 Good morning and welcome. My name is Liz Grande, and I'm the head of the United States Institute of Peace, which was established by the US Congress in 1984 as a national, nonpartisan, public institution dedicated to helping prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflict abroad. Tomorrow, across the globe, countries and nations will be celebrating International Women's Day. To mark this important day, we are delighted to be hosting a very special discussion today with extraordinary women leaders from Ukraine. We are very pleased to co-host this event with Arietta Blotter, the president and CEO of Women in International Security, and with Megan Mobs, the president of the Romulus T. Weatherman Foundation. It is a distinct honor and privilege for us to welcome Tetiana Jojovara Luchenko, a chairperson of the Kharkiv Regional Council. We are also privileged to welcome Tamila Afanasieva, the head of the Odessa Regional Council for Peace. We're delighted to welcome Olga Rudnivia, the executive director of the Superhumans Rehabilitation Center to welcome Solomia Bobroska, a Ukraine member of parliament, and deputy head of Ukraine's delegation to NATO Parliamentary Assembly. And also to welcome Iona Vlad, a member of the Romanian Navy, and a midship person at the United States Naval Academy. It's been a year since Russia launched its unprovoked, unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine. During this time, women have played decisive roles in military campaigns. They have led humanitarian efforts. They've kept public services running and have worked under nearly unimaginable conditions to improve and expand local governance capabilities. Their accomplishments are heroic, and we stand in awe of you. President and CEO Arela Blotter and President Megan Mobs, we look forward to your remarks and the panel discussion that will be led by Mary Glantz from USIP on the changing roles and leadership of women in Ukraine. Arela, allow me to welcome you to the podium. Thank you, Lees. It's always a pleasure collaborating with the United States Institute for Peace. Good day, everyone. My name is Arela Blotter. I'm the president and CEO of Women in International Security, also known as WISE. WISE is a global NGO that promotes gender equality and helps women advance as leaders in the international peace and security sector. WISE has just celebrated its 35 years as a membership organization, and it provides professional growth opportunities for future women leaders. It leads cutting-edge gender analysis and research projects, many in collaboration with USIP. I'd like to acknowledge the wonderful work of Kathleen Kunast and her peers, including the Missing Peace Initiatives, where we do such wonderful work together. We also do wonderful forums, such as this one. And we nurture a community of powerful gender and security advocates, experts, leaders, and mentors. Today, our network spans across 50 countries. We across six continents and includes 15,000 members committed to closing the gender equality gap worldwide. For those of you in the room, if you are not currently connected to our network, I encourage you to seek myself out or my colleague Karen Johnston to find out more. But more importantly, those of you broadcasting from the region today, I encourage you to connect up with your peers, WISE colleagues, for exactly this purpose, a network of community in Romania, in Estonia, in Poland, in Germany, in Austria, in the surrounding regions, in Ukraine itself, but also for those who are currently housed in outside countries. We want to be that network of community, and we hope that, as well as for our community talking today, that we want you to know that there is a network of support also in talking about these issues beyond today. As you know, today's discussion will be looking at women's changing roles and leadership during the war in Ukraine. And it is timed, as Lee's pointed out, to coincide with the International Women's Day and the International Women's History Month. And of course, we are entering the second year of an expanded, illegal, and unprovoked war of Russia upon Ukraine. And of course, we will note, as I'm sure it will come up in the discussion, that this is a protracted time period of 14 years. So this is not just simply a single time period that we're talking about. This is an extended time period of where gender roles have been tested, leadership has been tested, and resources have been tested, which I am truly grateful that we have representatives of the US government, who have been excellent donor government in this case, and as representative of private foundations, the Romulus T Foundation, I am so honored to be working alongside an operational foundation whose programming and rapid response has been extremely effective. And I want to note that leadership also takes resources. So I think that's an important dimension of our discussion. I'd like to acknowledge that we will be turning shortly to our esteemed panelists to voice their firsthand experiences, talking about their specific firsthand experiences, leadership in changing gender roles and challenges. And I want to acknowledge how important that is. And I just want to thank you very much for doing so, for all of us and our broadcast audience. And I'd like to, again, acknowledge the supporters of the event, not only the USIPs, but in particular, the Russia and European Center and the Romulus T. Weatherman Foundation, who brought these extraordinary women. And I'd like to turn and introduce Megan Mobs, the president of the Romulus T. Weatherman Foundation. Thank you very much. I first want to extend my gratitude to the Institute of Peace and to Weiss for being