On July 10, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in Rome, Lithuania announced the allocation of 21 million euros for the restoration of educational infrastructure in Ukraine. This Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kaustutis Budris, and Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Yevhen Kudriavets.
According to the document, the funding will be directed towards creating safe, inclusive, and innovative learning environments for Ukrainian children. In particular, 17 million euros are planned to be spent on building a modern school hub in Zhytomyr as part of the “School of the Future for Ukraine” project, developed by Italian and Ukrainian architects.
“The project is the winner of an international architectural competition initiated by Lithuania in 2023. The construction of the school will be the first educational project in Ukraine created according to the principles of the New European Bauhaus (NEB). The ready-to-use design project will also be available to communities free of charge. It envisions building innovative schools equipped to operate both in peacetime and wartime,” the statement reads.
Additionally, the memorandum provides for the allocation of three million euros to install solar energy systems in schools and kindergartens. These systems will be installed in 14 educational institutions located in the Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Chernivtsi regions.
Another one million euros, provided by Lithuania jointly with Taiwan, will be directed to support the Catch-up and STEAM educational programs in the Odesa region.
“The project includes additional lessons for students who are behind the curriculum and STEAM classes for high-achieving students. The pilot project will be implemented at the recently opened underground school shelter in Molodizhne (Odesa region). The shelter at the lyceum was built with funding from the EU, Lithuania, and Ireland. Children from four schools in the Velykodolynska community will participate in the project,” the Ministry of Education and Science notes.
All projects implemented under this Memorandum will be coordinated by the Lithuanian Central Project Management Agency (CPVA).
The Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome (URC 2025) takes place on July 10–11. This is the fourth international meeting dedicated to supporting Ukraine’s recovery and reforms after the war. Previous conferences were held in Lugano, London, and Berlin.
URC 2025 is organized by the governments of Ukraine and Italy with the participation of the European Commission, international financial institutions, business representatives, civil society, and local authorities. The main goal of the conference is to mobilize political, financial, and technical support for Ukraine, including attracting private capital, supporting human potential, restoring communities and regions, and promoting Euro-integration reforms.