War crimes, human rights violations, displacement of millions of people, humanitarian crisis: the conflict in Ukraine continues and slides towards a winter that threatens to be, if there is no ceasefire that we continue to strongly demand, harsh.

The conflict is having a very heavy impact on civil society, and communities are working tirelessly to ensure that people have access to humanitarian aid, to support social cohesion, to strengthen mutual trust and to ensure, as far as possible, security and stability for those affected by the violence.

The resilience of the Ukrainian people has been exceptional so far: the war, however, continues to reap victims and destruction. The call for a just peace is not being heeded by the international community for the time being, and this increases the suffering of civilians. The challenges are manifold, requiring the joint efforts of all national and international actors involved.

With this in mind, together with the partners with whom we work in Ukraine with the project "Peace Support Ukraine", financed by Eight Per Thousand funds of the Italian Buddhist Institute Soka Gakkai, we participated in the "Kiev Social Recovery Conference", attended by national and international institutions, humanitarian agencies, international and local civil society organisations and donors, to jointly identify priorities, needs and recommendations on the work ahead for social reconstruction and resilience building in Ukraine.

We talked about the results achieved so far, the lessons learnt, the complex scenario and the challenges that still lie ahead.

This important meeting was followed the next day by that of theUkranian Youth Forum for Joint Action: a youth forum where young people engaged in peacebuilding in the country confronted each other to identify the needs and priorities of young people for the reconstruction of the country.

The Ukranian Youth Forum for Joint Action is a platform that brings together youth movements, associations, trade unions and organisations across the country and those working in support of Ukraine during this time of war. It is a space to discuss the needs and visions of young people, and the role they can play during and after the conflict.

In fact, it was often they who were at the forefront of the response to the Russian invasion in February 2022, working on the humanitarian front, supporting the population both inside the country and in the diaspora, volunteering to rehabilitate the infrastructure and keep their communities together in the areas most affected by the war, serving in the army and in many other ways.

Young people during the war in Ukraine, both inside and outside the country, are building resilience in all sectors of society.

At the two conferences, organised by our Romanian partner Peace Action Training and Research Institute of Romania (PATRIR), we participated together with the Institute for Peace and Common Ground, the Ukranian Leadership Academy, and the Association of Middle East Studies.