“People need a vision to come back”: Ukrainian women from 23 countries meet in Lisbon

What is happening

This weekend, September 25–27, Lisbon is hosting the third international conference “Ukrainian Women of the World in Action: unity for victory, Ukraine’s recovery and the preservation of identity”. It is organised by the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations (known by its Ukrainian acronym SFUZhO) and the Association of Ukrainian Women in Portugal. According to Ukrinform, more than 100 representatives of Ukrainian communities from 23 countries are taking part.

Participants are discussing how to coordinate support for Ukraine, get involved in rebuilding it and keep Ukrainians abroad connected to their homeland.

What was said at the opening

Opening the conference, Ukraine’s ambassador to Portugal Maryna Mykhailenko said Ukrainian women today defend the country on the front line, hold the economic front, run the volunteer effort behind the lines and represent Ukraine around the world.

Federation president Yaroslava Khortiani said the participants are united by Ukraine even though they live in different countries and belong to different waves of emigration: for some, this is the first or second generation abroad, for others the fourth or fifth. Keeping the language and passing Ukrainian culture on to children, she said, helps the diaspora stay connected. Countering Russian disinformation is another of its tasks: “We have gathered here to learn how to tell the truth about Ukraine so that it is heard all over the world,” she said.

Eurico Brilhante Dias, who chairs Portugal’s parliamentary friendship group with Ukraine, said practically all 230 members of the Portuguese parliament support Ukraine, adding that this near-unanimous stance reflects the mood of Portuguese society. He also praised Ukrainians’ contribution to Portugal’s economy.

Deputy social policy minister Ilona Havronska noted that 75,000 women serve in Ukraine’s armed forces and that most of those who left after the full-scale invasion were women with children. Restoring human capital, she said, will be one of the key goals of reconstruction.

The big question: coming back

On the sidelines, Khortiani told Ukrinform that the federation asks Ukrainian women in different countries whether they will return, and many say yes. “But for people to really want to return, they need to be shown a vision of the future. What will Ukraine be like after the war?” she said.

Khortiani sees post-war Ukraine as a democracy built on European principles of local self-government. She named several conditions: transparent oversight of international aid, which she believes Ukrainian organisations abroad could help monitor; reconstruction that meets people’s needs; and a programme for those who want to return and apply experience gained abroad. She also wants the diaspora to have a real voice in government, pointing to the law on multiple citizenship that has already been adopted.

The programme

The conference has three sessions: on the role of Ukrainian women abroad in the country’s recovery and on human capital, joined by government gender policy commissioner Kateryna Levchenko and Ukrainian Women’s Fund director Olesya Bondar; on media literacy and countering disinformation, with speakers including Olha Herasymiuk, head of Ukraine’s national broadcasting regulator; and on preserving identity amid war and migration, integration without assimilation, women’s rights and youth involvement. The programme also includes a tribute to the poet and dissident Iryna Senyk.

What next

The organisers plan to draw up a roadmap for joint action by Ukrainian women’s organisations. The recommendations will feed into the work of the Diaspora Alliance for Ukraine’s Recovery, which Khortiani co-chairs. She hopes to present them at the next Ukraine Recovery Conference, scheduled for January 2027 in Tallinn.