UA 
Resilience is the foundation of security – that was confirmed by the winter of 2025–2026, when Russia deliberately targeted Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. The front line runs not only in the east, but through every substation, pump station and heat substation. This is precisely why building urban resilience became the focus of the Ukraine Facility Platform panel discussion «Ukrainian Cities: From Crisis Management to Investment-Ready Resilience» at the 18th Kyiv Security Forum.
Building the resilience of Ukrainian cities is at once a matter of security and a matter of meeting obligations to international partners – these two dimensions are inseparable, said Lana Zerkal, Member of the Coordination Council of the Ukraine Facility Platform, opening the discussion.
Resilience is an architecture of decisions, not individual projects
City governments that think in terms of individual projects can deliver only a reaction to crisis. Cities that work on interconnected, systemic solutions, by contrast, earn a real resilience dividend: smaller losses from shocks, more stable services, and greater investment. That is the «recipe for resilience» offered to Ukrainian cities by Daniel Stander, Deputy Chair of the Resilient Cities Network.
The global non-profit organisation Resilient Cities Network has concrete examples: in Rotterdam – a system for managing climate risks; in Manchester, in the wake of the 1996 terrorist attacks – a strategy of keeping the urban system continuously ready for crisis; in Paris – cross-sectoral coordination spanning transport, healthcare, and other domains.
To get there, Stander says, communities should address the shortage of human capital through partnerships with cities abroad, and treat donor support as a tool for redesigning governance – not just as funding for infrastructure. Resilience must become a cross-sectoral function – covering energy, healthcare, water supply, security and transport, transcending managerial boundaries both vertically and horizontally.
EU integration happens in every community
EU integration concerns every community – from the quality of water to service-delivery standards and the energy efficiency of buildings, says Vice Prime Minister Taras Kachka. His vision of the EU integration process echoes the logic of systemic resilience set out by Stander and the Resilient Cities Network.
Under the terms of the negotiations on regional policy, Ukraine has to develop regional development strategies, a list of projects, and the entire governance infrastructure that will allow it to draw on EU funds. According to Kachka, this is a revolutionary shift in logic: it is not the centre that will govern the regions; rather, communities become the key actors in strategic planning. They have to learn to decide for themselves what to change, and what – and why – to invest in.
All EU countries went through this transformation. Poland is one of the most successful examples. Ukraine already has the foundation: decentralisation, launched before the full-scale invasion, gave communities competencies and regional development funds. The next step is the financial and governance mechanisms capable of investing EU funds effectively.
Decentralisation as a condition of support
The development of local self-government was included in the EU's official opinion on granting Ukraine candidate-country status, recalled Katarіna Mathernova, Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, she has travelled to over 20 regions and heard the same thing everywhere: in the first days, communities held the line because they acted on their own – securing safety, water, heat and logistics without waiting for orders from above. Decentralisation turned out to be not an administrative reform, but a real factor of survival.
At the same time, the Ambassador acknowledges that on the ground there is still a shortage of well-prepared projects, particularly in the energy sector. That is precisely why building the institutional capacity of communities remains a priority. The instruments are already in place: the EBRD, the EIB and KfW finance local energy solutions; U-LEAD with Europe strengthens project preparation; EU4Recovery and EU4Reconstruction combine capacity-building with direct financing.
There is no single model in the EU – Germany is federal, Spain has strong regions, France is more centralised. But, Mathernova is convinced, the point is not the model. Local self-government is the «spirit of democratic governance»: local democracy, local budgeting, proximity to the citizen. That is precisely why further decentralisation is set as a condition of support under the Ukraine Facility and is part of the EU integration negotiation framework.
