‘Ukraine Recovery Conference’ in Poland: Reconstructing Ukraine’s media finally takes centre stage

Media reconstruction has made its way onto the main agenda of the URC, the annual international conference bringing together governments, international financial institutions, businesses, local authorities, and civil society organisations to coordinate support for Ukraine's reconstruction. For the first time since its launch in 2022, following the large-scale Russian invasion, the event - organised this year by Ukraine and Poland - featured two discussions dedicated to the role of journalism in the country's reconstruction.

The first, "Recovery Under Attack: Safeguarding Trust, Media, and Transparency against Russia's Cognitive Warfare", focused on the challenges posed by Russian disinformation and the response of the independent press. Alongside RSF, the session brought together several political figures, including the Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian policy of Ukraine - Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Tetyana Berezhna, and the MP chairing the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on Russian crimes against the media in Ukraine, Yevheniia Kravchuk, as well as the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research and Start-ups, Ekaterina Zaharieva, highlighting the recognition of this issue.

This session was followed by a second round-table discussion organised by RSF with its Ukrainian partners - the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), Recovery Window and DII-Ukraine - focusing on the challenges facing the Ukrainian media after more than four years of all-out war waged by Russia. Attended by representatives from UNESCO, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communication, and Taavi Linnamäe, a representative of EstDev - Estonia's government agency for cooperation and humanitarian aid, which will host the next Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2027 - it placed independent journalism at the heart of the issues of transparency, accountability and Ukraine's integration into the European Union (EU). Without independent media - both national and local - there can be no independent monitoring of reconstruction, no scrutiny of public action, nor documentation of Russian war crimes.

Considerable needs

This recognition comes at a time when the country's media landscape is facing an unprecedented crisis. According to RSF's Ukrainian partner organisation, the IMI, at least 337 media outlets have ceased operations since 2022. They face daily bombardments and disinformation campaigns by the Kremlin, and their financial needs are considerable. A study conducted by RSF and the media-specialised think tank The Fix in 2024 estimated these needs at $96 million over three years, even before the suspension of US international aid in January 2025, which has further weakened the sector.

To address these challenges, RSF and eight Ukrainian media organisations - the IMI, the Lviv Media Forum (LMF), the Media Development Foundation (MDF), DII-Ukraine, Recovery Window, Detector Media, the Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine (AIRPU) and Suspilne - have launched the International Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukrainian Media (IFRUM). It aims to identify innovative funding strategies for the sector. In 2026, 22 Ukrainian media organisations received funding via an initial grant provided by RSF through the EU delegation.

Ukraine ranks 55th in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by RSF in 2026.