The 4th Summit of Cities and Regions: How 24 Countries Are Helping Rebuild Ukraine

Published: 29.05.26

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The 4th International Summit of Cities and Regions of Ukraine, themed “Partnership. Resilience. Readiness,” gathered delegations from 24 countries in the capital.

More than 100 representatives of governments, cities, regions, and international institutions attended. Arriving right after the latest strikes on Kyiv, they came to discuss recovery and to take action together with Ukraine. Among the participants were representatives from Poland and the Council of Europe, including Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz and Mathieu Mori. The summit was chaired by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Since 2022, Ukrainian communities have already signed over 2,000 cooperation agreements with 64 countries. The summit saw the signing of an additional 22 new memoranda and agreements. These are no longer isolated incidents, but a solid network of connections directly driving the recovery of local communities.

The resilience of critical infrastructure was a key focus of the agenda. Energy, distributed generation, equipment reserves, autonomous power supply, and stable heat and water services in communities—these factors determine the country’s capacity to endure this war and keep life moving forward. The Government is allocating 22.8 billion UAH from the state budget reserve fund for priority resilience measures. In parallel, plans are being implemented alongside local communities to maintain the operation of critical infrastructure amid ongoing challenges.

Long-term solutions are also underway, notably integration into the European transport network. The first European-gauge railway, Chop–Uzhorod, is already operational. The next step is the Lviv–Polish border section under the Connecting Europe Facility. Furthermore, checkpoints and border infrastructure are being modernized in cooperation with partners from the EU and Moldova.

At Dobrobat, we witness the other side of this process directly within the communities—in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, and Sumy regions, among many others. Out there, recovery is not a strategy; it is a daily grind. It is about houses being brought back to life. It is about people returning home and starting to rebuild without waiting for perfect conditions.

All these levels—international, state, and community—work together as a single, unified system for the country’s restoration.