On June 27, the first civil society summit of the OPORA Civil Network "Security Guarantees for Ukrainian Democracy in Times of War" was held in Kyiv. The summit was designed to become a professional platform for high-level political dialogue on the future of Ukrainian democracy in war conditions and effective means for achieving victory.

The United States of America will continue to support Ukraine in the implementation of reforms and strengthening its democratic institutions. This was stated by US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on June 27 during the civil society summit "Security Guarantees for Ukrainian Democracy in Times of War", organized by OPORA.

Now Ukrainians are forced to live in a paradigm of war, but our democratic values, for which Ukrainian civil society fought during all the years of the restoration of independence, remain unchanged. This was stated by the Chair of the Board at Civil Network OPORA Olga Aivazovska during the public summit "Security guarantees for Ukrainian democracy in times of war", which was held for the first time in Kyiv on June 27. We present the full-text version of her speech below.

On June 27, the first civil society summit “Security Guarantees for Ukrainian Democracy in Times of War” was organized by Civil Network OPORA in Kyiv. It was designed to become a professional platform for high-level political dialogue about the future of Ukrainian democracy in war conditions and effective means for victory.

In the first 5 months of 2024, Ukraine concluded 17 security agreements with partner countries, designed for 10 years. All of them lead to the strategic goal of Ukraine's accession to NATO. The first state to conclude an appropriate document with Ukraine was the United Kingdom, and the most recent power to have done it is the United States. So far, the Verkhovna Rada has not ratified any of the agreements, and it remains unknown whether they will be ratified at all. 

Lawyers of the Civil Network OPORA have produced an analysis of the provisions of draft laws amending the Electoral Code of Ukraine to combat sexism in electoral processes and ensure balanced representation of women and men in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and local councils.

Why did official Tbilisi resort to adopting the scandalous foreign agents law before the parliamentary elections, and will the civil society representatives obey it? How does society react to steps that actually destroy Georgia's European perspective? And is the current government of Georgia afraid of sanctions from Western countries? Watch more in this issue of “Power of Choice”

Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains the legitimate head of state and will continue to exercise his powers until the newly elected President of Ukraine assumes office. On the other hand, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine can become the acting head of state only in the case of early termination of presidential powers.