such exceptional partners. Your willingness to host this conversation and these women are a testament to your commitment to the promotion and participation of women in peace building and security. So thank you so much for your partnership. For our part, none of us would be here without the generosity of Bess Weatherman and Andrew Duncan, their commitment to protecting children, human rights, and promoting democracy inspire us daily. Most importantly, thank you to the women speaking to us today, those who traveled very far, and those who are beaming in remotely from afar. Your quiet heroism and love of country is a reflection of your character and the capacity of the Ukrainian people. I've come to know them and many like them over the last year. You will not hear them brag about their accomplishments, which are too numerous to recount. You will not hear them talk about the lives they have saved or the lives they have changed, which are too numerous to measure. They are representative of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of women, women who pick up rifles and uniforms too big with body armor that does not fit them, women who volunteer endless hours breaking down donations, re-boxing them to deliver medication, food, and hygiene products to the most vulnerable, women who rush to the cries of help under artillery barrages, women who spend sleepless nights organizing resistance, building camaraderie, and keeping faith, women who have lost husbands, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters, women who have lost limbs, and women who have given their lives. These are women who understand that freedom is less than a generation away from extinction and desire a just peace. A little more than a year ago, I can remember watching in horror as Russian paratroopers were in the skies over Kiev. A former paratrooper myself and the daughter of two paratroopers, I never thought in my lifetime to see paratroopers in a sky over Europe. I grew up hearing stories of paratroopers bringing liberation to Europe, the parachute canopies a symbol of freedom and of hope. Those over Kiev were instead emblematic of the opposite, occupation, destruction, and oppression. A few weeks later, the Weatherman Foundation found itself in Tultr, Romania, establishing a humanitarian logistics hub in partnership with two other NGOs in the Romanian government. In that capacity, we've partnered with 50 local Ukrainian NGOs to deliver aid to where it is needed most. Just days ago, we were able to deliver 52 pallets of medicine, bandages, and food to Kramatorsk and around Bakhmut. As we worked in these communities and alongside these partners, it became very apparent that a dynamic role women were playing in empowering systems, in building resilience in individuals, in communities, in civil society, and in government. Today is not as much about a reimagination or reconceptualization of women's roles in war. It is the necessary recognition of the criticality of these women's efforts across the full spectrum of conflict and response, and a direct acknowledgement of the unique role women play. In Ukraine, women are an all-important force in the war, and they will be even more important in peace. It is with those watchwords that I thank you all again for your generosity in hosting us, and look forward to your conversation. Thank you very much. Those were outstanding introductory remarks and sort of set the frame for the conversation we're going to have with these representatives of what you've been describing as such heroic and important and vital work. And so I'm really thrilled to have you all here. I'm going to repeat your bio in a little bit more detail than Lisa introduced you. First, we have Tatyana Yehorova-Luzienko, who is the first elected woman chief of Harheef Regional Council. She assumed her position on August 19, 2021. Virtually, we have Salomia Bobrovska, who is a member of the Verhovnova Rada of Ukraine. She sits on the Committee on National Defense, Security, and Intelligence. She also serves as a deputy head of the Ukrainian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Olga Rudneva is the CEO of the Superhuman Center, a hospital for pathetics, face reconstruction, and psychological support for people injured during the war in Ukraine. Rudneva has also become a chief coordinator for Help Ukraine Center, the largest hub in Europe for delivering humanitarian aid in Ukraine. Tamira Afansieva is the deputy of Odessa Regional Council and head of the Ukrainian NGO Odessa Peace Council. And midship person, Joana Vlad, is an international student from Romania, a political science major and a German minor, with roles as a company, then battalion protocol officer, and currently a squad leader. This is her last year at the Naval Academy, and she's going to take that experience back to Romania with her. I'd like to start with Tatiana. Tatiana, I had the chance to speak with you before this event, and I learned that not only are you the first female head of the Harheef Regional Council, but you've actually been in Harheef throughout this war, serving your people who elected you. As a result, you sort of have a unique insight into the role of women in local government. Can you talk about how that's changed since the invasion or the reinvasion of February 2022? First of all, I would like to thank to everyone and to the people of the United States and to the government of the United States for the tremendous support that we are receiving for Ukraine. For us, it's a very big support. For us, it's a tremendous support that we can feel economic-wise and the security-wise. And I would like to reassure, as the first woman elected official in the