Even under the strain of war, democratic innovations are taking root in the capital of Ukraine. Over the weekend of 18-19 April 2026, 45 randomly selected residents of Kyiv’s Obolon district gathered for the city’s first-ever citizens’ assembly, united by a pressing priority for communities across the country: how best to support returning veterans and their families.
“Kyiv is joining the deliberative wave in Europe to explore an issue of deep national and human importance. This assembly is designed to ensure that the veterans’ transition to civilian life is met with a community ready to listen, adapt, and co-operate,” noted Congress President Gunn Marit Helgesen during the opening session. “Fostering public trust as well as inclusive and co-creative processes between local authorities and citizens is key in well-functioning democracies,” she said.
Backed by the Congress, this landmark initiative aims to link up the local administration with the community it serves. The opening weekend drew high-profile support, featuring Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko, Obolon District Head Kyrylo Fesyk, and Head of the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine Maciej Janczak, alongside the Congress President. Together, they underscored the critical need to bring grassroots voices directly into local policymaking.
Selected by democratic, randomised lottery to reflect the diverse social fabric of the Obolon district, the assembly members are not just passive listeners: over the weekend, they embarked on a rigorous learning phase to map the complex, real-world hurdles veterans face at both the national and local levels.
Moving away from dry lectures, the sessions featured dynamic ‘speed dialogues.’ Participants rotated from table to table to engage directly with civil society leaders, human rights advocates, local officials, and – most importantly – the veterans themselves. These candid conversations broke down barriers, providing unfiltered insights into the everyday barriers of transitioning back to civilian life.
Based on these firsthand accounts, the citizens collaboratively mapped out a shared vision of the core challenges, laying the groundwork for the next phase of their work. The assembly will reconvene on 2-3 May and 16-17 May 2026 to finalise a set of actionable recommendations. The local authorities have already committed to giving these citizen-led proposals serious consideration.
The preparation and implementation of the citizens’ assembly is conducted as part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for Ukraine “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction” for 2023-2026 and the project “Strengthening multilevel governance and local democracy to support Ukraine’s recovery”, implemented by the Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities. It provides comprehensive expert and methodological support for the organisation and implementation of citizens’ assemblies in the Rivne community, the Obolon district of Kyiv, and the Lviv agglomeration in 2026. In October 2025, bilateral memorandums of understanding were signed in Strasbourg.
More information about this citizens’ assembly is available on the website of the Obolon district state administration in the City of Kyiv and the Council of Europe Office in Ukraine.
