UBBC and several members held an online forum to discuss future opportunities and specific upcoming events. Christophe Michels initially introduced two new advisory members: Mark Irwin, previously CEO of Serco, and Hans Nijkamp, formerly a senior director at Shell. Mark gave his overview of the motivations for supporting Ukraine, the business rationale for the UK, and why members should support Ukraine. He also outlined the medium- and long-term opportunities arising from the

The Strategy council’s forum at Clyde and Co, covered the energy transition in Ukraine, with a significant group of Ukrainian delegates and investors convening in London to discuss the burgeoning growth of renewable energy projects and investment into Ukraine. UK energy minister Michael Shanks MP, outlined what the UK is doing to support this initiative, including investing £573m in Ukraine’s energy system and a £33m grant for energy innovation. Areas for attention include de

Nicholas Hopton and the MEA hosted an absorbing event about digital and cyber impact on global security. Speakers included moderator, Tim Passingham of Cambridge Management Consulting, Vipul Narula CEO, Commercis Technology, Tom Burton– CMC, Steven Whitchurch, Atolls CISO & VP of Enterprise Services And a second panel on Technology in Conflict & Post-Conflict Environments Andro Mathewson, STARK Defence / PHD King’s College London, Michael Nevard, The HALO Trust, Lizzie Jones

The Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an underground theatre group, presents Official. Unofficial. Belarus, a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, between 9 May and 22 November 2026 (pre-opening: 6–8 May 2026). La Biennale di Venezia is attended by the Managing Director of UBBC, Christophe Michels. Natalia Kaliada and her husband Nicolai Khalezin, based in London since 2011, produce some of the most challenging political theatre of rec

A UBBC team attended the Industry Forum reception in House of Parliament on Wednesday 22nf April. Industry Forum is a centre left think tank and business network focused on the interaction between business and government. The two speakers were Emily Darlington MP of the Science and Technology select committee, and a government affairs speaker from Vodafone. It was interesting to note how Emily explained the importance of business and local and national government working toge

Lord Robertson, the ex-Labour defence secretary who is the author of the government’s Strategic Defence Review, accused “non-military experts in the Treasury” of “vandalism”, in a speech delivered on 14 th of April. The SDR was prepared by the June 2025 but the 10-year investment plan to fund it has been delayed and as noted by Lord Robertson in his interview with the Financial Times, the prime minister was “not willing to make necessary investment”. Lord Robertson, high

The DBT’s webinar covered a IFI investor activity in Ukraine, along with the mechanisms to engage with procurement and business bids. Key IFI’s included The Word Bank , The EBRD, MIGA and IFC , who outlined the extent, nature and sectors for investment, and procurement portals Prozorro and RELINK, REPOWER, DREAM and PREPARE , the GOV UKR portal for prioritising projects, along with the procurement portals of both EBRD and World Bank. In short, the World Bank is investing

The EBA or European business association in Ukraine, represent about 900 businesses from all over Europe, many of them large corporates and investors. With 80 members of staff and various sector initiatives from bids to lobbying, they represent the most formidable business organisation in Ukraine and put on events, trips and conferences. The EBA covers sectors including industrial, agricultural, Pharma, IT, and government departments, though like UBBC is funded only by member

The University of Oxford Science and Technology facilities council hosted 15 of the top Ukrainian stem students from the Aviation Institute in Kyiv, one of the top universities in Ukraine. The students came with entrepreneurial projects they are seeking to expand, covering innovation in robotics, cybersecurity, AI and specialists from computer sciences, systems control, software and applied mathematics among other areas. From the Ukrainian side Yuliia Lysanet, Head of the Dep

UBBC held a well-attended reception in the House of Lords, hosted by Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne . The Baroness introduced a range of parliamentary speakers including Lord Green, who spoke of the importance of Trade to improve prosperity and the opportunity Ukraine as a current and future opportunity. Dame Nia Griffiths MP, of the Ukraine appg, who had just returned from a parliamentary visit to Kyiv. She presented the various initiatives that both political parties

On 11 th March UBBC held a webinar on the ‘Future defence of Europe’ based on the research and insights that Victoria Vdovychenko of Centre for Geopolitics provided and her key outtake is of the concept of asymmetric warfare the thinking in the new paradigm. Mykola Kuzmin of Henry Jackson Society amplified the insights with a compelling list of European companies that can provide substitute defence products instead of USA sources, and James Westlake of Molfar UK gave us insi

The ‘Ukraine Music Aid’ day will take place on 2 nd May 2026, and all UK and Ukrainian Universities are invited to participate. The idea is for each Universities music department to arrange for a day of performances from 9am to 9pm or later, and to broadcast these via their digital media channels, such as YouTube or Facebook. The broadcast streams will then be aggregated and edited into an additional master live channel by Bath Spa university’s technical broadcast team. Ukra