At the end of May 2026, Ukrainian Cosmopolis, an independent civic-intellectual collective based in Odesa, organized the international forum “Recovery After Total War,” with Ukrainian and foreign speakers. Kyiv Post has summarized the main thesis, presented in the two days of debate. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Gennady Druzenko, volunteer serviceman, founder of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PDMSh) and Center for Constitutional Design Every war comes to an end, but no war passes without leaving scars. And long wars are dangerous because they fundamentally change both sides. When I speak of Ukrainians, I mean a political nation, regardless of ethnic origin, religion, language, or cultural background. Everyone who has chosen to be Ukrainian – because I deeply believe that Ukraine is, above all, a choice. People have often become Ukrainians by choice. In the Sheptytsky family, for example, one brother considered himself Polish and the other Ukrainian, because Ukrainian identity is, above all – at least for me – a moral choice. I unfortunately see that the only thing uniting Ukrainians today is that they do not want to become Russians. But it is also an enormous danger. When the war ends and we emerge from it, the external pressure that has consolidated us will disappear, and we will find ourselves facing a profound question.