On 27 November 2025, the first meeting of the Steering Board of the Civil Protection Shelter Coalition took place with the participation of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Svyrydenko, and the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development of Finland, Ville Tavio.

Under the leadership of Ukraine and Finland, the Coalition is launching its practical work on constructing civil protection shelters in Ukraine.

The Ministries of Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Finland, under the patronage of the Prime Ministers of our countries, have carried out tremendous work to launch the Coalition, which is designed to protect Ukrainians who suffer daily from Russia’s air terror attacks.
We highly appreciate the first contribution to the Coalition from its participants amounting to EUR 22 million, half of which (EUR 11 million) was provided by Finland. We are confident that other countries will join the initial participants — Finland, Lithuania, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, and the EU. Switzerland has already expressed such an intention.

We are grateful to the Government, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of the Interior of Finland for the practical launch of the Civil Protection Shelter Coalition!