During the two years of its full-scale invasion, Russia has been constantly causing destruction in Ukraine and creating new challenges that require immediate response, coherent coordination of central and local authorities, and clear communication. These tasks are performed by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President and the "Side by Side" project. This was stated by Oleksiy Kuleba, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, during his participation in the forum "Ukraine. Year 2024".
After the de-occupation of Kherson region last year, the "Side by Side" project was established to restore damaged homes. According to Oleksiy Kuleba, 12 regions of Ukraine have taken patronage of individual communities in Kherson region and helped people rebuild their homes.
"The regions independently allocated resources and specialists and worked throughout the summer and fall of 2023 to ensure that more than a thousand families in Kherson region could spend the winter in normal conditions. Already in 2024, in addition to Kherson region, we will scale up to other regions that need help," said the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office.
In addition, the "Side by Side" project envisages not only reconstruction, but also coordination of assistance provision by the authorities, utilities, volunteers and all concerned people after shelling in any Ukrainian populated area, after the Kakhovka HPP dam was blown up, etc.
"This is when all regional and city military administrations and communities have been constantly sending anti-tank weapons to hot spots for two years. This is when brigades from Ternopil and Lviv regions build fortifications in Sumy region. Brigades from Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi regions build fortifications in Donetsk region. This is a big daily work that is not always visible, but it is very necessary and tangible in those communities where active hostilities are taking place," emphasized Oleksiy Kuleba.
The "Side by Side" initiative also includes projects to help children, including the President's initiative "Side by Side – School Sports Leagues", which currently involves more than 300,000 children in team sports competitions.
"I am convinced that in 2024 the word 'Side by Side' will become a new identifier of Ukrainians. A word by which we will be recognized wherever we are. Like the word "palianytsia" used to be, and it was this word that helped us to find out who was our friend and who was our enemy. Wherever we are, we are side by side," he added.
The Deputy Head of the Presidential Office also recalled that on February 25, 2021, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities was established as a platform for interaction and communication between all government officials, and in the context of a full-scale war, this communication has demonstrated its effectiveness.
"In 2023, we have completely revised and changed our approach to the Congress. For us, it is very important to hold meetings in the regions so that every village chief, head of a territorial community can communicate with government representatives, heads of regional administrations, and various branches of government. We held more than 30 such meetings in 2023 alone," he said.
According to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, such meetings address various issues, both local and national, including the protection of critical infrastructure. Thanks to the communication within the Congress, additional sapper teams were created to demine the territories as fast as possible, modular heating boilers were set up in Kharkiv and neighboring regions, thousands of children were provided with computers with the assistance of international partners, etc.
"At the end of March, we are announcing the National Congress. This will be a new format, where we will add even more interactivity and the opportunity to ask questions. Another task set by the President, which we are implementing within the framework of the Congress, is patronage between Ukrainian and European municipalities or countries. Today, there are Regional Offices for International Cooperation in each region, which are actually the entry point for international partners to understand the life of the regions," said Oleksiy Kuleba.
According to him, such offices accumulate all the information about the specific needs of communities and serve as coordination platforms for cooperation with partners.
"In fact, the offices are a bridge between the partners' desire to help Ukraine and the real needs and results. We have successful examples of cooperation between Denmark and Mykolaiv region, between Estonia, the Baltic states and Zhytomyr region, between Chernihiv region and France. Just yesterday, several decisions were announced regarding Italy's patronage of Odesa region and Belgium's patronage of Kharkiv region," the Deputy Head of the Presidential Office noted.
He believes that such cooperation is an integration of Ukrainian society into the European Union, as well as an opportunity to share unique Ukrainian experience and technologies with the EU.