He made the case that this war offers a rare chance to forge a unifying national identity and "brand," reclaiming a Ukrainian military-history tradition that Russia has long rewritten or appropriated, and proposed teaching it as mandatory curriculum from this war back to the Cossacks.

3

Rather than waiting for post-war funding, the foundation is producing tangible work now — a military-history podcast with case studies aimed at serving Ukrainian officers, and battlefield tours led by veterans that double as some of Ukraine's most effective diplomacy.

4

A Ukrainian Marine veteran urged focusing on places as much as names — Bucha, Mariupol, Pokrovsk — arguing that ignorance of what actually happened in those battles leaves people, including senior political figures, easy to manipulate, and that truly heroic figures remain unknown because each case is not studied properly.

5

The Deputy Minister reframed history as part of "cognitive war," warning that Russia deliberately attacks Ukraine's history, culture and identity, and that Ukraine's hard-won experience is a strategic asset its allies should study now — because a European country could face the same shock Ukraine did in February 2022.

In their words

Key quotes

“

I like to say history is a set of myths that inspire people to work together for a better future.

Samuel Cook

“

A lot of the true heroes of Ukraine are still unknown, because we do not study every case properly.

Yevheniy Malyk

“

Those who don't remember their history don't have a future.

Vladyslav Klochkov

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