Head of state holds first meeting of Congress of Local and Regional Authorities during Russian invasion

With the participation of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a meeting of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities was held to discuss the functioning of the state during the war. The event was held as a video conference.

The President said that the first meeting of the Congress during Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine took place today.

The audience observed a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of all citizens who

gave their lives for the homeland.

The participants of the event discussed the Plan of postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as the creation of comfortable living conditions for all those who were forced to leave their homes due to the war. In particular, it was a question of providing migrants with housing.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Executive Secretary of the Presidium of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, spoke about the task of creating a database of needs of all settlements of Ukraine and developing a concept for them, taking into account the needs of communities. To this end, 14 infrastructure clusters have been created that need to be rebuilt or upgraded. Cities and regions are invited to provide comprehensive information on relevant needs by early May.

According to Tymoshenko, today the state has to give almost 600,000 apartments to provide housing for displaced persons. Given the scale of the needs, the approach of building from scratch was chosen, as well as the purchase of ready-made apartments from developers.

The President said that IDPs should be provided with comfortable temporary housing for the period they need. He also called for all necessary amendments to the regulations so that new housing in Ukraine must be built with comfortable bomb shelters, and the old housing stock should be equipped in accordance with the needs of public safety.

Zelenskyy also set a task to prepare plans for the reconstruction of cities, towns and communities affected by the Russian invasion.

"There will be a combination of finance, specialists and technology, which will simply be passed on to us by our partners. We need a clear ambitious plan to engage them in this project, so that they give us their architects, and we connect them with our specialists," the President said, urging not to wait for the end of the war.

Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov told the meeting participants that the damage caused to the infrastructure as a result of the war reached almost $90 billion. First of all, this is railway, road and bridge infrastructure. He informed about the pace of road rehabilitation and reconstruction of bridges in the liberated territories and said that the ambitious goal is to rebuild the infrastructure in one or two years.

According to Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov, a new regional development strategy is already being shaped in the country. He said that during the reconstruction of the country, all the best world practices of urban development will be applied, taking into account the needs of energy efficiency, the availability of modern supply systems, security and inclusiveness.

In addition, the Congress considered the assistance that the central government of Ukraine can provide to the temporarily occupied communities.

In particular, Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov spoke about the experience in providing all necessary payments and preventing the humanitarian crisis in the city.

Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko briefed on measures for stable and continuous functioning of the budget sphere and implementation of the government's commitments, financial support of the population. He also spoke about raising funds from international partners and selling war bonds.

In addition, the participants discussed the interaction of law enforcement agencies and local authorities during martial law.

Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denys Monastyrsky reported on measures to ensure compliance with curfew conditions, evacuation of the population, demining of territories and dismantling of the debris appeared due to hostilities.

Members of the Congress also heard information on the development of the territorial defense system, the systematization of the activities of voluntary formations of territorial communities.

Following the discussion, the President instructed the Interior Minister together with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny and Commander of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces Yuriy Halushkin to hold a meeting to regulate weapons handling in non-combat areas.