Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI Speaks in Kyiv

On 30 April 2025, Professor Richard BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI, the Chairholder of the European Civilization Chair of the College of Europe in Natolin, spoke at a conference held at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv, as a guest of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Kyiv. 

The conference, "Imperial Handbook of Aggression against Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine: Lessons from the Policy of Catherine II and Putin the Warmonger", co-organized by the Academy and the Polish and Lithuanian embassies to Ukraine, marked the celebration of the 234th anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May 1791 as the joint heritage of all three states. 

During the first panel, “The Constitution of 1791 - Attempts at Modernisation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Looming Threat of Annexation by the Russian Empire”, Professor BUTTERWICK-PAWLIKOWSKI explained the circumstances in which the Constitution was successfully negotiated, acclaimed, and implemented, before being overthrown by a Russian invasion in 1792. He drew out the parallels between Catherine II’s attempts to undermine and subject the Commonwealth, before encountering resistance, reform, and recovery that prompted her to destroy the state altogether by 1795, and the policies pursued against Ukraine and other European countries by Vladimir Putin’s neo-imperial Russia. 

The second panel dealt with “Ukraine’s and EU’s Attempts to Reform in the Shadow of Putinist Russia’s Aggression”. Each panel featured experts representing Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine, and the conference was introduced by the deputy foreign ministers of the three countries.