Warwick Research Culture: Research Celebration 2025 – Congratulations to Professor Elena Korosteleva and Dr Paul Hansbury

Elena and Paul have been honoured with a “Highly Commended” award for establishing the Warwick Ukraine-Belarus Hub, which employs interdisciplinary insights to advance policy recommendations and support stakeholder interaction. Under Elena’s and Paul's leadership, the Hub has improved understanding of Belarus-Ukraine relations through higher-level webinars, targeted policy briefs, podcasts, film screenings and debates, and two international conferences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Whitehall. The WUB-hub also raised awareness and offered policy advice to the UK FCDO, the EU institutions (EEAS, EU Parliament and Commission), NATO PPD, and established collaborations towards the European Belarus Forum, and its key stakeholders.

Further details here: Warwick Research Celebration 2025 Winners

Professor Korosteleva was invited to attend the 2025 Chatham House 'Security and Defence' conference held on 6 March 2025. The conference brought together over 600 global policymakers, senior military and armed forces figures, business leaders and civil society experts. Keynotes included Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Zaluzhnyi, UK Ministers and NATO senior officials, high-level panel dialogues, and ‘under-the-Rule’ spotlights.

Professor Korosteleva was interviewed by the Monocle, one of the four selected academics at Warwick, to talk about their research to an audience of over 100,000 regular viewers. Professor Korosteleva was asked to comment about her research into multi-order world, that she undertakes under the AGMOW project with Prof. Trine Flockhart (EUI); and her work on security, democracy and resilience in Central Eurasia under the WUB-hub and SHAPEDEM-EU projects, including her forthcoming book 'Nurturing Resilience in Central Eurasia in an age of complexity' with Oxford University Press. The interview will be aired in early April.

In partnership with NATO PDD, and Stockholm Centre for East European Studies (SCEEUS), WUB-hub organised a high-level European Belarus Forum on 13 December 2025 at the Mission of Belarus Democratic Forces, in Brussels, as part of the Belarus week. The event was attended by Belarusian experts, and representatives of NATO, EU institutions, Swedish diplomats and Belarusian democratic forces. Major challenges and opportunities for Belarus 2025 were discussed, as well as the support for capacity-building of intellectual and social capital within the country. The event was preceded by a book pre-launch of 'The Unbroken Generation: Youth Voices of Belarus 2020', to be released in January 2025, by Skaryna Press, with the support of WUB-hub Research England funds.

Professor Korosteleva and Dr Hansbury attended a high-level conference in Brussels, as part of a week-long activities organised by the EU institutions on Belarus in Brussels. The conference opened with speeches from Robert Metsola, President of the European Parliament, and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the Belarusian democratic forces. The conference discussed pathways forward for a democratic future of Belarus, and measures to address the continued violations of human rights and a rising number of political prisoners in the country.