Ukrainian Covenant of Mayors signatories mark EU Mobility Week

In September 2026, eight Ukrainian Covenant of Mayors signatories held events for European Mobility Week: Bar (Vinnytsia region), Dubove (Zakarpattia region), Myrhorod (Poltava region), Poltava, Pulyn and Yarun (Zhytomyr region), Rohatyn (Ivano-Frankivsk region), and Solonytsivka (Kharkiv region).

This year’s campaign kept last year’s theme, Mobility for Everyone, and added a focus on fairnes s between generations. Organisers invited cities to look at how the transport and public spaces we shape today can meet the needs of people of all ages — while creating a more sustainable and inclusive future for generations to come.

For Covenant of Mayors signatories, transport is part of their work on energy efficiency and cutting CO2 emissions. The way people travel affects how much energy a community uses and how much CO2 it emits. In Ukraine, over 200 signatories have committed to cut CO2 emissions by 30 or 35 per cent by 2030/2050. Part of this work is helping residents, especially the younger generation, to change how they use energy and travel every day.

Poltava city council built its programme around this year’s theme and held events for several age groups. At the city’s Territorial Centre for Social Services, patrol police officers spoke to older residents about pedestrian safety. Participants learnt how to use public transport and the apps that show where it is in real time. Serhii Posternak, a doctor of physical and rehabilitation medicine, talked about the benefits of regular walking after the age of 60 and then led the Nordic walking session.

The city also ran a ‘Bike to work’ campaign, a cycling picnic and a guided city tour by public transport. Organisers of an open-air film night asked guests to come on foot, by bike or by scooter.

In Yarunska community, pupils and teachers from six schools joined the ‘Walk to school’ and ‘Eco-walk’ campaigns, morning exercises and road safety lessons. Some groups also collected litter along the streets and paths they use every day.

Fourth-year pupils from Pulyn Lyceum walked from their school’s local history museum to a nearby mill, after a lesson on the mill’s history. On 20 September, pupils from Dubivtsi Gymnasium No. 2 joined the ‘Drink Burkut – pedal on! 2.0’ bike ride to the Krasnoshurka spring, a nature and tourist site in Dubivska community.

Older residents in Poltava learnt Nordic walking from a doctor, went home with reflective wristbands and knew how to track public transport on their phones. In Yarunska community, pupils made their own reflectors to stay visible on the road after dark. Others revised traffic rules through games and drew pictures of a safe village. Children in Bar practised coordination and attention on wheels, years before they will use the roads on their own.

Myrhorod, a Covenant of Mayors signatory since 2010, linked the week to its long-term climate plans. The city council and the ecology department of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University held a film screening and discussion, ‘A city for life: eco-technologies of the future’, for pupils of the Linhvist Lyceum and university students. Participants discussed environmental problems with lecturers. They also learnt how the city plans to cut emissions and what its municipal energy plan and climate projects include.