Harheef region, as the head of the council in the Harheef region, I would like to reassure you that we feel this help and we need more of this help. And this is why I'm here, speaking here, and I was traveling 1,000 kilometers away to speak to you, and it was everything thanks to the foundation, to the support of MEGAMOPS and to the foundation. I'm here to speak to you, to reassure that we need this help. Separately, I would like to thank to the president of the Institute of Peace having us here in this auditorium to speak to everyone. It was tremendous support. We felt as Ukrainian people when President Biden arrived under the sirens and the attacks that were going on in Ukraine. He visited Kyiv and he walked alongside with President Zelensky. This is a show to the entire world that's how strong his support is and what's going on in Ukraine shouldn't happen anywhere in the world. Kids shouldn't die, civilians shouldn't die. This support is very important to us. Ukraine is standing in the middle of Europe and we're taking all aggression from Russia on our side. And we're surviving and we're standing because we have support of our partners. Until this day, we are standing and we will stand. And this is very important to stress that to be able to support our partners and to be able to support our partners that together we will do that. We are here to talk about women in Ukraine but I cannot recognize the hearer. Everybody saw the video that everybody have seen the video that broke internet yesterday about the hearer, the war hearer that said Glory to Ukraine and he was shot for that. This person represents all our soldiers that will be saying Glory to Ukraine. They will be saying that and they will die for those words but they will be standing and repeating them Glory to Ukraine. Back to the women we will start from the first lady and all the women that serve in the military now in the defense for Ukraine. After February 24th last year they completely changed their roles significantly. Ukrainian women now in our days she joined the military she represent the military there are 35,000 of them now joined the military in Ukraine. And I would like to stress this is on their own wish not we didn't have mobilization it's their wish to join the army forces. Ukrainian woman is a baker who makes bread for the military and for her family. Ukrainian woman is the one who saves her children by coming and standing over three times on the border in order to get shelter in a friendly country. Ukrainian women who lost their children because they were brought to the border by the Ukrainian aggressor. Ukrainian woman is the representative of the government the head of the community who can't leave her people because they took her. She is the head of the regional district it's a player in the politics who cannot leave their environment. If short about myself I'm a head of the regional district for two years. Before that I had some career and I'm a doctor I received a PhD in a law and all this doesn't matter because what I'm doing now it's important. The Harkiv region is on the border and we were hit pretty hard and in the beginning it was like 30% of territory were occupied. Our people were threatened by the mayor, women, men, children they were threatened, they were taken away they were put in aggression a lot. But our main goal was to show that we can stand, that we are strong and we cannot leave and we will be there to fight. The building where my office was it was destroyed by missile attacks and you all seen that on the news. On that day when the missile struck the building we were supposed to have a meeting there with the mayor, with the head of the military in the region. Luckily for us we were running late to the meeting but unfortunately people were in the building and they were killed. Our main goal was to show that we can stand, that we are strong and we can fight. We are strong and we can fight. We are strong and we can fight. We are strong and we can fight. We are strong and we can fight. Our main goal was to destroy the building. Our main goal was the head of the military administration where to take bread, where to feed people, where to take power, where to talk business, so that they do not turn around and work and help, so that they do not give help to our people. It was the first weeks, the first days before the humanitarian aid began and we already understood that the country does not have any partners. Our main goal was to decide to solve the problems, how to get bread to the table to our people, how to feed them. In terms of that, a lot of people were under attack and before the massive humanitarian aid came to the district. That was our main goal to decide how to feed people, how to keep the businesses open to reassure everybody we have to stand till the health will come. Yeah, that's a tremendous job that you've been doing and it's really remarkable work. I want to thank you for sharing that information with us. Before I move on to the next question I do want to remind people that the people watching remotely we're going to have time for questions at the end, so be sure and send your questions in. We can take them from the audience and we'll take them from the viewers as well. So please go ahead and send those in. As a member of the Verkhovna Rada you have a different perspective on women's roles and how they've changed. Could you talk perhaps about the changing role of women in the national government and the national leadership since the full-scale invasion of February last year? Yes, for sure. First of all, that's my big pleasure to be here even though just online I hope we will meet finally after so many discussions online. And