EU Ambassador to Ukraine Katarína Mathernová Visits Ivano-Frankivsk

After this week’s night of sirens, explosions from Russian attack, and hours spent in the shelter, today felt almost unreal.

Spring had arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Warm. Bright. Fragrant.

A city I longed to visit for a while. A city which was for a long time part of the same Austrian-Hungarian Empire as my hometown of Bratislava. A city where faith, tradition, and community quietly hold everything together. A city where you find two squares connected by a Greek-Catholic, Catholic and Orthodox churches and a synagogue.

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It was my first visit here. I travelled with Kristina Mikulova, head of the European Investment Bank in Kyiv and a fellow Slovak.

I began the day with Svitlana Onyshchuk, Head of Regional Administration - the first woman in this role I have met in Ukraine. Together with Mayor and Head of Regional Council, we lit candles for those who had fallen since 2014. A simple act of honour and remembrance. Heavy with meaning.

Then, coffee at Urban Space 100 - a social business that reinvests its profits into the city. A reminder that even in wartime, people build, support, and create. The coffee felt different, better.

The most powerful moment came in a room full of women leaders. Mayors. Heads of “hromadas”, the local self-government. Women who carry entire communities on their shoulders.

They spoke about welcoming internally displaced families. Protecting children. Keeping life going.

One of them, Ms. Nadiia, was displaced herself, from Kharkiv. She lost everything. Today she runs a business growing eco cucumbers using modern European technologies.

Strength. Daily work.

They spoke with gratitude about EU support and programmes like ULEAD. But above all, they spoke with dignity.

Later, I met regional journalists. Their questions were sharp. About reforms. About EU accession. About what Ukraine must still do better.

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At the Carpathian National University, I met its female rector - and a room full of students. Curious. Demanding. Asking about their future in Europe, about competitiveness, accessibility, even global politics. Fifty young people. Fifty reasons to have faith in Ukraine’s future.

Today was full. Human. Alive.

I wish there were more days like this.

Because to endure a war like this, you need more than resilience.

You need blooming trees.

You need sunlight.

And you need people who remind you what you are fighting for.

And now back to my mobile home Ukrzaliznytsia for our trip back to Kyiv.

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