Last weekend, Stepan Rusyn, Coordinator of TDC’s Germany-Ukraine Partnership Program, participated in the panel discussion “Lessons Learned from the War in Ukraine” at NorSec 2026 — the annual Nordic Security Conference organised by YATA Norge at Akershus Fortress in Oslo.
The panel brought together Agnieszka Homańska and Lars Peder Haga, with Theodor Kilen Stoebner moderating the exchange. The discussion focused on several key dimensions of how Ukraine’s wartime experience is shaping Europe’s thinking about defence and deterrence, including:
- the current state of the Ukraine–US–Russia negotiation track and Ukraine’s strategic positioning within it;
- developments on the battlefield;
- major technological and doctrinal shifts in modern warfare — from the rise of drone warfare and the emergence of a “transparent battlefield” to deep-strike campaigns targeting economic infrastructure;
- core lessons learned by Ukraine and their relevance for European efforts to build credible deterrence vis-à-vis Russia.
We are grateful to YATA Norge, as well as to all organisers and participants, for making this discussion possible. We also extend special thanks to the panellists and speakers across all sessions for a strong and substantive conference programme.