Local governments around the world are standing up for the people of Ukraine, by signing declarations of support, lighting up prominent landmarks to show solidarity, cancelling energy deals with Putin-linked supplier Gazprom, and revoking twinned city relationships with Russian cities.

As a local democracy charity, LGIU will always stand with those who support truth, transparency, and keeping decision-making power with local people and their democratically elected representatives.

In this edition, we highlight resources and perspectives from the LGIU team to help local government cope with the evolving impacts of this conflict.

We're also sharing an urgent call for skilled workers to help refugee resettlement in the UK and the opportunity to hear from Ukrainian academics and councillors in an important local peacebuilding discussion this Thursday. 

LGIU has gathered key resources for local government to provide information on the many ways that the sector can provide leadership or will need to adapt. We will continue to add resources as we know more.

As the rest of the world watches, waits and takes action, local government will feel the impact of Ukraine's invasion by Russian forces.

Councils will be dealing with the fallout from the war, including but not limited to the following:

Refugees and displaced persons
From supporting basic housing needs to helping refugees live productive, engaged lives during resettlement, councils play a vital role. We highlight key information we first brought together at the height of the Afghan refugee crisis last year and examples of effective global resettlement schemes.

Energy and cost of living
Russia is a major exporter of gas and oil. Global energy prices were already on the rise and, with post-pandemic supply chain issues and labour market disruption, many councils and families were feeling the squeeze. How can local government deal with this?

NATO member governments have been preparing and responding for months to cyber attacks launched directly by the Russian military and its virtual collaborators.

The bulk of cyber defence systems are focused on financial institutions, power plants, communication systems and other vital infrastructures. These cyber defence systems are supported by law enforcement and military personnel, as well as a broad community of companies with expertise in different aspects of cybersecurity, such as hackers, computer scientists, specialist lawyers, and insurers.

Although this high level of activation is reassuring, it may be bad news for local authorities, which might be left vulnerable to cybercrime. In essence, most local authorities will not be able to rely on the usual support to defend themselves against cyber attacks and are likely to be virtually on their own for some time to come.

Moreover, municipalities that are attacked may have trouble recording what they have lost and it is doubtful that cybercrime insurers will be able to respond quickly to requests from all insured local governments. The best strategy now is to rapidly increase all prevention mechanisms and protocols.

So, which cybersecurity measures should councils prioritise?