About Us
The European Resilience Initiative Center’s mission is to strengthen democracy in Europe, while promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation between the European countries. The Center seeks a stronger role of Central and Eastern Europe in a wider European region with a view to improving its economic prosperity and political strength. We are dedicated to facilitating engagement of European countries in fruitful cooperation and to translating national narratives into cross-border cooperation projects.
Founder and Managing Director
Sergej Sumlenny is an Eastern Europe expert. In 2015-2021, he worked as a Director at the Heinrich Böll Foundation Bureau in Kyiv, and worked in a business consultancy prior to moving to Ukraine. He has a PhD in political science and an LL.M in European Law from the Free University of Berlin. Mr. Sumlenny founded the European Resilience Initiative Centre in 2022 amid the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Co-Director and Head of Security Analysis
Sascha E. Ostanina is a political and security risk analyst and a Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Centre. In 2016-2023, Sascha worked with the international consultancy S&P Global and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Ms. Ostanina holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the Berlin-based Hertie School.
Contributor
Serhiy Danylov is a deputy director of the Ukrainaian Association of Middle East Studies (AMES). In 2014, he co-foudned a non-governmental organization Peacekeeping School with a view to finding means of reconciliation in Donbas. His personal research focus lays in Kherson region.
Contributor
Nataliia Druhak is an international communication expert. Since 2020, she has been working in the field of public and cultural diplomacy, including for such organisations as Ukrainian Institute and ukraine.ua. Nataliia currently studies Social and Economic Communication at the University of Arts in Berlin. She is also a Heinrich-Böll-Foundation scholarship holder.
Contributor
Prof. Oksana Mikheieva is a guest researcher at the German DAAD, Europa University Viadrina in Frankfurt on the Oder, and a professor of sociology at the Ukrainian Catholic University.
Contributor
Dmytro Natalukha is a member of Ukraine's parliament and a Chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee. Before he was elected to the Parliament in 2019, he worked on the field of strategic communications, banking, and investment. Natalukha holds LL.M and BA in International Law from Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University, and MPhil in International Politics and Relations from the University of Cambridge.
Contributor
Ihor Semyvolos is an Executive Director at the Ukrainaian Association of Middle East Studies (AMES). He is an expert in reconciliation, and is a founder of the Ukrainian Peacebuilding School NGO project, which has been working in Donbas since 2014.
