Re: Open Zakarpattia Development Forum kicks off its work

The second "Re: Open Zakarpattia" Forum has started in Ukraine’s far-western Zakarpattia region, where for two days the speakers will discuss local, regional, national, and Central European contexts, as well as the ways to turn the region into Ukraine’s gateway to Europe.

That’s according to a comment to Ukrinform by Dmytro Tuzhanskyi, chief of the Institute for Central European Strategy, which organized the forum.

The two-day event is “an independent discussion platform created for open, offline conversation. This year's forum will be dedicated to the development of Ukraine’s multicultural frontiers, social cohesion and countering misinformation,” Tuzhanskyi explained.

Historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, film director and former Kremlin political prisoner Oleh Sentsov, and writer Oksana Zabuzhko opened the forum with a panel discussion on Western multicultural frontiers.

A hard talk session with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is also scheduled for the first day of the event.

This year, according to Tuzhansky, the discussion will focus on Zakarpattia as a frontier allowing to build bridges of cooperation in any direction.

“We focus on Zakarpattia as a unique multicultural Ukrainian frontier in the geographical center of Europe, which allows us to build value, logistics, cultural, and other bridges of cooperation and understanding in almost any direction. At the same time, we are not limited to a single region, trying to find points of contact and intersection with other Ukrainian multicultural fronts, such as Bukovyna and Bessarabia, which closely connect Ukraine with its true civilizational home, a free united Europe,” Tuzhanskyi said.

It is reported that a total of 10 panel discussions are scheduled to be held as part of the forum. They will be broadcast live, in both Ukrainian and English, on the event's Facebook page.

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