you know, yes with pleasure I will share my experience but you know as a member of the National Defence and Security Committee I want to underline the role of women of Ukraine in the defence forces who actually serve not only in armed forces but in national guards, state body guards security service and so on. And I want to pay tribute for all these more than 5,000 women who are standing now on a front-line serving. Today my heart-breaking just before this meeting I got the news about my friend who lost his actually husband he was one of the prominent heroes of Ukraine he was awarded couple years ago by President of Ukraine he was once a 27 and she was giving she was giving him the first aid today the artillery took his life and I think this couple will be in the books of history how they both served to the nation and how much and she she gave to him that's why probably my speech very emotional and so many years we had discussions about the women role in army not in the government but I will be back to this question but in the army and couple years ago in the parliament where finally we I mean women got the permission to be a combat diver for example or to be to be a tank tank driver but and I 100% agree and sure that woman has to have a right to choose but believe me when you see this conventional war about which you just could read the books watch the moon but never, never feel the weather at the end of November or the end of February or actually when the trenches are really wet, disgusting it's hard physically and I'm not saying that it has to be something only for men or for women but believe me in this moment even for me that's hard to answer who has to be who has to be here and where is the women's place in armed forces in this battle fields whether in special operation forces or in trenches or in the hospital or given the medical aid but and believe me I still have my really very close friend who lost her husband in Azad style in Mariupol now she is prisoner of war somewhere in Russian Federation and we just cannot even imagine in which conditions they are no one can observe these conditions no one can see these prisoners and our guys men and girls who are there so I want to say that this role we have to look through again and again women's role and again and again mentioning the very thin and very sensitive issue where we are thinking about the given about the women and their and their role especially in army but not in army not even but in war in conventional war why I am saying this and probably that's for the first time in my life staying always on a women's rights and fighting for the women rights but believe me when we are losing best of the young generation it then don't have children and we understand that would be the big mess with the nation finally I hope after we will win for I want to see their blood in their children because they have to rebuild the state and this kind of question about the women's role in government in parliament I want to say that probably the majority of women came on the 21st of February in the early morning almost at 7am to vote for martial law to the parliament yes we faced and let's face the truth millions and of course parliament who took their children or gave their children to their fathers or to their friends and helped them to cross the border because no one knew what would happen to Kyiv to Kyiv, to Kharkiv to Makulayev, to Lviv whatever to the western part of Ukraine and their children had to leave the big part of their families had to leave the state but I want to say that to women who have the public role and positions they were the first ambassadors to travel abroad and to speak the truth what they saw, what they faced what they the evidences that they could brought they were the first ambassadors to say loudly about the weapon about the closing of the sky about long-range missile systems by jets and so on and so on and I think March, April that was the first airborne groups brought in the public diplomacy when women who are politicians and who who had the ability because men are forbidden to cross the border in Ukraine unfortunately women who have official positions we are as well only according to the business trips but in the spring early spring and in spring in summer my perception that women played a big role pushing hardly the public diplomacy in supporting Ukraine especially in the military aid everybody starts to know the different styles of weapons of what we need how to protect the sky how to be more efficient on the front line with the infantry and so on and so on that's incredible but I wish we all be busy with things than we are facing now thank you it's very interesting you talk about all the important work that is being done and of course that brings me to my next question Olga it's sort of a representative of civil society here can you talk about we've seen a lot of we've heard a lot about the shared burden and the tragedy and the work that women are doing alongside men in the fight for Ukraine can you talk about what impact that might have on gender equality legislation and activism hi everybody I'm glad to be here with all of you sorry for being online well I've been a feminist and activist on gender equality rights for the last 10 years in Ukraine and I should say that we've been progressing very good in terms of giving women right leading position at the government we have more women at the parliament at this time we have more women at the boards of big corporate companies and like I said we are progressing quite good in terms of changing legislation that allows women to go to the front lines and pick up their own role what the war has changed and there are