On 24 February, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, together with Ukraine’s Ambassador Oleksei Makeiev, hosted an official event to mark the anniversary of the Russian attack against Ukraine. It took place at Schloss Bellevue. The guests included representatives of all constitutional bodies and the Diplomatic Corps, as well as active members of the public, mayors and helpers.

Federal President Steinmeier opened the event with a speech. Then Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to the audience in a video message. This was followed by a panel discussion on the impact of the war with the Ukrainian essayist and publisher Kateryna Mishchenko, the Ukrainian musician Kateryna Polishchuk (Ptashka), who was captured and interned by the Russians along with the combatants in Azovstal steel plant, the Ukrainian teacher Viktoria Pradiichuk, who has been teaching at a primary school in Freiberg since fleeing Ukraine, as well as Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence. Furthermore, Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, who has been appointed Senior Government Representative on the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine, and Martin Horn, Mayor of the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, whose city is twinned with Lviv in Ukraine, engaged in the discussion, which was chaired by Sandra Maischberger.

Ukrainian Ambassador Oleksei Makeiev gave the closing address. The musical programme was provided by Ukrainian scholarship holders from the Barenboim-Said Academy as well as Kateryna Polishchuk (Ptashka). In the gallery at Schloss Bellevue, a photography exhibition of Ukrainian photographers with images from the year of war in Ukraine was on display.