From the Seven Lugano Principles to Tallinn: A Timeline of the Ukraine Recovery Conference

On June 25 and 26, 2026, the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) was held in the Polish port city of Gdańsk. It was co-hosted by the governments of Poland and Ukraine, and at the closing ceremony the role passed to the next host, Estonia. According to Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the next conference will be held in Tallinn on January 28 and 29, 2027.

This conference has been held every year since 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Its predecessor, however, was a conference under a different name that began in 2017. Drawing on each conference’s outcome document, this article looks at the host cities and dates, the seven principles agreed at the first conference, the theme of each conference, and how to read the amounts announced.

From a Reform Conference to a Recovery Conference

Old Name “Ukraine Reform Conference,” Current Name “Ukraine Recovery Conference”

The abbreviation URC originally stood for the “Ukraine Reform Conference.” From London in 2017, it was held on a rotating basis in Copenhagen (2018), Toronto (2019), and Vilnius (2021), as a forum where Ukraine set out its progress on reform and discussed the next challenges.

The 2022 conference in Lugano had been in preparation as the fifth reform conference. According to the conference’s official website, in response to the full-scale invasion of February 24, 2022, Switzerland and Ukraine decided to go ahead with the conference but changed its theme to recovery and renamed it the “Ukraine Recovery Conference.” The abbreviation URC was kept unchanged. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs translates the Lugano conference as the “International Conference on Ukraine’s Recovery” (ウクライナの復興に関する国際会議) and the conferences from 2023 onward as the “Ukraine Recovery Conference” (ウクライナ復興会議).

Timeline: Host Cities and Co-Hosting Countries

How Many Conferences Is This, Counted?

How the conferences are numbered depends on whether the reform conferences are included. The conference’s official website described the Lugano conference as the “5th” when counted from the reform conferences. The 2025 Rome conference, on the other hand, was called the “fourth Ukraine Recovery Conference,” and Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs counts the Gdańsk conference as the “fifth” and the Tallinn conference as the “sixth” recovery conference. Counted as recovery conferences, Lugano is the first and Tallinn in 2027 is the sixth.

The Seven Principles Agreed in Lugano

The 2022 Lugano Declaration is a document drawn up with the participation of representatives of 41 countries and the Council of Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the OECD. Japan is among the participating countries. The declaration describes itself as “the present political, legally non-binding, document” and endorsed the accompanying “Lugano Principles” as guidance for how to carry out recovery.

• Partnership: Recovery is led by Ukraine and carried out in cooperation with international partners
• Reform focus: Recovery accelerates and deepens Ukraine’s reforms along its European path
• Transparency, accountability, and the rule of law: Recovery is transparent and accountable to the people of Ukraine, and eliminates corruption
• Democratic participation: A whole-of-society effort based on residents, including displaced people and returnees, local self-government, and decentralization
• Multi-stakeholder engagement: Encourages the cooperation of the private sector, civil society, academia and research institutions, and local government
• Gender equality and inclusion: Leaves no one behind and reduces disparities
• Sustainability: Rebuilds in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement, including a green transition

The declaration closes by welcoming the offer of the United Kingdom to host the next conference. The outcome documents for 2023 through 2025 take the form of a “co-chairs’ statement” issued by the two co-hosting governments.

The Theme of Each Conference

London (2023): The co-chairs’ statement of the UK and Ukraine states that ministers and business representatives from 59 countries gathered, and made private-sector-led recovery a central pillar. It states that a war-risk insurance framework, the London Conference War Risk Insurance Framework, was launched, and that nearly 500 businesses from 42 countries signed the “Ukraine Business Compact” to cooperate in recovery.

Berlin (2024): The slogan was “United in Defence. United in Recovery. Stronger together.” The statement says that over 3,400 participants held discussions across four dimensions—business, human, local and regional, and EU—and describes it as the first conference held in an EU member state since Ukraine became an EU candidate country. The SME Resilience Alliance, an international framework to support small and medium-sized enterprises, was also launched here.

Rome (2025): The statement of Italy and Ukraine says this was the largest conference yet, with about 7,000 participants, and carried over Berlin’s four dimensions. It cites President Zelensky’s call to form a “Coalition for Ukraine’s Recovery,” and the creation of an equity fund by the European Commission—through the European Investment Bank—together with Italy, France, Germany, and Poland, and also devotes sections to cultural heritage and cooperation in science and research.

Gdańsk (2026): According to the announcement of Poland’s Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy, more than 7,500 participants, 67 official delegations, and representatives of 38 international organizations gathered. The conference’s official website lists local and regional issues, the EU, and security, among others, as the conference’s dimensions. As of September 2026, no co-chairs’ statement for the Gdańsk conference has been found.

How to Read the Amounts Announced

The Amounts Cannot Simply Be Added Together

A large amount is announced at the end of each conference. But what each amount actually counts differs from conference to conference.

Adding up the amounts in this table does not give the total amount of money that has reached Ukraine. Commitments, loans, guarantees, contracts between businesses, and memorandums are all mixed together, and the currencies differ too. The same funding is sometimes counted in more than one conference, as with part of the EU framework announced in London, which also appears in the Berlin amount. The difference between amounts promised and amounts actually disbursed is covered in our article on what has actually finished when “recovery has progressed” is announced, and estimates of the amount recovery requires are covered in our article on recovery cost estimates.

Japan’s Participation

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan was represented by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Takako Suzuki in Lugano, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi in London, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoichi Fukazawa in Berlin, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Hisayuki Fujii in Rome, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ayano Kunimitsu in Gdańsk. The London co-chairs’ statement mentions Japan’s contribution ($23 million) to a trust fund at the World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). This fund and political risk insurance are covered in our article on political risk insurance. The “Japan-Ukraine Conference for Promotion of Economic Recovery and Development,” held in Tokyo in February 2024, is a separate conference from this series, and is followed up in our article on what came after it.

Next: Tallinn

According to Estonia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the foreign ministers of Estonia and Ukraine signed a memorandum in October 2025 to hold the 2027 conference in Estonia. Foreign Minister Tsahkna, who took over the role at the Gdańsk closing ceremony, stated on July 7, 2026, that the conference would be held in Tallinn on January 28 and 29, 2027. Since previous conferences have been held in June or July, this will be a change in timing.