Ukraine is a family for the European Union, and the EU supports its family members. At the same time, Ukraine is now defending not only its independence and security, but also the security of the whole of Europe, so it is logical for the EU to support Ukraine from this perspective as well.

Matti Maasikas, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, shared these thoughts in a film about more than a year of comprehensive EU assistance to Ukraine. The film was produced by the EU Delegation in partnership with hromadske.ua as part of the ‘Together, we are Europe’ communication campaign.

After more than a year of war and solidarity, officials, experts, military and ordinary citizens discuss how the EU helps Ukraine and what it means for the country.

The film contains a lot of good thoughts and judgments, as well as powerful figures.

This is the first time the EU has provided lethal weapons to a partner country, and so far, Ukraine has received around €13 billion in military aid from the EU and its member states.

In 2023, the EU will provide Ukraine with €18 billion in macro-financial assistance, money that will go into the Ukrainian budget to ensure the sustainability of the state and the economy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already announced the allocation of €1 billion for Ukraine’s rapid post-war recovery.

Meanwhile, the EU continues to provide humanitarian aid to people inside Ukraine, which has already reached €630 million.

The film also focuses on past and future EU assistance, in particular for this year. It is crucial that Ukrainians have confidence in the continuity of this support.

The Cultural Mosaic page shows how the European Union is helping Ukraine to develop contemporary culture and preserve its cultural heritage. It is part of the communication campaign ‘Together, we create. Together, we preserve’.

Here are some interesting (sometimes unexpected) facts and figures:

The European Union is funding the restoration of 100 antique doors from Odesa. This initiative will involve specialists and the local community. It is part of a plan to restore thousands of doors in Odesa and an accompanying information campaign. The initiative is very important, because doors are the first thing we notice when we look at old buildings. They are one of the most important elements, and are often a work of art to be preserved.

With the help of the EU-funded House of Europe project, Lviv’s Territory of Terror Museum has been able to help its ‘colleagues’ in other cities. The collections of the Kyiv Art Gallery and the Luhansk Regional Museum of Local History have been temporarily housed in appropriate conditions. EU funding was used to purchase photographic equipment for copying and digitizing collections, heat-resistant cabinets for storing graphic works, and various special packaging materials and folders for evacuating artworks when necessary.

An EU mobility grant under the EU4Culture programme also enabled Ukrainian musician and composer Ivan Taranenko to complete work on his personal project ‘Fusionfonia_Music of the Ukrainian Land’. The artist presented it in November 2022 at the Euphonie Festival in Warsaw, in collaboration with the Tonus Finalis Ensemble and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

These are just a few examples of the many presented in the Mosaic.

The communication campaign ‘Together, we create. Together, we preserve’ is part of ‘Communicating the European Union for Ukrainians’ (CEU4U), an EU-funded project implemented by Ecorys. The campaign aims to showcase Ukrainian culture as part of European culture, and demonstrate the EU’s support for preserving Ukrainian cultural heritage and diversity, and protecting the development of contemporary art, which is particularly important in times of war.

A series of training sessions for volunteer rescuers was launched in April. The sessions are run by the All-Ukrainian Volunteer Centre, in cooperation with the State Emergency Service (SES) and Kyiv/regional authorities. Participants learn how to dismantle rubble, conduct search and rescue operations, and identify explosive devices.

The plan is to train 250 volunteers over the next few months. The course lasts one and a half to two weeks, or 64 hours. The training is open to anyone between the ages of 18 and 60 who is motivated to become a volunteer rescuer if needed.

The training is part of the Spilnodiya Programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation, in partnership with the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research and the NGO Together Against Corruption.

At the end of April 2023, the course was in its third year. The participants come from various educational backgrounds. There are more men than women – the gender ratio is 20% to 80%. The volunteer centre interviews all of participants at the beginning and end of the course. It monitors their prospects for volunteer development after they complete the training and pass the exams.

Such training is one of the activities of the Spilnodiya Programme. The programme also includes online courses for volunteers, and a call for grant proposals for civil society organisations working with IDPs and other vulnerable groups.

In April, the EU4SaferFood project held a series of webinars on food safety in schools. Participants were trained in the specifics of implementing Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) procedures, hygiene requirements in catering establishments, and the proper organisation of work.

The original plan was to hold a webinar for each category in April. However, interest from the audience was huge – more than 2,700 people registered in total. As a result, four training sessions were held for school and kindergarten management instead of one, and two training sessions were held for catering staff.

