WROCLAW – The final day of the Wroclaw Global Forum featured a keynote panel with US Senator Jeanne Shaheen and former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley. Moderated by Jan Cienski of POLITICO Europe, the 2015 Forum’s leading international media partner, the discussion focused on America’s role in Europe, and in particular, America’s role in the conflict in Ukraine.

Hadley argued that sending weapons to Ukraine would have the largest impact on Putin’s decision-making process and that NATO has not done enough to deter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.

“Ukraine has to succeed. It is facing an enormous existential challenge,” he warned. “We can’t do things in our traditional, methodical way. We have to do something dramatic. They will not extricate themselves from the economic crisis that the Russian invasion has intentionally put them in. Russia is banking that we will allow them to fail, and that the Ukrainian people will decide at some point that turning west was a mistake.”

Shaheen provided a view of congressional opinion on the conflict in Ukraine and remarked that there is bipartisan support in Congress for giving Ukraine non-lethal weapons.

“The fact is, Putin’s actions in Ukraine and Eastern Europe have probably united Congress on foreign policy more than anything since I’ve been there,” she said. “We need to be more strategic not just how to respond in Ukraine, but also with regard to Putin’s next steps, and how we can take action now to counter whatever those steps are.”

Other panels of the day featured discussions on the war of ideas, the transatlantic digital marketplace, and trade and investment.

Speaking on the potential for an open, digitized market between the United States and the European Union, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden and Atlantic Council Freedom Awardee Carl Bildt noted the importance of cybersecurity concerns saying, “We need to invest far more in network security and data integrity, but these investments are fairly minor. Compare it with the global air transport infrastructure. We invested massively in security and have made that extremely vulnerable infrastructure secure. It was expensive but it’s worth it.”

The final panel of the Forum, moderated by Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson, examined the current situation in Ukraine, and in particular, the pressures for reform and the necessity of defense. Speaking on the need for reform, Geoffrey Pyatt, US Ambassador to Ukraine, argued, “Institutionalized government corruption is a greater threat to Ukraine than Russia’s tanks and change can only come from the Ukrainians.”

Deputy Chairman of the Vekhovna Rada of Ukraine Oksana Syroyid made clear that Ukrainians will continue to combat Russian aggression. “There is no conflict, and there is no crisis,” she said. “There is a war, and Ukraine is determined to succeed.”

Please visit the Wroclaw Global Forum website for more information including videos and recaps of the different sessions.