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On Friday, the two-day Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) came to a close at AMBEREXPO. The largest business and political event in Europe this year brought together 7,600 participants from around the world. Nearly 70 state delegations and more than 30 delegations of international organisations travelled to Gdańsk, including 19 delegations at the highest level.

The business sector was also strongly represented – almost 5,000 company representatives took part in the conference, and more than 200 exhibitors presented their offerings. The meetings and talks resulted in the signing of nearly 200 agreements, memoranda and letters of intent intended to support Ukraine’s reconstruction and the development of international economic cooperation. The total value of the agreements came to almost €10 billion.

Above all, I want to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone who shaped this exceptional conference over the past three days – the hundreds of volunteers, the services, the organisers, and also the residents of Gdańsk for their kindness and understanding. In conversations with our partners, I heard time and again that what made this event so special was its atmosphere – and that atmosphere is created by us, the people who live in Gdańsk every day.

It is a tremendous honour for us to have hosted an event on a global scale. By this morning alone, the conference had generated more than seven thousand publications, reaching an audience of over fifty million people worldwide. The local-government dimension was particularly important to me – meetings with representatives of Ukrainian regions showed how much we can learn from one another, and how valuable both long-standing partnerships and the new relationships forged here truly are.

Ukraine’s reconstruction is already under way today, even though the war has not yet ended, and the determination of Ukrainian local authorities and residents demonstrates an extraordinary strength and hope that we can all draw upon. I believe that Gdańsk has once again proved that it is a place of dialogue, cooperation and the birth of new ideas – ideas that will serve not only Ukraine, but also the peace and security of all of Europe.

Gdańsk rose to the challenge

The Ukraine Recovery Conference 2026 was the fifth edition of the foremost international forum dedicated to Ukraine’s reconstruction, previously held in Lugano, London, Berlin and Rome. Next year, the event will be hosted by Estonia and the city of Tallinn.

Eliza Zeidler, Secretary of State at the Ministry of State Assets, stressed that in recent days Gdańsk had become a place of dialogue, cooperation and joint planning for the future, and that the discussions held during the panels and forums would be carried forward.

I believe that all participants will leave here convinced that international solidarity and cooperation are a real force that makes it possible to turn declarations into concrete action. I hope that the initiatives launched during this conference will be developed in the months and years to come, bringing tangible results for the process of Ukraine’s reconstruction.

2,000 people involved in preparing the URC

Organising the event was an undertaking that engaged the entire city. The logistics, security, the operation of public transport and the cooperation of all the services involved in preparing the conference were highly praised. Gdańsk Airport handled more than 70 additional flight operations, while the changes introduced to traffic around AMBEREXPO were kept to the necessary minimum, so that residents felt the disruption as little as possible.

Around 2,000 people worked on organising the event, and the conference engaged local companies from the hotel, catering, transport, technical and event sectors.