The ongoing Russian aggression strongly disrupts all aspects of life in Ukraine where science and in particular astronomy is not an exception. Before 2014 Crimea was one of the largest astronomical centers in Ukraine and home to many optical, radio and solar telescopes. After its illegal annexation some of the astronomical infrastructure was absorbed by the Russian Academy of Sciences, while other was repurposed for military use. Ukraine completely lost access to all these instruments. An observatory in the Kharkiv region hosting one of the world's largest low-frequency radio telescopes UTR-2 and the Giant Ukrainian Radio Telescope currently in development spent a considerable amount of time under occupation during which a large part of equipment was looted or destroyed. Repairs require significant funds which Ukraine is currently not able to provide. The necessity to resist the aggression demands that most of the science budget is spent on applied and military-related research whereas financial support for astronomy is limited. This results in termination of projects and lack of staff and equipment. Moreover, the education system also suffers from the consequences of war which puts under risk the future of astronomy in Ukraine. Recovery and development of science heavily depends on the support of the international community. In this special session we would like to bring together members of the Ukrainian astronomical community, European policy makers and representatives of major astronomical and astrophysical facilities to discuss the path to recovery of the Ukrainian astronomy. We would like to focus on drawing the strategies of increasing European involvement in saving Ukrainian astronomy through various funding schemes, international collaborations and educational initiatives.

Programme

• Current status of astronomy in Ukraine
• Current initiatives and projects
• Recovery and innovation
• Research infrastructure
• Collaboration and participation in European projects
• Education programmes

Invited speakers

TBC

Scientific organisers

• Iurii Sushch (CIEMAT, Spain/Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine) - Chair
• Kateryna Frantseva (University of Groningen, Netherlands) - Co-chair
• Pavlo Plotko (DZA, Germany) - Co-chair
• Ihor Lukyanyk (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine)
• Yaroslav Yatskiv (Main Astronomical Observatory, Ukraine; President of the Ukrainian Astronomical Association)
• Iryna Vavilova (Main Astronomical Observatory, Ukraine)
• Vyacheslav Zakharenko (Radioastronomical Institute of the NASU, Ukraine)
• Christian Stegman (DESY Director in charge of Astroparticle Physics, Germany)
• Günther Hasinger (German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA) Scientific Director, Germany)
• Saskia Matheussen (Dutch Research Council (NWO), Netherlands; Deputy Chair of Astronet)
• Violette Impellizzeri (Head of Astronomy at ASTRON, Netherlands)
• Agnieszka Slowikowska (Director of Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE), Netherlands)
• David Green (CTAO Deputy Project Scientist, Italy)

Contact

iurii.sushch @ ciemat.es