








The conference “Road to Resilience: Strategies to Assist Victims of Explosive Ordnance in Communities” was held in Kyiv on May 20, 2025. The event was organized by the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and with the financial support of the governments of Spain, Korea and Japan.
According to the HALO Trust organization's data presented at the conference, 139,000 square kilometers of Ukraine's territory are currently potentially contaminated with explosive remnants of war. This greatly complicates development and recovery and has a negative impact on the economies of communities, as well as impedes the movement of people and goods.
Today, around 6 million people are under constant threat from explosive ordnance and, unfortunately, there have been a number of tragic incidents involving explosive ordnance that have resulted in injuries or deaths of civilians, including children. This situation creates challenges for communities in providing proper assistance and support to the victims.
With this in mind, the conference brought together representatives of central authorities, regional and local administrations, non-governmental and international organizations to discuss how communities can establish a system of support for victims of explosive ordnance, share existing experience in implementing these practices and, of course, gain new and useful knowledge that can be applied in local government.
Representatives of Donetsk Oblast joined the conference in offline and online formats, including officials of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration, district state administrations, and representatives of territorial communities where the issue of ERW contamination due to active hostilities is particularly acute.
Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Ihor Bezkaravaynyi and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Ukraine Christoforos Politis welcomed the conference participants.
The conference program included 4 panel discussions. The first of them - “Needs of individuals and communities affected by explosive ordnance: presentation of the community self-assessment tool and research results”, moderated by Vitalina Shevchenko, Diversity and Sensitivity Specialist of the Mine Action Office at the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, was attended by representatives of UNDP, the Humanitarian Disarmament and Peacebuilding Programme of the Danish Refugee Council, the Working Group on Assistance to Victims of Explosive Ordnance and the NGO “League of the Strong”.
The event continued with the presentation of the Draft National Action Plan for the organization of assistance to victims of explosive ordnance in Ukraine.
A separate thematic block of the conference “Models of organizing assistance to individuals and communities affected by explosive ordnance - experience of implementing the model at the regional and local levels” included a discussion panel “Community readiness to respond to challenges related to explosive ordnance contamination”.
Further discussions were held on the topics of Personalized Services for Victims of Explosive Ordnance and Their Families, Medical and Rehabilitation Services in the Community, and Case Management of Victims in the Community.
The conference ended with the presentation of the Almanac of projects of the School of Universal Design.
According to the participants, the issues discussed during the conference are important for clearing the territories of explosive ordnance and overcoming the challenges of the full-scale war unleashed by the Russian occupiers against Ukraine as soon as possible and effectively.








