City to city

Alongside the large financing instruments, a quieter channel has operated throughout this period: European municipalities partnering directly with Ukrainian ones.

Why this works well

A city knows what a city needs. A European municipality has a water utility, a transport department, a district heating operator and a housing office — and so does its Ukrainian partner. The conversation is between people doing the same job, which removes an entire layer of translation.

The assistance is correspondingly practical: buses, fire engines, water pumps, generators, and, more valuably, the technical staff who know how to install and maintain them.

The part that lasts longer than the equipment

Administrative exchange. A Ukrainian city planning department working with a European counterpart learns procurement practice, planning procedure and asset management by doing it alongside someone, which is faster than any training programme.

These relationships also survive political cycles better than national ones, because a twinning arrangement is maintained by officials and citizens rather than by governments.

The limitation

It is uneven. Cities with existing international connections attract partners; smaller and less connected communities do not. Matching services that deliberately pair unglamorous Ukrainian towns with willing European partners exist for exactly this reason and deserve more support.

The observation

Reconstruction will be delivered municipally, because that is where the buildings are. Any support structure that does not reach the municipal level is talking to the wrong people.