This view was shared by Oleh Saakyan, co-founder of the National Platform for Resilience and Cohesion, during the public discussion: "Resilience Without Illusions: How the Risk and Threat Landscape is Changing in the Regions and What to Prepare for in 2026."
"In a 'long-haul' war, we need to transition to an intensive model that emphasizes self-regeneration and the necessity of investing in recovery potential to ensure long-term resilience," Saakyan noted.
Yuliia Tyshchenko, also a co-founder of the National Platform, added that the key resource for maintaining national resilience is trust between the government and society. She warned that this trust is currently being undermined by a lack of proper communication and hostile information attacks.
The event brought together regional coordinators, representatives from the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, and local government officials. They reviewed interim results from an expert survey assessing risks in five key regions: Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv.
According to the study, experts identified the following primary drivers of destabilization for the regions:
- The "Perfect Storm" Scenario: The risk of losing international support, potential breakthroughs on the front line, domestic political destabilization, and a governance crisis.
- Artificial Humanitarian Catastrophe: The intentional creation of humanitarian crises.
- Weaponized Anti-Corruption: Using the fight against corruption as a tool for external influence.
- Democratic Restrictions: The limitation of democratic practices.
- Social Injustice: A growing demand for the fair distribution of the "burden of war."
- National Fragmentation: Disparities between regions regarding military threats and socio-economic development.
- Information Warfare: Russian influence operations, the erosion of cognitive sovereignty, and the impact of PTSD.
A total of 120 experts participated in the survey conducted in late December 2025.
This initiative is funded by the European Union as part of the project "Supporting Ukraine’s Resilience and European Security through Dialogue" and is implemented by the Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.
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