On 27 January 2025, NAKO Executive Director Olena Tregub spoke at a meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE). It was part of an advocacy visit of Ukrainian civil society representatives to Brussels.
In her speech, Olena Tregub presented the policy brief 'Countering the Axis of Evil's Growing Alignment: Lessons from Ukraine and Implications for European Security', which focuses on the deepening cooperation between Russia, Iran, North Korea and China. These authoritarian states are exchanging military, nuclear and digital technologies, helping each other to evade sanctions and modernise their weapons, she said.
'We believe that European technologies can be an Achilles' heel for these countries, but we have not seen a supply decrease so far. On the contrary, some companies have increased their cooperation with Russia. We have also noticed that China has become a key facilitator since the start of the full-scale invasion. More than three-quarters of all components for Russian weapons are supplied through Chinese companies,' Tregub said.
She appealed to the European Parliament, expressing hope that the EU would take a real leadership on sanctions. According to her, European countries should synchronise their sanctions policies and analyse ways to circumvent the sanctions used by Russia. 'We should not feed critical technologies to the dragon, hoping that it will not breathe fire on us one day. It has already happened to us,' she summed up, speaking about authoritarian regimes.
Ukrainian civil society was also represented by Hanna Hopko, Head of the National Interests Advocacy Network 'A N T S' and co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, and Mykhailo Gonchar, President of the Centre for Global Studies 'Strategy XXI'.
In her speech, Hanna Hopko recalled that Russia is not interested in peace or diplomacy. 'Putin wants to win. Even in the face of economic problems — and we see these vulnerabilities — in the budget for 2025, Russia has allocated 25% more funds for war than last year. It is important for us to explain that Russia understands only the language of force. That is why the 16th package of sanctions should be introduced, which will be a key message to Russia. We need to increase the pressure until Russia pays for its actions,' said Hopko.