Conference summary with Tetyana Ogarkova and Volodymyr Yermolenko on February 13, 2026

in partnership with Maison de l’Europe

13/02/2026

Paris

On February 13, Eastern Circles in partnership with Maison de L’Europe à Paris hosted an event with Ukrainian scholars: philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, and journalist Tetyana Ogarkova. The event aimed to present their new book – La vie à la lisière. Être ukrainien aujourd’hui (Life on the frontline. What it means to be Ukrainian today).

The authors describe their journeys to the frontline of Ukraine’s north, east and south to deliver vehicles to the Ukrainian military, which they have been doing as volunteers since 2022. The notes of their travels became a book, which blends empirical reporting with deep philosophical inquiry. 

Surreal landscape, fishernets-covered roads to protect against enemy FPV drones,  where roads are covered for tens of kilometers in fishing nets, encounters with hundreds of people who chose to stay and continue their lives on the frontline, where they had barrier their loved ones, from where they cannot leave, from where they have nowhere to go. 

It’s a book about lives without a “Plan B”, with a fatalistic acceptance of omnipresent mortal danger, and omnishared trust in thy neighbor, whose name you may never know, and whose face you may not even see. “Nothing is guaranteed” on this path. The closer one gets to the frontline, the deeper is the realization that it is running through every one of us.

The philosophy of destruction vs. roots

Russian destruction of Ukraine is methodical, complete and irrational, write the authors. Moscow’s war exceeds territorial conquest and aims at uprooting identity, like in the village of Kamianka, where population plummeted from 1,700 to 5, leaving behind a “Tabula Rasa” of mined ruins. In Ukraine, like in many places before it, Russia is a “machine of destruction” with a “cult of death”, in contrast with Ukrainians’ deep identification with their land and roots, which the authors compare to plants refusing to be displaced.

A new model of social trust and agency

The war sharpened Ukrainian social structure based on self-reliance, horizontal trust and spontaneous social organization. Because of a historic distrust in institutions, Ukrainians do not view the state as a “father” to provide security, but rather as a “baby” that they must protect and care for. This is evidenced by the “economy of trust,” where citizens collect thousands of euros for military vehicles and hand them over to strangers with no guarantee other than a shared goal. This “power of the powerless”, to cite French thinker Anne Colin Lebedef, has consolidated the nation in a way that institutions alone never can.

Ukraine as the “crash test” for Europe’s future

The authors challenge the notion of the “end of history,” suggesting rather that we live in a pre-historic period, marked by re-colonization and the rise of “machines of destruction”. At this time, Ukraine is not a periphery but the “center” and a “crash test” for European values. Now European identity is being reshaped yet again based on Montesquieu’s idea of a “Republic of Republics,” a federation where strength is found in solidarity against tyranny.

It’s time for a mental shift in Europe. The authors call Russia as a “colossus with feet of clay”—a fragile economy that relies on intimidation and fear. But the fear of provoking Russia is exactly what provokes it. Instead, Europeans shall overcome their “complex of weakness” and recognize the “force of the weak” they possess.