REBUILDING KYIV

BY VITALI KLITSCHKO

Thank you to everyone around the world that is helping Ukraine, our hometown, in this very unusual war condition. It’s important to feel our friends’ support and realize we are not alone. It’s a challenge for the whole democratic world because we are fighting right now to defend the same values. We are fighting for democracy and for the future of our homeland.

A few months ago, Kyiv received the World Smart City Award 2022 in Barcelona. It’s a big honor because we spent a lot of time developing our smart city system over the last eight years. Not just our citizens but world experts were surprised by how good we are in this direction and how much we achieved.

A few years ago, we decided the services for our citizens had to be at a great world level, so we investigated many programs, researching results from other cities and capitals. We built a team of young people who made huge progress in technology, communication, transport, and infrastructure. Through our Kyiv Digital app, we gave more services to citizens. We provided more technologies to make it easier to run our city, make our activities more transparent, and let every citizen understand what’s going on, our budget, and where we are spending our money. The open democracy petitions have had great feedback.

Our experience with COVID allowed us to adapt our system to new conditions. But the next challenge, what has occurred in the last year, was never expected. But we must take this challenge and again adapt our communications system. Kyiv Digital helps every one of our citizens; more than a half-million people use it almost every day. It’s how we defend our friends and citizens, how we get services and information to them, like where they receive medical care, buy food, and find medication and shelters. It’s very important to give them true and objective information, especially when it comes to rockets, chemical acid, and drone attacks.

Every day, we have warnings regarding rocket attacks. We’ve heard the warning more than 600 times. If we put all that time together, our citizens have spent almost one month in bunkers or shelters. When people hear the warning, they immediately go to a safe place. In Kyiv, we don’t have a front line, yet in this period, more than 350 apartment buildings were destroyed, and more than 150 of our citizens were killed. Out of those 150 citizens, four were children.

What is the reason for these attacks?

The Russians are trying to destroy our infrastructure. The winter is always a challenge for us because it’s sometimes minus 10, 20, or 30 degrees Celsius. Warming, electricity, and water are very important, and the Russians are trying to destroy them. They are trying to freeze our citizens. They say it’s a “special operation” against military forces. It’s not; it’s genocide. It’s terrorism. They are trying to bring depression to every citizen. But instead of depression, everyone is very angry. And everyone will stay and defend our future, our independence, and our integrity.

There have been a lot of changes, but one thing is unchangeable: Giving up is not an option. We are fighting for our future. We are defending our families and our country. And we are defending the future for our children because we see our future as a modern democratic country. We are fighting for that every day.

But we are fighting to defend not just our homeland; we are defending every one of you. We are fighting for freedom, peace, and democracy in Europe and the world. And that’s why our support is very important. We continue our fight for our independence and democratic values. We want to live in a country where human rights are the main priority. We are still fighting for that and thank you for your support.

I want to make one last message about digitalization in our hometown after the war. Everyone will be able to enjoy Kyiv, well-lived, peaceful people with great infrastructure. I promise everyone who visits Kyiv will be impressed and love the city and want to come. We continue to fight for peace coming back to the world.