Volodymyr Kreidenko, Ukrainian MP, deputy chairman of the Committee on Transport

Ukraine is living through a great war — amid daily air-raid sirens, missile and drone attacks, amid pain, loss, and destruction that reach not only our cities and villages, but the very heart of human life. The war enters our homes through shattered windows, damaged roofs, devastated streets, fear for our children and loved ones, and a weariness that is not always visible from the outside. The enemy seeks to destroy not only buildings — it seeks to sow despair, uproot people from their native land, and deprive them of their sense of home, support, and future. Yet it is precisely in this darkness that the strength of the Ukrainian people is seen most clearly: their ability to endure, to stand by one another, and not to let war take away what matters most — life on their own land.

That is why, for us, reconstruction is not a matter for some distant future, nor a subject to be postponed until “after the war.” It is an urgent need of today. For where a home is destroyed, it is not only property that is at risk. What is at risk is the very human presence in Ukraine. When a family has nowhere to return to, when the windows are blown out, when there is no roof overhead, when all around lies ruin, a person loses their footing. And then the most painful question arises: will they be able to remain on their own land, or will they be forced to seek shelter elsewhere?

In wartime, a home is not merely walls and a roof. It is the heart of a family. It is a space of human dignity. It is the place where memory, family order, and the bond between generations endure. It is the living thread that connects a person to their city, village, community, and ancestral land. When we help restore a home, install windows, repair a roof, clear the rubble, we are not simply fixing a structure. We are preserving a person’s ability to remain in Ukraine. We are not allowing war to tear people away from their roots.

In this great labor, the volunteer movement “Dobrobat” holds a special place. It is a community of caring people who go where shelling has left despair, dust, debris, and ruin — and get to work. Volunteers clear rubble, remove construction waste, cover shattered windows, repair roofs, and help restore schools, hospitals, public buildings, and other facilities essential to daily life. Their work is not merely technical assistance. It is the return of hope to people. It is a sign that they have not been abandoned to face disaster alone. It is Ukraine’s living answer to the destruction brought by war.

“Dobrobat” has become one of the clearest expressions of the Ukrainian character — resilient, compassionate, united, and hardworking. In this movement, we see the very best of our people: solidarity, brotherhood, the readiness to stand shoulder to shoulder in the hardest of moments, not waiting for someone else’s command but taking responsibility upon oneself. This is how a people with strength of spirit and a will to live act. Today, Ukrainians defend their state not only on the front line. They defend it through daily labor, shared responsibility, mutual support, and the ability to restore what the enemy seeks to turn into emptiness.

Today, “Dobrobat” is already a major volunteer force bringing together more than 50,000 people. Over the course of the war, volunteers have cleared more than 20,000 tons of construction debris, installed 20,000 windows, repaired 10,000 roofs, and restored more than 100 social infrastructure facilities. But behind these figures lies far more than statistics. Behind them are human lives. Families who were able to return home. Children who can once again go to school. Elderly people who were not left alone in shattered homes with helplessness as their only companion. Communities that did not empty out and did not disappear from the living map of Ukraine.

In this time of great war, volunteering has become more than a form of assistance. It has become the language of hope. It has become proof that Ukrainian society is alive, enduring, and refusing to be scattered or broken. Where volunteers are at work, faith returns. Where homes are restored, people remain. Where people do not disappear, the community does not die. And where the community lives, there stands Ukraine.

For me, it is a great honor to serve as an ambassador of “Dobrobat,” because this movement reveals with remarkable precision the essence of the Ukrainian people. We are a people who do not lose our humanity in the hardest of times. A people who know not only how to fight, but how to offer a helping hand. A people who do not allow misfortune to prevail over them. In this lies our strength. In this lies our resilience. In this lies the inner core that helps Ukraine withstand the blows and not lose itself.

At the same time, we understand very well that even the strongest volunteer movement needs support and reinforcement. Help must not be one-time, but lasting. It must reach more people and more communities. It must have not a spontaneous, but a broad and sustainable dimension. This requires resources, materials, equipment, international ties, trust, political support, and the involvement of partners who can help open new opportunities for reconstruction.

It is from this understanding that the International Parliamentary Coalition in Support of “Dobrobat” was born. We created it in order to unite the strength of Ukrainian volunteerism with the possibilities of international solidarity. So that support for Ukraine in Europe would have not only a compassionate or symbolic dimension, but would become effective participation in preserving people, communities, and everyday life.