Ukraine introduced HACCP in 2017–2019, in accordance with the Association Agreement with the European Union. It may seem like a long time ago, but there are a number of factors that contribute to the need for additional training in educational institutions.

Another problem is that the staff in school and kindergarten canteens have been significantly renewed due to the war. As a result, there is a need for training, which is being provided by the EU4SaferFood project.

The third and final factor is positive. In February 2023, a strategic meeting was held to resume work on the school catering reform launched in 2020. The reform includes updating menus, modernising equipment, and improving the food procurement system. Certain changes are planned for food safety, hygiene in canteens, and compliance with food legislation, and this is all within the remit of EU4SaferFood. Webinars like this one are being held in partnership with the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine as part of the school food reform.

Cinema in a museum is rather unusual. But in Zdolbuniv, Rivne region, they decided this should not be the case. The local history museum has opened a cultural and educational hub. In April, the museum hosted several film screenings.

But the hub is not just about films.

The museum received a grant from the EU-funded ‘ZMINA 2.0: Immediate War-related Population Needs’ programme, implemented by the Izolyatsia Foundation. A museum room with an area of 25 square metres has become a hub that hosts films, art and photo exhibitions, creative parties, and educational events.

Oleksandr Chyzhevskyi stresses that the transformation of museums into cultural and educational centres is a global trend. The institutions function as communication platforms where creativity and knowledge are combined, and visitors can interact with each other.

IDPs are one of the target groups of the ZMINA 2.0 Programme. Grants are also provided to host communities. Zdolbuniv municipality, with a population of 34,000, is currently home to more than 2,000 IDPs.

According to Mykhailo Hlubokyi, Development Director of the Izolyatsia Foundation, the project of the Zdolbuniv Local History Museum fully aligns with the organisation’s approach to supporting cultural activities in all parts of the country.

In 2022 and early 2023, Izolyatsia awarded 80 grants for a total €160,000. Last year, 110 individual grants were awarded to cultural professionals.

Dnipro, Lviv and Mukachevo are the leaders in municipal transparency in the Transparent Cities programme survey. The programme is run by Transparency International Ukraine and funded by the European Union.

Working on the 2022 study, like everything in Ukraine during the war, was special.

So, after much discussion, the team decided to abandon the usual ranking and developed 40 criteria relevant to wartime. These show how cities are complying with legislation and applying best practice. Instead of 100 cities, 70 were studied – the rearguard cities, of course. In addition to the three ‘transparent’ leaders mentioned above, ten other cities are ‘partially transparent’ – Vinnytsia, Volodymyr, Zhytomyr, Kamianske, Kyiv, Kropyvnytskyi, Lutsk, Ternopil, Uzhhorod and Chernivtsi. The remaining 57 are ‘not transparent’.

The criteria for assessing local authorities included organisation of the work of city councils, publication of information on official resources, access to data on land and housing issues, municipal property, social sphere, etc.

Olena gives several examples of such experiences:

In Dnipro, important information for IDPs on housing, registration, humanitarian assistance, and work is being published. This is crucial, as the city and region are now home to 370,000 IDPs. Mukachevo can boast that in 2022, it broadcasted meetings of the city council, temporary commissions, and the executive committee.

However, transparency remains an important part in the work of local governments in all the cities surveyed. On average, they fulfilled the study’s indicators by 37.5%, while meeting the requirements of Ukrainian legislation by 47.8%.

“I am unbreakable. I didn’t give up and I studied,” says fifth-grader Tymur Ilyuk from the Kherson region. He knows what it is like to study during and after the occupation, without electricity or water. Today, Tymur lives with his mother in a shelter in Lviv and attends a local school.

The schoolboy became one of the protagonists in a series of videos on the value of education produced as part of the ‘Learning Together’ Project, co-funded by the European Union and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland. Four more videos were released in April, making a total of nine.

The videos will be produced by experts from the ‘Learning Together’ Project and the well-known TV presenter Oleksandr Pedan, whose NGO Pedan Bureau won an open tender announced in December. They will visit educational institutions and talk to children, parents and teachers.

The videos address several issues at once. There are dramatic stories of children forced to leave their homes, their education during the war, and their integration into local communities. There are stories about the current work of teachers and the value of education, a discussion about choice in the form of education in modern conditions – online or offline. There is also practical information and advice for parents, and much more.

Of course, they also talk about the New Ukrainian School (NUS) – ‘Learning Together’ is the same age as the reform, and supports it by using the experience of Finnish experts, training programmes for educators, creating a safe educational environment, and digitalising the educational process.

In a series of videos, teachers and parents talk about the reform.