On September 16, an online meeting was held between Acting Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, Tetyana Berezhna, and Minister of Culture of the Italian Republic, Alessandro Giuli.
During the conversation, Tetyana Berezhna expressed her gratitude to the Italian side for its comprehensive support of Ukraine in resisting russian aggression. She emphasized the important role of the Italian government in the preparation and hosting of the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2025) in Rome and voiced hope for continued fruitful cooperation in implementing the agreements reached.
Among the key outcomes of URC 2025 were the signing of the Rome Manifesto, the establishment of the Cultural Resilience Alliance, the announcement of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Fund, and the launch of the CuRe platform. The Ukrainian side is already actively working to develop these initiatives and engage new partners.
“We are grateful to the Government of Italy for the tremendous work done in organizing and hosting URC 2025. This large-scale event enabled numerous meetings and led to the signing of agreements and memoranda worth approximately €11 billion. It is crucial that all commitments are followed by concrete results, and we will work together to ensure that happens,” the Acting Minister emphasized.
In the context of further cooperation, Tetyana Berezhna informed her counterpart about preparations for the second Ukrainian Cultural Conference, which will take place in November 2025 in Denmark under the country’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. She invited the Minister of Culture of the Italian Republic to participate in the event.
She also noted Italy’s significant contribution to the restoration of cultural and historical sites in Odesa and the Odesa region, expressing particular gratitude to Alessandro Giuli for his personal efforts in this direction.
Special attention was given during the conversation to countering the kremlin’s attempts to weaponize culture and use it as a tool of propaganda in its hybrid war against Europe. Alessandro Giuli reaffirmed the Italian Government’s consistent and principled position in supporting Ukraine and preventing performances by russian artists used as instruments of kremlin aggression — thanks to which, a concert involving russian conductor valery gergiev was cancelled in July.
The Acting Minister thanked the Italian Government for its principled stance.
“The flag under which the aggressor commits war crimes and kills Ukrainian civilians every day cannot symbolize cultural freedom or fly over venues hosting artistic events in free countries,” she added.
In this context, both sides also exchanged views on future steps aimed at preventing cultural events from being used as platforms for spreading the narratives of the aggressor state.