The role of European parliamentarians in this effort is extraordinarily important. It is parliaments that shape the political framework of support for Ukraine in their respective countries. It is legislators who influence decisions on funding, humanitarian programs, reconstruction initiatives, and local and interstate partnerships. It is they who are capable of keeping Ukraine in the focus of public attention, rallying local communities, charitable circles, responsible businesses, municipalities, and civil society organizations around it. And it is they who can help European society see that the reconstruction of Ukraine is not a secondary issue, but part of the broader struggle for humanity, freedom, and resilience across the whole European space.

A European parliamentarian can be for Ukraine not a distant observer, but a true partner in action. They can help establish links between Ukrainian communities and international partners. They can assist in attracting material, technical, and organizational support. They can become a voice for Ukraine’s reconstruction in their own parliament — not in the abstract, but in concrete terms: the restoration of housing, schools, hospitals, and public spaces that sustain everyday life. And beyond that, they can be a messenger of the truth about Ukraine: about people who live under shelling but do not want to abandon their land; about communities that, despite everything, seek to live and rebuild; about volunteers who restore people’s faith every single day.

That is why it is so important to us that the first parliamentarians have already joined the Coalition. It is they who have given this initiative not a formal, but a living meaning. Among the first participants are Poland’s Jolanta Niezgodzka and Alicja Lepkowska-Gołaś, Lithuanian MP Karolis Neimantas, as well as Latvian parliamentarians Dāvis Mārtiņš Daugavietis, Jānis Skrastiņš, Uģis Rotbergs, Jānis Patmalnieks, and Gatis Liepiņš.

Their participation carries special weight. For it is the first people who stand beside you who create trust in a new undertaking. They set an example for others. They demonstrate that support for Ukraine in Europe can consist not only of words, but of political will; not only of sympathy, but of readiness to act. Their step is a sign that volunteer-led reconstruction in Ukraine resonates beyond our country’s borders, and that in Europe there are people who understand: preserving Ukrainian homes means preserving the Ukrainian people on their own land.

For Ukraine, this carries a special meaning. When a European parliamentarian supports reconstruction, they are not supporting bricks and roofing materials in themselves. They are supporting a family that will be able to remain at home. They are supporting a child who will not have to say goodbye forever to their school. They are supporting a community that will not fall empty. They are supporting a state that is fighting not only for its borders, but for the right of its citizens to live in their own home, on their own land, under their own sky.

The International Parliamentary Coalition in Support of “Dobrobat” was never conceived as a bureaucratic superstructure or a formal club. It was envisioned as a living network of cooperation. Its strength lies in practicality, in the readiness to open doors to new connections, seek partnerships, attract attention, trust, and support, and help where Ukrainian volunteerism is already doing tremendous work but needs a stronger international shoulder.

Today, while the war continues and strikes on civilian infrastructure remain part of everyday reality, reconstruction becomes more than a humanitarian or construction task. It becomes an act of resistance. An act of faith. An act of will. By restoring people’s homes, we protect more than buildings. We protect Ukrainians’ right to remain in Ukraine. We defend the living fabric of our society. We do not allow war to hollow out the country from within.

This is the deepest meaning of our work. Ukraine stands not only by force of arms. It stands by its people. By volunteers. By families. By communities. By that inner strength which does not allow us to lose heart even when all around is ruin. By that will which compels us not merely to survive, but to rebuild, revive, and return life to the places where the enemy wants to leave only lifelessness behind.

That is why the International Parliamentary Coalition in Support of “Dobrobat” is for us not just another initiative. It is a way to strengthen the force Ukraine already has. It is a way to unite the volunteer drive of our people with the support of those European friends who are ready to stand beside us not only in words, but in common action. It is a way to turn solidarity into restored windows, repaired roofs, preserved homes, living communities, and human destinies.

We want more and more parliamentarians from different countries of Europe and the world to join the Coalition. Because helping to rebuild Ukrainian homes is help not only to buildings. It is help to dignity. It is help to the family. It is help to a person’s right to remain on their own land. It is help to keep Ukraine alive.

And as long as we have volunteers like those in “Dobrobat,” as long as there are people of goodwill in European parliaments ready to stand with us, as long as the Ukrainian spirit, brotherhood, resilience, and will remain alive — Ukraine will not allow itself to be broken. It will stand. It will rebuild. It will protect its people. And it will live.