different trajectory that Ukraine can actually take after the war and during the war from the first hand when you look at what's going on we have a very masculine society right now because the war actually is about men the stories we hear is about men which is absolutely true our men at the front lines defending our country volunteering their life and their health but at the same time we have more than 35,000 women at the army some of them are at the front lines and I have to underline the fact that our women are still don't have a uniform fit for women they still don't have shoes for women they still don't have hygiene for women and they are still trying to fit into this very male and male society of the front line and of the war that is actually designed for men we did change the legislation and right now we hear the stories about men being at the front lines. I want to hear more stories about women because women took care of their children women actually took kids abroad because they are kind of closing the sky because the sky is not closed in Ukraine women are the main bread feeders right now and the main care providers are families while men at the front lines and women are at the front lines thanks to the change in the legislation women are free to choose their roles women are free to decide where do they want to be women are volunteering women are bringing cars pickups women are buying stuff that are needed for the front lines women are the logistic chain of the war we were working for six months at the healthcare center in Poland we had 300 volunteers predominantly women were unloading trucks on a daily basis 24-7 they were packing stuff for the front lines they were writing cards and they were collecting orders from the front lines so women are covering a huge range of logistic and women are taking care of their kids and women are the main bread givers at this time me as a feminist my part as a feminist want to hear more stories about women and I want to hear more stories of women doing what they do during the war and it's definitely lacking in the paradigm and in media of the war so there are different trajectories that we can actually pursue as a country we have more strong role of women because women love the country women are very strong doing what they do or we have masculine society that will prevail I do believe in the first trajectory because women have been doing so many things so successful but for them to get to this point and for all of us to get to this point we need to supply women with women uniform we need to create situation that will be comfortable for women so they don't need back for senatorine napkins they don't need to back for basic things that they need to fight and to do that we need to hear more stories about women doing what they do right now so probably that is what I wanted to say and I really want to command an amazing work that women do right now in Ukraine and I do believe that their stories should be shared in the future yeah that's a really good point about actually hearing about what it is that women are doing and having for like this where you can talk about the role that women are playing and what they need to play that role getting back to the activism do you see gender activism continuing during the war or is it sort of being put on hold until the threat from Russia is over well it's not that active I would definitely say because war times require different hearers our information is very very concentrated and our all attention is very concentrated on what's going on at the war so I would say that it's partially on hold that's very small group of activists who are actually working to bring this topic back but you know it's too too much of interference in media and we are very much concentrated on what's going on in Ukraine and you know like the first speaker mentioned the video that we all watched yesterday broke our hearts the bracelet on the person from zoom tortured and killed by Russian broke our hearts the dead bodies of Gucci broke our hearts it's so hard to communicate anything but pain and hatred right now in Ukraine and that's all I mean I mentioned that amazing person who was killed today I know him personally I know that his wife and it breaks my heart so much pain so much lost that it's so hard to communicate anything but you know pain and what we are going through I know and I understand that there is no way how to tell what is it to live during the war unless you live during the war there is no way how we can actually deliver this message but during these times you know everything changes the paradigm of life has changed and it's not too much that we can tell about the situation with women right now and about the feminism I wish we can take more about that and I wish we can share more stories about women doing great things during the war time in paramedics about women volunteers about women who actually quit their jobs and doing something for the sake of victory I do believe that's going to happen in the future and our strong women will be back to their working courses and they want to be you know and they want to be different times but nobody knows how it's going to develop from now and how long will it take unless we win yeah I mean that's a very important point and it's a very important point as well to go back to your point about getting the stories out there I was fortunate last week to meet a woman combat medic from Ukraine and she was amazingly impressive and so I think the future of your country is looking very good in that regard to see these young people and what they've accomplished. Tamila as the deputy head of ADESA's regional council what's the role that women