Mattia Nelles is co-founder and executive director of the German-Ukrainian Bureau, a Germany-based think-and-do tank promoting stronger support for Ukraine in Germany.

He has worked on Ukraine for over a decade, including several years living and working in the country. From late 2022 to September 2023, he was foreign policy advisor to Bundestag member Robin Wagener, the Green Party’s rapporteur on Ukraine. Previously, he advised GIZ projects in Eastern Ukraine as a communications consultant.

Until 2020, Mattia was Program Director for Ukraine at Berlin’s Center for Liberal Modernity, where he led initiatives like Ukraine verstehen and a consulting project with the Verkhovna Rada.

He holds a master’s degree in political science from the Free University of Berlin. Mattia also sits on the Supervisory Board of the Promprylad Foundation and is a co-founder and board member of Deutsch-Ukrainische Gesellschaft (DUG), Germany’s largest German-Ukrainian society.