Pavlo Bozhko, head of the Krasnorichenske Village Military Administration, Luhansk Oblast, was among the members of the delegation and took part in the NOW conference organised by the U-LEAD with Europe Programme on 8–10 November in Brussels. According to him, the trip was beneficial in terms of adopting the best practices of European municipalities, as well as conveying information about the real situation in municipalities in the war context to the members of the European Parliament:
“Our participation in the Conference was an opportunity to join the European platform for sharing experiences, to speak up about the history of our municipality before the start of a full-scale war and to tell the story of our municipality today the life of people under daily shelling. We managed to hear about the practices of local self-government from colleagues representing both Ukrainian and European municipalities and talk with MEPs. Moreover, we negotiated cooperation with some of our communities,” he said.
According to Pavlo Bozhko, despite the partial temporary occupation, his municipality is the only one in the Luhansk Oblast that has de-occupied territories (four settlements), where people continue to live and some businesses even try to operate despite constant shelling:
“Despite the proximity to the front lines, our people live in populated areas, so one of our main tasks now is the delivery of the necessary humanitarian aid. “The municipality has relocated and is currently operating from the Lviv Oblast, but we firmly believe that we will return to our home region and start on recovery. Participation in the Conference in Brussels helped us to understand we need to work on recovery plans based on the EU rules and regulations because the future of Ukraine is undoubtedly there.”
Based on the results of the conference, the municipality plans to apply for membership in the European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA) to access practices and projects aimed at increasing the efficiency of local self-government and political participation of citizens, as well as at the development of local democracy.
Another European practice that the municipality plans to implement shortly is engaging young professionals:
“We will create a pool of young local politicians. We will develop training and educational programmes and invite active local professionals who care about the fate of their native region and who are ready to participate in its recovery, to return there when the security situation allows,” said the head.
He also stated that at the conference that the municipality had established cooperation with the municipality of Kryvyi Rih to address the problems of IDPs. Specifically, providing internally displaced persons from the Krasnorichenske municipality, who are currently staying in Kryvyi Rih and surrounding villages and towns, with medical, social and employment assistance.
Ihor Agibalov, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Luhansk Oblast, emphasised that despite the difficult situation in the de-occupied territories, the Krasnorichenske municipality was already thinking about the future recovery of the territories and needed help in planning for the future:
“The senior officials of the Krasnorichenske Village Military Administration are clearly aware of the need to develop recovery plans in accordance with EU rules and regulations. I am positive that this visit was not just an opportunity for them to inform our international partners of the real state of affairs in the territories affected by active hostilities or de-occupied territories, but also to understand the rules of local governance in accordance with EU regulations as well as to find as many partners as possible among EU municipalities to cooperate with. And U-LEAD helps them in this,” said Ihor Ahibalov.
Pavlo Bozhko summed up:
“We are very grateful to U-LEAD and its Regional Office in the Luhansk Oblast for the opportunity to participate in the Conference and for the continuous advisory and expert support for running our municipality in wartime. “At the moment, we are getting support from the Office team as we plan the recovery. We will soon start developing a recovery strategy, also with U-LEAD. Thank you for being here for us”.