have played in supporting Ukrainians recovering from Russian occupation in the liberated areas hello everybody hello to Ukraine it's a great honor for me to be here because first of all I'm a woman from Ukraine I'm a woman from ADESA and I'm a head of ADESA peace council the organization is about 50 years, 55 years old and it's one of the oldest organization in our region and I'm proud that I can be here and to show the pain of Ukrainian women, Ukrainian kids, Ukrainian people and first of all I think a lot Megan Mop to invite me here because when I listen to you your representative I understand that you feel our pain and a lot of you American people feel this how for us it's hard to understand how it can be and we live in this situation more than one year and from the first day a lot of people ran away because they have small children they have old parents but a lot of people a lot of Ukrainian people stay in Ukraine and stay still and they want to protect their land, their houses their people, their neighbors and for us it's very important to be together, to unite and your help what you do for us what American people do for us every day it's great thanks a lot all time I said thanks a lot because it's really hard to understand how to stay in your house and a lot of rackets a lot of alarms during all day and people in Kyiv, people in Kharkiv in Nikolaev it's what's very hard but we don't forget that tomorrow it's International Women's Day and Ukraine is a women you see a lot of beautiful women around people draw Ukrainian like lady and my city Odessa I'm in the first generations from Odessa and I'm proud my city, I love my city a lot of million people came to our city I hope after victory after when we can peace a lot of guests from America city from American country from Europe will be our great honor guests really important but Odessa is women too and Odessa is a lady because she is beautiful she is very hospitality she is like to make perfect dishes for their guests but from the 24th of February we are strong we are ready to fight it doesn't matter I'm lady or I'm women or he is a boy or he is a man we are ready to do it's very pity that generation very young boys and men they are killed and a lot of women's heart are killed too by Russian tanks, by Russians guns and it's for me I'm very honored to see here Salomea Bobrovska because she was the vice governor in Odessa region and she was one of the beautiful because a lot of people still remember her because she did a lot for our region our region is very strong and very big the biggest region in Ukraine but we Odessa is Ukraine and we stand for this our not dream this is our position and women when we are united when we want to show our peace but if you come with us with war we are going to kill you we do everything to protect our land and we do it all second in our life so I want to explain to you once again we are very beautiful we have hospitality but if something happened with our children something happened with our houses with our land we fight to the end this is our main decision and position now and I want to explain that a lot of ours we do the culture in our organization people diplomacy we do a lot of international project but from the 24 February when a lot of my family went to Europe and my sister was pregnant 8 years 8 months I'm sorry and my brother has 3 children and they all should go and we stay and step by step I have a great team we have a lot of volunteers we have a lot of people who help us it doesn't matter it's deputy or it's just common doctor or it's just people somewhere they call me and say what to do, what to help how to help you and now we I'm proud that we are a great team we work and team a lot of women I talk about the women we work around the all south of Ukraine so we are in every city in Nikolayov region we go every week we go to Kherson region and we saw different people we saw children with mom they stay in a small village in Kherson region but this beautiful lady I mean a small girl said oh I remember you in December you were before the new year you give us a present so can you understand five or six years old small girl and she remember me for me it was really shocked because it's very great that Ukrainian women Ukrainian lady Ukrainian girls they are very thankful for everybody especially for American people who are very worried about us we have we have great communication with the humanitarian helping tool ceremony and I went there to get a big cargo big humanitarian cargo from Manhattan united people so Manhattan helped us and they think about this great big school they united and a lot of ladies from America they united their possibility their activities and help us it's great and I'm really thank you to United States and God self America as you say and we say that Ukrainian people are pray every minute for the victory and we know that Ukrainian Ukraine is unbreakable and we are staying together and we are united this is very important for us and I am sure that we are together can do the peace in Ukraine and as head of ADESA peace council I promise that in Odessa in some years I hope we can see institute of peace like this beautiful building and we can discuss with everybody how we can continue peace and economy and great Ukraine and be the honor of in the whole world I'm very proud that I'm Ukrainian and I live in Odessa and I do everything for the victory in our country thank you very much I can assure you that I think we would all look forward to being able to go as the USIP or anything else to ADESA and visit and help you rebuild after the peace Johanna you are sort of the representative of the new generation of female leaders as a