IDPs, residents of occupied territories, infrastructure protection, drones discussed on GLOBSEC 2026
The protection and restoration of Ukrainian infrastructure, the health and rehabilitation of displaced persons and Ukrainian citizens who lived in temporarily occupied territories, as well as the specifics of using drones in the Russian-Ukrainian war, were discussed on Thursday, the first day of the leading security forum GLOBSEC, which is taking place in Prague.
As Head of the Open Policy Foundation and a participant in the conference Ihor Zhdanov told Interfax-Ukraine, the first half of the day included a panel discussion titled "Safeguarding Ukraine's Future: Caring for the Next Generation."
During the event, participants noted that almost 2 million young Ukrainians had become displaced persons, 1.5 million remained in temporarily occupied territories, and about 700,000 had been forcibly deported to Russia. Therefore, issues of their mental and physical health and rehabilitation are of primary importance for the country's future.
From discussing humanitarian issues, participants in the security forum moved on to a discussion about the protection and restoration of critical infrastructure. At the event "Steel Modernization: How Ukraine Strengthens Western Equipment," organized by Rinat Akhmetov's Steel Front foundation, experts noted that industrial capacity now directly affects survival on the battlefield, while no NATO country yet has the system of rapid feedback between frontline commanders and heavy industry that has been created in Ukraine.
The experience of drone warfare was also in the focus of the expert community. Participants in the roundtable discussion "Drones, Detection, Defense: Cooperation in a New Era of Security" noted that, as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war, drones had moved to the top of the European security agenda.
GLOBSEC is a think tank in Central Europe and the organizer of the annual Bratislava Forum, which has been held in Prague since 2024. In 2025, it took place on June 12-14 and was attended, in particular, by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko and Adviser to the Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Daria Zarivna.