Our Team
Kateryna Rietz-Rakul
Head of the Representative Office of the Ukrainian Institute in Germany
Kateryna Rietz-Rakul studied English and American Studies in Lviv and Berlin and graduated with a PhD in contemporary literature. She is an interpreter, translator, author and cultural manager. Kateryna lives and works in Berlin. Previously, she was co-founder of APES, a curatorial collective in Berlin. Kateryna Rietz-Rakul has contributed for numerous international art magazines and published several books, including a city guide to the Berlin cultural scene, Berlin Contemporary Art.
As a cultural manager, Kateryna Rietz-Rakul is co-founder of KUL’TURA e.V., which promotes international cooperation between creatives from Ukraine and other countries.
Vitalina Buran
Project Mananger
Vitalina first graduated in philology from the National Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv. Later she moved to Frankfurt an der Oder for further studies, where she completed her Master’s degree in “Languages, Communications and Cultures in Europe” and, in parallel, completed a one-year internship at the Ukrainian Embassy in Berlin.
Since 2017 she worked as a project assistant for the Bildungswerk der Wirtschaft in Berlin and Brandenburg in areas of event organization and project evaluation.
Маriya Zoryk
Communication Manager
Mariya completed her Master’s degree as a DAAD fellow in Literature and Media Studies at Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg. As a PR specialist, she worked for the festivals such as “Bamberg Short Film Festival”, Ukrainian Film Festival Berlin as well as Tanzwerkstatt Europa and Tanzplattform Deutschland in Munich. In 2022 she started the aid initiative “Bamberg helps Ukraine” and was awarded the Special Culture Prize of the City of Bamberg for Ukrainian artists.
Mariia Dumanska
Communication manager (Social Media)
Mariia completed a Master’s degree in ‘Media and Political Communication’ at the Free University of Berlin, supported by a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Mariia worked as an editor and news writer for German and Ukrainian media (including Deutsche Welle and Ukrainska Pravda) and specialized in online, print and video reporting on political and social issues in Ukraine and worldwide. She gained her practical experience in the press department of the Embassy of Ukraine in Germany.
Volodymyr Leysle
Finance & Administration
Volodymyr studied International Economic Relations at the Institute of International Relations at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, Ukraine. He deepened his studies in German law and was a scholarship holder of the Institute for Culture and History of Germans in Northeastern Europe (IKGN e.V., Lüneburg), Germany.
Volodymyr Leysle has organized over 300 national and international projects in the fields of culture, youth, music and art. He has more than 25 years of experience in working with funding in Ukraine, Germany and the EU.
Photo: Maria Svidryk