On Independence Day, the Sixth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, initiated by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, was held in Kyiv.

This year’s Summit theme is “World 2026: Finding Stability in Times of Uncertainty.” The event became a platform for countries from around the world to share their own experiences of resilience.

“I remember our first attempts to approach this difficult and extremely important topic. Three years ago, at our Third Summit in Kyiv, we studied mental health in 11 countries. By then, we in Ukraine had already faced an extraordinarily high level of stress as a result of the war unleashed by Russia. While everyone was asking us for the ‘recipe for Ukrainian resilience,’ in fact, we were still searching for it ourselves. Now we know: resilience does not mean the absence of pain or fear – it means the ability to act despite them,” Olena Zelenska said.

The First Lady emphasized that societal resilience has not only a mental dimension but also a tangible economic dimension for every society.

“The global economy loses around one trillion dollars every year due to depression and anxiety, while mental health problems cost OECD countries up to 4% of GDP. This is yet another reason why it is so important to talk about resilience, define it, and share it,” the wife of the President of Ukraine added.

The concepts of resilience in their respective countries were presented in person at the Summit by First Lady of Estonia Sirje Karis, First Lady of Lithuania Diana Nausėdienė, First Lady of Serbia Tamara Vučić, First Lady of Finland Suzanne Elizabeth Innes-Stubb, husband of the President of Slovenia Aleš Musar, and First Lady of Romania Mirabela Grădinaru.

First Ladies and Gentlemen from Germany, Belize, Israel, the Czech Republic, Türkiye, Guatemala, and Georgia joined online. In total, First Ladies and Gentlemen from 14 countries took part in the Sixth Summit.

The program was structured around four thematic sections: “Discovering,” “Making Meaning,” “Surviving. Taking Action,” and “Standing Together” – and was divided into international and Ukrainian parts.

This year, the Sixth Summit was attended not only by First Ladies and Gentlemen, but also by heads of state: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Finland Alexander Stubb, President of Estonia Alar Karis, and President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda. Their remarks were delivered during the “Standing Together” section.

“Your strength, dear ladies and gentlemen, lies in your ability to speak with people without political barriers, where official diplomacy may sometimes stall. You work with the things that keep societies truly united – education, people’s health, children and policies for a normal childhood, families, culture, and… countries. And this truly provides a great foundation for people to understand one another and recognize their own in one another,” the Head of State emphasized.

The “Making Meaning” section featured American writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker, author of the book “Tribe” Sebastian Junger, and military chaplain, public figure, writer, lecturer, and philosopher Andrii Zelinskyi.

The “Surviving. Taking Action” section opened with the panel discussion “From the Resilience of People to the Resilience of Systems” – dialogues between public-sector representatives and people whose experiences illustrate the topic of the discussion. Participants included First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal and Liudmyla Kozak, an engineer in the Physical Protection Department at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, who began her shift on February 23, 2022, and spent 26 days under occupation; Prime Minister of Ukraine (2025–2026) Yuliia Svyrydenko and Olena Vlezko, a primary school teacher from the village of Myropillia in the Sumy region who has been teaching children for more than 40 years, including during shelling and now remotely from Sumy; the Hatsan family from Kherson, who were affected by shelling; Minister of Health Viktor Liashko and Senior Lieutenant of the Civil Protection Service Yuliia Sydorenko, a psychologist at the Main Department of the State Emergency Service in the Zaporizhzhia region; as well as writer and serviceman Illarion Pavliuk and veteran, Marine, and head of the Veteran Hub branch Hlib Stryzhko.

As every year, the Summit produced practical results. One of them is the Global Vocabulary of Resilience, a publication that brings together the experiences of 38 countries: concepts, social practices, institutional models, and cultural frameworks that demonstrate concrete mechanisms of resilience.

Olena Zelenska personally presented the Ukrainian philosophy of resilience developed by Ukrainian scholars – Sofiynist, in the sense of “making meaning,” that is, seeing reality as a whole, with both the mind and the heart. A team of Ukrainian experts defined the term as a philosophy that combines the will to live, the strength to fight, and the wisdom to learn.

A separate part of the program was the “Garden of Sofiynist” – a space created especially for the Sixth Summit. Throughout the day, guests and participants had the opportunity to explore Ukrainian resilience practices: try applied arts techniques, see original installations, and experience the cultural context from which the concept of Sofiynist emerges.

The co-organizers of the Summit were 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 All-Ukrainian Mental Health Program “How Are You?”, and the World Health Organization. The Summit’s general partners were the BGV Charity Fund and Universal Bank. Official partners were Activitis Education and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Summit partners included Vodafone, Zagoriy Foundation, Yalta European Strategy (YES), and La Famiglia. Media partners were Starlight Media and UNITED24 Media.

The Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen is an annual international event initiated in 2021 by First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska. It subsequently evolved into a permanent global platform bringing together spouses of heads of state who seek to use their influence to address today’s challenges through work on humanitarian issues.

Over five years, the Summit has brought together more than 55 First Ladies and Gentlemen from around the world and delivered concrete results. In 2022, more than $6 million was raised for 92 ambulances. In 2023, the Medical Partnership initiative was launched, resulting in 25 international medical partnerships – and today, more than 100 memorandums have already been signed. In 2024, First Ladies and Gentlemen adopted the Joint Declaration on the Protection of Children’s Rights During Armed Conflicts and Wars, and an expert document was developed to implement it and presented at a special event during the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. Last year, the Summit became a two-day event for the first time, brought together representatives of 20 countries, and presented an international study on the role of education in building personal resilience, countries’ social capital, and a culture of peace.

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