Ministry of Health: In Kyiv, the Sixth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen discussed practical approaches to supporting people in wartime conditions

The Sixth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, initiated by Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, was held in Kyiv. The event brought together first ladies and gentlemen from 14 countries, as well as the Presidents of Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania, government representatives, experts, and civil society.

This year, the summit became a platform for discussing practical approaches to strengthening the resilience of people living under war, prolonged stress, and uncertainty.

“I remember our first attempts to approach this complex and extremely important topic. Three years ago, at our third Summit in Kyiv, we studied mental health in 11 countries. In Ukraine, we were already facing extremely high levels of stress caused by russia’s war. While everyone asked us about the ‘recipe for Ukrainian resilience,’ we were actually searching for it ourselves. Now we know: resilience does not mean the absence of pain or fear — it is the ability to act despite them,” said Olena Zelenska.

Ukraine’s Minister of Health Viktor Liashko also joined the event, participating in the panel discussion “From people’s resilience to systems resilience.”

“Today, Ukraine’s healthcare system is sustained by more than 385,000 medical workers. For over four years, they have worked under shelling, blackouts, and massive attacks, yet the system continues to develop. The war has united civilian and military medicine into a single space, significantly expanded our capabilities in rehabilitation and mental health support, and we see progress in high‑tech areas. Behind all these results are people. After one of the massive attacks on Chernihiv, I met a surgeon who had spent about 36 hours in the operating room. When asked where he found the strength, he replied: ‘I had to help.’ This phrase perfectly reflects what I see in Ukrainian medicine every day. What a few years ago we would have called a heroic act has now become part of the ordinary working day for many medics. It is precisely such people who shape the resilience of the system,” emphasized Viktor Liashko.

In addition, a number of practical developments were presented during the Summit. Among them: the Global Vocabulary of Resilience (a publication that brought together the experiences of 38 countries). It presents approaches that help individuals, societies, and states overcome crises and recover from them.

In this context, the First Lady introduced the Ukrainian concept of Sophiynist, which reflects Ukraine’s experience in overcoming long‑term challenges. This approach helps to systematize the Ukrainian experience of living and working under prolonged war and to share it with international partners. Participants also had the opportunity to explore this concept in the “Garden of Sophiynist” — a special space with interactive installations and artistic practices.

Such a format enables countries to exchange practical solutions and experiences that may be useful in different contexts. For Ukraine, it is also an opportunity to present its own developments formed during the full‑scale war and to strengthen international cooperation in healthcare, mental health, and recovery.

It should be recalled that the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen is an international platform launched in 2021 by Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska. It brings together spouses of heads of state and partners around joint work on humanitarian challenges. It was at the Summit in 2023 that the International Medical Partnership was initiated, which has now grown into a large‑scale network of direct cooperation between Ukrainian and foreign medical institutions.

Background

The event was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the Coordination Center for Mental Health of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the nationwide mental health program “How Are You?” initiated by Olena Zelenska, and the World Health Organization.