What we can learn about resilience from Ukraine

“Why didn’t you leave?” I asked.

“Because this is my home,” she answered.

I can no longer count the number of times I have asked this question to people I have met in communities across Ukraine’s 1,200+ km frontline. 

The decision to stay in their homes is, fundamentally, an act of courage.

Regular Ukrainians make this choice every day. Approximately eight to 10 million people live in the regions close to active hostilities. And millions more endure daily drone attacks and missile strikes across the country, including in the capital.

Ukraine’s recovery, while Russia’s war rages on, seems improbable to many onlookers: too complex of an undertaking. Countries in peace-time struggle to make progress on such reforms, let alone a country at war.

Ukraine is huge, and while urbanisation is an ongoing trend, 15 to 17 million people still live in small municipalities and rural communities. They have been the backbone of Ukraine’s resistance, and they will be the backbone of its recovery.

Last year, the government of Ukraine planned infrastructure reconstruction through a Single Project Pipeline. But only 10 percent of the project proposals came from communities that have suffered the most destruction.

The authorities in these communities are often overwhelmed with the day-to-day work of providing services to their population, managing displacement, and addressing growing poverty and vulnerability. They lack the time, resources, and sometimes the capacity to write investment proposals, apply for grants, support new businesses, or build job training programmes.

In 2022, the EU and United Nations Development Programme launched the flagship EU4Recovery initiative to support Ukrainians’ unwavering belief in their recovery by providing the resources and assistance needed to turn that belief into concrete action. Using an area-based approach, the initiative delivers comprehensive packages of support tailored to local needs.

The first phase has invested €36m in the most war-affected communities to help local authorities improve the accessibility and quality of basic services, strengthen public safety and security, create platforms for community dialogue and mobilisation on recovery priorities, and promote solidarity and social cohesion.

Amazing people across more than 100 communities have partnered with EU4Recovery to transform services and opportunities that have reached more than 2.5 million people.

Concrete examples

Iryna, deputy mayor of Zlatopil in Kharkiv Oblast, inspired me with her energy and leadership in setting up a Recovery and Development Office that has already mobilised $2.4m [€2.05m] and is focused on improving access to services for displaced people rebuilding their lives in her town.

In Sumy, veterans Serhii and Mykola showed me a future veteran’s centre and shared their vision for helping others reintegrate after injury. Through EU4Recovery, seven such hubs have been launched, along with 200+ veteran-focused services.

In Bilenke, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, social worker Olha visits older residents near the frontline in a specialized vehicle delivering essentials and human connection. EU4Recovery has delivered 86 such vehicles and trained more than 3,000 care workers.

Artem runs a youth club and organizes nature camps to support children’s mental health and divert their attention from the horrors of war. His project is among 178 community initiatives and 163 small grants that have already reached over 173,000 people in 63 communities.

All these stories are part of Ukraine’s tapestry of survival and resilience.

As the government works on its national recovery ecosystem policy reforms, people in Ukraine's communities are already building the foundations of the post-war European future they envision.

No one is more passionate today about European values than Ukrainians — it is literally a matter of life or death for them.

The UNDP and the EU remain on the ground in the frontline regions of Ukraine, with a new expanded phase of EU4Recovery that will focus on:

1) supporting local communities to be reconstruction-ready and implement reforms that will put them on the EU accession pathway

2) socio-economic recovery

3) strengthening social cohesion with a particular focus on veterans, youth, IDPs, and women.

The success of the model is partly in its area-based approach — designed for maximum flexibility to rapidly changing circumstances, concentrating resources in a geographic area, focusing on locally-identified solutions, and ensuring quick wins for the community. 

But a presence on the ground and cooperation in communities are required, and this is where the partnership between the EU’s financing and reforms agenda and UNDP’s recovery model is critical. This model bridges local-level emergency response and crisis management with sustainable development and EU accession, integrating subnational assistance with national-level institutional reform, and understanding that physical reconstruction is inseparable from social cohesion. 

And more broadly there is a valuable lesson for all EU citizens — social solidarity, innovation, and leadership result in resilience in the face of hardship. And this is why ordinary Ukrainians have achieved amazing things — as I myself have learned from Iryna, Serhii, Mykola, Olha, and Artem.

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