The purpose of the trip was to visit the State Boarder Guard Service in Kyiv to sign a Memorandum of Understanding. The memorandum expresses stronger and deeper cooperation and clarifies cooperation at operational level between the Swedish and Ukrainian coast guard authorities. A further purpose was to make our long-term commitment clearer and stronger, and to learn from the experiences of our Ukrainian colleagues.

The Swedish and Ukrainian coast guard authorities have much in common. In the future, an important part of the Coast Guard's work will be structured feedback of experience. This applies not least to their operational experience from the ongoing war and to how they handle grey-zone problems in the maritime domain. The Coast Guard took away many lessons from the talks.

– We will continue to support Ukraine and the Maritime Guard, in the long term and with endurance. Their fight is ours. We will honour them by making use of their very dearly bought experience as we continue to build our capability and develop our operations, says Director-General Lena Lindgren Schelin.

Appreciation for the Coast Guard's commitment and equipment
Everyone the delegation met during the visit expressed their gratitude for the support that Sweden and the Coast Guard give to Ukraine. They also spoke of the enormous strength that comes from the Swedish Coast Guard working on site.

During the visit to the Maritime Guard, they had lined up a couple of the vehicles donated by the Coast Guard on the quay. They had also set up an exhibition on the vessel with diving and other equipment donated by the agency.

– Our Ukrainian partners express great appreciation for the material support we are able to donate and for the training we make possible for their staff. Another central part of our commitment is the seminars and training courses that we carry out in close cooperation with representatives from the European Union Advisory Mission Ukraine (EUAM) and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Myndigheten för civilt försvar), says Lena Lindgren Schelin.

The efforts aim to strengthen the institutional and operational capacity of the authorities in line with European norms and standards, as part of Ukraine's continued move closer to the EU.

Grief for fallen colleagues made a deep impression
We receive clear feedback that our support makes a real difference. Together with the openness and knowledge sharing we meet from the Ukrainian side, this makes the work both meaningful and professionally developing.

The greatest impression was made at the Maritime Guard in Odessa, where the visit began, as every day since 2015, with a "Paying tribute to the fallen border guard sailors", a ceremony in honour of fallen colleagues. It made a deep impression.

– What has really stayed with me is the grief in the eyes of those who are still here and still fighting. Day after day. Night after night. Year after year. Tirelessly. And at the same time there is room for great warmth, humour, joy and laughter, which stands in stark contrast to the unimaginable suffering the country is subjected to. These people deserve all our respect, concludes Lena Lindgren Schelin.