After upheaval and military conflict in 2014, Ukraine’s civil society stood before a new set of challenges: to deal with the consequences of the violence; supporting the country’s reforms on a path towards European association; and rebuilding relations with those who held a different vision of Ukraine’s future.
This project helped strengthen the capacity of nine communities, in the conflict-adjacent regions of Donetsk and Kerson, to deal with conflict and change. Dialogue facilitators, with the intimidating task of managing dialogue among Ukrainians divided by the post-2014 militarised border, were trained. Experienced peacebuilders were brought in from around the world to help Ukrainian activists, politicians, and civil servants to inform their strategies for breaching the divides in the country.
Ukraine had largely avoided the political and military conflict experienced by other countries of the former Soviet Union, until a determined move closer to the European Union brought on a series of interventions from the Russian Federation in 2013 and 2014. These resulted in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea being annexed by Russia and parts of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk declaring themselves separate, independent territories. These territories shared a militarised front line with the rest of Ukraine, but one across which contact, and even trade, could nevertheless continue.
Between 2014 and 2022 peacebuilders worked to support processes that aimed to rebuild relations among Ukrainians who had different views about the direction of the country and with different experiences, and therefore grievances, from the upheaval that took place in 2013 and 2014. In addition, peacebuilders looked to make a contribution to the culture of governance that would guide and support the reforms Ukraine was looking to take forward. Peacebuilders also worked with conflict-affected communities to apply restorative and conflict-management techniques to situations that might increase social cohesion or enable integration.
On 22 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine which has so far resulted in humanitarian and ecological catastrophe, mass displacement, and wholesale destruction of entire settlements, as well as formal annexation of more of Ukraine’s territories.
UK Government’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund
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