Denys Shmyhal: “We must rethink the recovery paradigm for frontline communities”

The recovery of frontline communities is not about returning to the past, but about creating new, secure and modern strongholds for Ukraine.

Speaking at the Forum of the Association of Frontline Cities and Communities in Kharkiv, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal emphasized the importance of rebuilding according to the “build back better” principle, which is also a key focus of the Association’s work.

“We must rethink the recovery paradigm for frontline communities. This is a major priority. This is certainly not about restoring things as they were. We all know that if we replicate the old model exactly, we will also bring back its old vulnerabilities. We must do better. Proper recovery today means recovery through modernization — restoring or building better than before.”

The new infrastructure of frontline communities must be as autonomous and resilient to wartime challenges as possible:

“This is not only about repairing damage, but about ensuring that next time the system is more resilient, more flexible, more autonomous, less dependent on a single node and, of course, better protected. Development is also the way to avoid becoming a territory of uncertainty or a ‘grey zone’ that Russia is attempting to create here.”

Frontline communities should become a platform for implementing the most advanced solutions. The shared goal of the Association of Frontline Cities and Communities and the Government is to transform frontline territories into spaces of innovative development and security.