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apologies to the group, zoom does not seem to like me and i cannot get back in just now!

I wanted to say that the long term vision of discouraging nationalist identity politics is a long term strategy. In the moment when someone is experiencing violent conflict and war they are often only interested in their situation and the survival of their country.

It is possible to bring conflicting sides together and for them to learn and make friends with each other but when something happens - broken ceasefire, renewed hostilities, a provocative action by one Govt. or the other, a violent protest, etc. suddenly the same people who got to know each other last week and spent time learning about conflict transformation and peace are now attacking each other online through social media.

Are we setting them up to fail?

At the moment on training courses the Ukrainian participants i have come across refuse to attend anything if russians or belorussians are present! For them at this time there is no communicating with the other side. They dont want to talk about peace, they want arms and tanks so they can defend themselves. One participant recently held up a banner that stated "pacifism is a form of fascism".

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- Our group has different degrees of connections on a personal and professional level depending on historical, geographical and professional backgrounds.
- Find ways to talk about conflict/conflict zones more generally, without triggering people on a personal level - have good methods to discuss the topic without focusing solely on the current countries involved in the conflict.
- Mental health of trainers also needs to be given attention, and the community can be a source of peer support and learning.
- The community is fundamental for sharing experiences, tools, good practices and practical knowledge.
- To be less reactive and more strategic, we need to build structures and invest in lifelong education for peace/reconciliation/tolerance.

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- We need to practice listening for what's really important /
what matters to people?

- We need to acknowledge that what's going on is tragic, shouldn't happen and practice psychological strength to face it.

- We need to learn about reality of others in Ukraine and Russia. We need to create more bridges to people there.

- Become more conscious about the political aspect of our work.

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how to communicate that I stand with Ukrainian people but I do not stand with the “glory to Ukraine - glory to our soldiers” rhetoric

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Missing some insights from Ukrainian and Russian collagues - on what they think that needs to be done and how we can support peace-building

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but at the same time not trendy or "sexy". Using the fact that people are touched (peace is not granted) talk and share without assuming we find a "solution" or sometimes not even a common ground

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Maybe have some supportive questions to hold the space and encourage the people/participants to think broadly

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Seeing the trends of growing divisions in society and the influence of propaganda, how could we as youth workers do more to prevent the bad situation turning into even a bigger disaster (the war spreading...)