The Russian invasion of Ukraine puts the resilience of European cities to the test

When I attended the FUTURITY sessions hosted by the BMW Foundation during the Munich Security Conference, I listened to Galyna Mykhailiuk, member of the Ukrainian Parliament and FUTURITY Fellow, pointing to a critical date. While referring to unspecified intelligence, Mykhailiuk stated an attack by Russia could begin at any moment after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, signalling an act of friendship with China.

After the session I witnessed a conversation of Mykhailiuk accepting the support of a female counterpart in Europe in case of an invasion of Ukraine. This moment gave me a dose of reality far from the hysteria in the media, no one believed until the very end that Putin would go through with the war. Four days after the Olympics Vladimir Putin published a video message announcing the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The following week as it became clear that Russia has abandoned any pretence of focusing on military targets, and is indiscriminately targeting civilians, a massive influx of people started to flee to neighbouring countries. Suddenly, the article I was working on from one of those FUTURITY sessions attended by the Mayor of Warsaw and the Chief Diplomatic Advisor to the Mayor of Budapest on building bridges among their liberal cities – supported by progressive urban voters against national governments’ agendas – seemed so far away from the recent events.

However, as the invasion of Ukraine unfolds, the united spirit of these liberal cities to call for support beyond their national borders could be a valuable strategy amid the consequences of this war. According to the media, Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw, said “Warsaw had received support from French, Italian, German and Austrian sister cities in the form of temporary beds and other supplies”. Budapest and, especially Warsaw, have to deal with the highest number of refugees from Ukraine. Already before the invasion, Warsaw and Budapest mayor offices have been struggling with scarce financial resources to manoeuvre due to differences with their national governments.

Ironically, the advance of their governments’ populist agendas on pressing issues such as migration has blown up in their faces. The European Union has cut billions of euros of funding to Poland and Hungary in response to laws and policies in these countries that undermine legal and democratic principles. Poland passed a law that gave border guards enough power to immediately turn back migrants who cross the border illegally and turn down their application for international asylum without further explanation. And Orban's government carried out policies aligned with its nationalistic rhetoric since the refugee crisis in 2015.

Sudden events made Poland and Hungary join a coalition of countries against Russia but their anti-immigration policies have left it to civil society, mainly in urban centres, to manage the influx of refugees since the invasion of Ukraine began. People have been galvanised around the world, showing great solidarity with Ukrainian refugees. The media has been reporting the rapidly evolving civic mobilisation across the Ukrainian borders and the startling resilience of cities through the creative response of their residents. Beata Borucka’s app matches Polish grandmothers with Ukrainian refugees needing extra help with their children. Or Zofia Jaworowska’s non-governmental organisation, Grupa Zasoby, introduces refugees at Warsaw’s Western Station to Poles who offer accomodation. At Budapest’s central station, Hungarians are spontaneously waiting for refugees to offer them somewhere to stay and volunteers offer long-lasting food and cleaning products.

This week I was speaking to one curator of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw about how the museum has evolved into a welcoming space and integration centre for refugees, offering humanitarian and medical aid, asylum application advice, etc., a platform to amplify the voices of Ukrainians, in coexistence with the museum’s activities. Without the effort of volunteers with their resources, skills and donations, all this wouldn’t have been possible but “who knows how long it can last.”

In other European cities, foundations, civil society organisations, and companies have joined this endeavour at the heart of the civil society response. Through the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt I have learnt of the coordinated efforts to address the consequences of this war, while helping preserve and advance the network that has been built over the years to nurture democratic values.

In less than a month, almost 3 million people have fled the war in Ukraine and numbers are increasing. The immediate response has been to provide kindness, food and emergency shelter, however relying on the goodwill of civil society and grassroots organisations for long is putting the resilience of cities like Warsaw and Budapest to the test. According to the UN-Habitat’s programme “Urban Resilience refers to the ability of any urban system to withstand and recover quickly from all plausible shocks and stresses and maintain continuity of functions.” But how prepared are European cities to withstand forced migration?

The Mayor of Warsaw made a desperate cry for a more systematic and organised international help to deal with a situation that is threatening to outstrip the Polish capital’s capacity to receive refugees because nobody knows for how long this war will go on. Rafał Trzaskowski said 300,000 people have fled to Warsaw since the Russian invasion, boosting its population by 15 per cent and leaving the city’s services “at the limit”. This calls for systematic financial and material aid from abroad finds echo in how the mayor offices of Warsaw and Budapest weigh their resilience strategy with a movement of united cities that circumvents their national borders. Trzaskowski emphasised the need to send help directly to local authorities and charities and not just be funnelled through governments to make sure that it reaches people helping “on the front line” as quickly as possible.

Three years ago the cities of Budapest, Prague, Warsaw and Bratislava founded the Pact of Free Cities, an alliance committed to freedom of movement and democracy, joined by twenty eight cities so far. It offers a compelling framework at which programs more focused on local solutions to tackle global challenges, like the RISE Cities Fellowship, are looking closely for social action and policy engagement on resilience issues such as mobility, refugees and forced migration in cities.

The EU has already shown its commitment to address migration and free mobility with a “temporary protection” offered to Ukrainian refugees, which means they can stay for at least a year and will have instant access to the labour market and education. However, it is likely that these new arrivals to cities will stay for quite some time, given the complex geopolitical forces of this conflict and the devastation already done to Ukrainian cities. 

There is an urgent need for multi-level governance and strategic help, with structural policies and programs funnelled directly to cities – for housing, school places, health services and the like – to get immigrants back on their feet and support themselves. Relying on the goodwill of the civil society for long is skating on thin ice. All these measures are costly, but so would be the price that cities would have to pay if an organised plan is not put in place in the long run.