midship person at the US Naval Academy you're also Romanian so I thought maybe it would be great if you could talk about what you're doing as a Black Sea neighbor of Ukraine how your country is supporting or feels about what's going on in Ukraine now First of all I want to thank you moderator Ms. Glantz and all panelists it is with great pleasure that I am sitting with such distinguished company since 24th of February last year Romania supported Ukraine we stand by them we provided them with help in the political, diplomatic humanitarian assistance and economically so far I know that Romania took about 3 million Ukrainians and we offered shelter and aid in addition to that I know that we helped them with the transportation of more than 5 million tons of grains to go to the global market right now my government is I'm not talking on the behalf of my government this is my personal opinion just to make it clear for some research it's all on the official websites of my government we we we are supporting them to like join the international organizations as European Union and NATO and as far as the Black Sea region and we are trying to maintain the peace and security as much as we can by strengthening the bilateral connections with Republic of Moldova and Georgia we are helping them, providing them aid again and pretty much we are right now we are having trainings in our country with other partners such as United States Portugal, Italy France to ensure that we are ready for any scenario but we are as a conclusion from the BICORAS 9 meeting that was recently in Warsaw we have the assurance that everything it's secure it's outstanding that's outstanding and I'm sure it's really important especially taking in the refugees and helping people survive during this war thank you on behalf thank your government we now have time for questions so are there any questions here in the audience or online okay if you could just wait we're running a mic down to you right now hi my name is Andrew Duncan with the Weatherman Foundation I just wanted to ask a quick question there was a non-nuclear proliferation agreement that was agreed upon quite some time ago and as part of the safety of Ukraine to give up their nuclear weapons they were assured safety military support in lieu of that we've sent weapon systems and a lot of thoughts and prayers but weapon systems and thoughts and prayers are quite enough why doesn't the Kiev demand NATO boots on the ground peacekeeping boots on the ground to help offset this numerical situation right now and the last thing I'd like to say is I have a little 6 year old girl that we brought from Kurson to Miami a few weeks ago who just went through her 12th surgery after taking a missile with her parents into her bedroom that's a war crime and at what point is enough enough thank you do one of you want to answer the question about the Kiev any of you want to answer the question about why Kiev isn't requesting NATO soldiers maybe it's the question to Salami I yes yes please go ahead it's a tough question it's really a tough question to join this Russian-Ikranian war I'm more than sure that NATO is trying to to do as much to do as much as not to provoke more and more Russian Russian forces to be to be active and not to be involved as a North Atlantic treaty to this war no one want to face actually to take part in conventional war and we understand how far actually Kremlin and Putin can go and unfortunately this open door policy which was provided by NATO for so many years after Bukhara summit when it was promised that Ukraine will once be a member of NATO and then we hear about this open door policy I think that was a very rude and big mistake by NATO trying to avoid Russian invasion in Ukraine and not to allow us to join NATO now of this large big great war as we call it now and unfortunately NATO is playing is playing in some cases far beyond you know probably how many discussions were and actions taken when Lithuania Latvia put on the table how many hours does NATO need to deploy the troops for example in Vilnius trying to if Russians will cut the Baltic states from Poland and we had an answer we had very unpleasant answer for that question so this is very clear and very pragmatic no one wants to be a part in Europe and unfortunately this buffer zone grey zone which now Ukraine is and actually so many years was that's a result of non-taking responsibility for the decision which NATO has finally be clear with and we hope in Vilnius this July one will have NATO summit with the with the demands to Ukraine what we have to fulfill finally not to be grey zone finally to be under this umbrella nothing except NATO guarantees will work against Russia and I hope Europe and the US will finally understand that Russia never plays and it's impossible to understand their logic and that's I'm sure even that they are human beings seeing that what crimes what they are doing here but again we are back to Vilnius to July working hard on that issue on that track finally to understand what we have to fulfill again to be back to EU and NATO the future of European security once we have peace and how to preserve that peace there is no one in it a goal that we have been trying for decades to have a Europe whole free and at peace is definitely something that we are going to continue to work on and that we have already begun working at the center of Russia and Europe looking at how to make Europe a place where everybody can live peacefully and securely that's definitely something that needs to be worked on do we have any other questions I have an online question from Sasha it seems that Ukraine's reconstruction will be primarily the infrastructure and