ICUV co-founders Hanna Hopko and Daria Kaleniuk made an advocacy visit to Stockholm, Sweden. They took part in the conference “Forum Ukraine: Building Resilience for the Future” organized by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) with the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.
The event brought together Ukrainian, Swedish, and other international speakers. It consisted of keynote speeches and panel discussions. The conference was moderated by Cecilia Malmström, former EU Commissioner and senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).
The participants online and in person had a chance to discuss lessons that could be learned from the war in Ukraine in general, and especially Ukraine’s whole-of-society resilience. How can the EU member states support Ukraine’s acute needs, as well as provide long-term support for Ukraine’s integration into the EU? And how can Sweden and the EU collectively contribute to the recovery and reconstruction process, enabling a peaceful and sustainable future for Ukraine?
According to the organizers, as the fighting continues, there are important experiences and lessons to be learned in order to improve Europe’s resilience and civil defence. In particular, the Ukrainian ability to maintain the continuity of vital societal functions, such as the supply of water, power, food, and health care, has been impressive. The same goes for the capability to withstand extensive cyberattacks and propaganda campaigns. NGO’s, companies, and local communities have been significant contributors to the country’s capacity to defend Ukraine’s freedom and national sovereignty.
Hanna Hopko and Daria Kaleniuk shared their volunteer experience and talked about advocacy for Ukraine. They joined the panel “Ukraine’s civil defence and mobilizing the whole of Society – drawing lessons to Strengthen resilience”. During which were discussed the necessary conditions for Ukraine’s victory, the challenges Ukrainians are currently facing, and the need for guarantees of sustainable peace for Ukraine.
“So where is the victory strategy for Ukraine? What is at stake? And here I can ask you a very honest question, what is the Western end game if Ukraine runs out of soldiers? It took us months to convince Western partners to form a tank coalition, now it takes us also months to convince our partners that without superiority without fighter jets, we cannot conduct a successful counteroffensive”
— said Hanna Hopko.
Dew to Hanna Ukraine calls for weapons, fighter jets to win, and security guarantees for the future. russia is committing genocide against Ukrainians, just like Stalin did 90 years ago. And this can only be stopped by a complete victory for Ukraine.
ICUV also experts spoke about how Ukrainian society reacts to the war, how everyone mobilizes at their own level and chooses a role for themselves – from volunteering to military service, or humanitarian missions.
“Now I am volunteering, advocating for a weapon for Ukraine. But my usual role is, I’m the head of the Anti Corruption Organization in Ukraine. And for the last 10 years, we’ve been building Ukraine with the rule of law. With a situation where corruption is an exemption of the rule, not as a rule where we have strong institutions, and we’ve built quite a lot of strong institutions in Ukraine. Putin mentioned all of these institutions in February last year, before his invasion: the High Council of Justice, the High Qualification Commission of Judges, the National Interruption Bureau, Specialized Corruption, and prosecution of his name, these institutions. He mentioned every single anti-corruption reform we were working on in his declaration of war speech and basically, it was a threat to him and to the Kremlin regime’s successful Ukraine”.
— shared Daria Kaleniuk.
During the conference, Daria and Hanna presented Sustainable Peace Manifesto Never Again 2.0, developed by more than 40 experts, opinion leaders, and representatives of civil society. The document reflects Ukraine’s vision of peace and victory and provides for the complete liberation of Ukrainian territory and security guarantees for Ukraine, including accession to the EU and NATO, repatriations for russia, and an International tribunal for war criminals.