Today marks the first anniversary of the brutal and unprovoked aggression by Russia against Ukraine, a then-fellow Council of Europe member state. The devastation and destruction of lives and property across Ukraine sadly continues to this day and young people and the infrastructure that supports them have also suffered greatly as a result.

Due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, 44 youth infrastructure facilities were destroyed or damaged, with losses exceeding 2,5 million EUR.  An additional 57 youth facilities are currently under Russian occupation with no reliable information concerning their status.

 The Chernihiv Regional Youth Centre’s fate illustrates the overall situation in Ukraine: It was destroyed after a Russian rocket attack in February 2022. The youth centre was in an architectural monument from 1939 which was originally built as a cinema, and it regularly hosted a wide array of youth activities. Before its destruction, the centre provided services to over 240,000 young people (25% of the region’s population).

Despite the immense difficulties created by the ongoing war, youth workers in Ukraine continued their work with and in support of young people. They got involved in humanitarian aid, provided help to traumatized young people and kept developing youth civil society to become more resilient in the face of the war’s impacts on young people’s lives.

 The Council of Europe Youth Department started the third phase of the Youth for Democracy in Ukraine project in January 2023, which builds on the achievements of the first two phases. Since February 2022, the project implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Ukraine has been severely influenced by the consequences of the war, yet it continued to contribute to the creation of participatory youth policies, taking into account the specific needs of young people in times of war. 

From April 2022 onwards, a series of training and educational activities for youth workers and youth policy makers were held on a weekly basis addressing the emerging challenges in the field of youth as a result of Russia’s aggression, including massive displacement across the country, cuts in access to electricity and the internet, and overall insecurity in all aspects of life (occupation of territory, missile attacks, energy blackouts, food shortages). 

The current phase of the project is carried out in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine 2023-2026 and it builds on the results and experience of the projects “Youth for Democracy in Ukraine” in 2020-2022 and will extend the systematic influence by strengthening participatory youth policies and reinforce youth work in the war and in a post war context taking into account the specific needs of young people.

Additional measures to support young people in Ukraine by the Council of Europe’s Youth Department include the special call by the European Youth Foundation for pilot activity grants. The purpose of this initiative is to support young people from Ukraine affected by the war through civil society and youth work interventions, within the framework of the values of the Council of Europe.

In December 2022, 35 practitioners who continue organising and providing youth work in various regions and places of Ukraine attended a study visit at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg to meet and exchange experiences with peers from the network of CoE Quality Label youth centres, city of Strasbourg and Council of Europe officials.