History
Navigate the meetingYES was founded in July 2004 in Yalta, when Victor Pinchuk invited some 30 European leaders to debate the future of Ukraine and the EU. At the conference, participants agreed to join forces and create a collective initiative to support Ukraine’s EU accession. Until 2013, the YES Annual Meetings were held in the historic Livadia Palace in Yalta, Crimea in order to transform the place where Europe was divided at the 1945 Yalta Conference into a venue for uniting a wider Europe. After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the YES Annual Meetings moved to Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where it is hosted at the Mystetskyi Arsenal.
«The sanctions' regime has failed utterly, partly because no one was serious on either side of the Atlantic about cutting off revenues to Russia from its exports of fossil fuels. But also because of a massive hypocrisy by European states that have continued to export to Russia via third countries.»