essential services but that Ukraine has a robust civil society and foundation of democracy and governance do you agree I think we have several people on this panel who can speak to Ukraine's robust civil society and governance and so would either or both of you like to take that question please very nice question thank you for it of course we are talking now about what we need to help help directly to get the Russian Federation our struggle thank you for the question it's a very good question to be asked and obviously we need help now to support us and to win this war unfortunately now as a woman we have to speak up that we need more weapons for our country with more pleasure we will be talking about weapons but this is what important to our country now the weapons and supplying them to supporting us this is the most important talks in conversation to be raised now it's very important to stress that we need those weapons we need our country to be supplied with advanced weapons in order to survive to save the nation because it's unbelievable what the Russian is doing to Ukraine they are trying to destroy the nation the country to destroy the entire nation the struggle in our world if they allow Russia to destroy Ukraine they will look like nothing they need to have consequences we don't talk here that your neighbor went to your backyard we are talking about that Ukraine was attacked by Russia and the measures have to be taken we are like the government planning reconstruction we need to think about life about future in every region there are legal and criminal crimes including damage they are digitized and have specific numbers every region what is necessary for the reconstruction if we talk about the Kharkiv region we have almost no quarter it's the north Saltovka today the government is discussing whether we need to renovate reconstruction or build from scratch every region has a document in which the amount of damage the amount of damage what are the rules about health it will be available to see what needs to be done with our local government with our local budgets we kind of patching the holes and putting the resources economic resources now on the reconstruction what is absolutely necessary now to keep electricity going to keep water going after the victory we are ready to start to completely rebuild reconstruction of our districts our regions it's not a secret and we won't be hiding that to do that in order to rebuild our country in our regions we will need tremendous financial support it's not a secret to anybody how much it will cost to help to rebuild our country but we are sure with everyone's help with your particular help we will stand, we will rebuild and we will live I didn't understand correctly the question in regards of local government and power yes, so they asked it seems that Ukraine's reconstruction will be primarily the infrastructure and essential services but that Ukraine has a robust civil society and foundation of democracy and governance do you agree? that's it I want to say that for 30 years the independence of Ukraine as a common citizen of Ukraine and not the representatives of the government now not about that the most democratic the most powerful and decent president of our country and we thank you for supporting him and we see this support so I, as a representative of the government, I want to say that I have great hope and first of all that we will succeed honestly, without corruption without any question of our Ukraine together with our president first of all here my answer will be two parts yes, from myself as a citizen of Ukraine I cannot be more proud to have the most democratic and the most stronger president running our country and second of all as the member of regional government I am reinsuring and I am 100% sure that with our president with everyone's support we will build civil society and everything will be done clear without any corruption we will fight it and our country will be rebuilt in a good way I completely agree with Tatiana she talked about the weapon it's very important for us but I want to say that now people in Ukraine are very hot in economical position and a lot of people are as you understand poor and they need food and they need help and they need humanitarian food they need medicine just the mask for the common life but they need it so I ask again thank you very much to American people for the help for the humanitarian cargo every day and I want to ask don't forget us, don't leave us and help us with humanitarian cargo more and more because we need it because our people need to be more brave and they should know that don't leave them without food without stuff and etc so our common answer to question to this thank you very much but don't leave us our people are very waiting for you and for American humanitarian and weapon thank you thank you very much for that I think our presidents already said we're with you as long as it takes and I think all of us feel that that standing with you until you have your victory is really important in addition I think everything you've said today about what you all are doing and what the other women that I've met from Ukraine have been doing it does give me optimism because I see not just the men who are fighting on the battlefield but also the women in the entire society to strengthen civil society to win the victory and to rebuild your country and to make sure that your future is bright it gives me optimism that your future is bright and that Ukraine will be stronger going forward thanks to the work of people like you so I'd like to thank you for sharing your experiences with us and for joining us today and good luck in the future thank you