This week, LRE Foundation Managing Director Rémi Praud is in Kyiv to take part in the international conference “Museum Practices and Transformations in the Coverage of World War II”, hosted by the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War.
The conference brings together museum directors, historians, researchers and memory professionals from across Europe and beyond to discuss how World War II is interpreted, preserved and transmitted today. Its programme addresses major questions for the sector: the mission of military history museums in a time of global instability, the decolonisation of memory in post-communist societies, Holocaust remembrance, humanising narratives of war, and the memorialisation of traumatic events while they are still unfolding. Rémi Praud will contribute to the panel “Humanizing Narratives of World War II” with an introduction on international networking and shared memory of the war.
For the LRE Foundation, this presence in Kyiv is part of a concrete and growing cooperation with the War Museum. Since early 2025, the two organisations have worked together through youth activities connected to WWII remembrance, civic engagement and the transmission of memory in today’s Europe.
Young people from the War Museum have taken part in LRE youth exchanges and LRE Youth Forum, not only as participants, but also as contributors. They have helped lead workshops with other young Europeans, sharing Ukrainian perspectives on war, memory, documentation and resilience. These exchanges have given participants from different countries the opportunity to discuss how history is preserved, how narratives are built, and what it means to speak about war while another war is taking place in Europe.
This cooperation is especially important because the War Museum occupies a unique position. Its primary focus remains the history of the Second World War in Ukraine, while its wider mission also connects this history to Ukraine’s struggle for independence and the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. The Museum is therefore not only a place of remembrance, but also an institution working under exceptional circumstances to document, interpret and explain history as it is being violently reshaped.
The LRE Foundation’s participation in the Kyiv conference reflects a simple commitment: to keep Ukrainian colleagues and perspectives fully connected to European conversations on WWII remembrance. This means creating opportunities for exchange, supporting youth dialogue, and exploring future ways to bring the work and perspectives of the War Museum to wider European audiences.
Being in Kyiv this week is therefore not only a gesture of support. It is part of the LRE Foundation’s responsibility as a European remembrance network: to listen, to cooperate, and to ensure that Ukrainian voices are present in the discussions shaping the future of WWII memory in Europe.
