Kyiv mayor: "Resilience through digitalisation"

"The people of Ukraine have had to redefine resiliency over the last nine months," said Michael Lake, founder and CEO of Leading Cities, at the Smart City Expo World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Spain, today.

He was commenting on an inspirational speech from Vitaliy Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

Klitschko was talking about "resilience through digitalisation" in his home city, explaining how the Kyiv Digital app - originally intended primarily as a public transit information and payment source was now used for such vital matters as "the schedule of evacuation runs" from the city as it came under attack from Russian missiles.

He outlined the importance of "connecting WiFi in bomb shelters" and using the app to report "the destruction of infrastructure".

Covid-19 had been a huge challenge, Klitschko said: "But we never expected a much bigger challenge."

"It is important to communicate with people," he added, "to give hope".

"Failure is not an option for our country."