“We – local and regional politicians – have been doing our best to speak up and to support Ukraine with all means we have. Our members were quick to mobilize resources, organise humanitarian aid collection centres, match offers of help from individuals and organisations with the needs on the ground. We made donations, sent humanitarian aid trucks to Ukraine, welcomed refugees and brought together manifestations of support.” Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Gdansk, Chair of the Working Group made these remarks during a meeting of the Working Group meeting taking place at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) in Brussels.
Reporting on her visit to Lviv, Dulkiewicz who is the Mayor of Gdansk said “In Lviv we visited hospitals and met the mayor Andriy Sadovyi who is constrained to work from the basement. Lviv needs concrete action on the ground such as public transport buses and I appeal other cities to join Gdansk in offering this assistance.”
Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs thanked cities and regions for their work. “I am proud of cities and regions. You are the leaders organising the action on ground. Its impressive to see the wave of solidarity in practice. The challenges are huge but we must be proud of what we have achieved so far.”
Druing the meeting, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President of the CoR launched an Information and Support Platform for local and regional leaders. He said “This is a sign of concrete help that is facilitated by the CoR offering up to date information on EU funds and rights. The info-support hub matches requests and offers for aid: cities and regions sheltering refugees can submit their specific needs and find help from other European regions or cities.”
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine and supporting refugees
Discussing the need of humanitarian aid to support refugees, Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw said that Warsaw welcomed 300,000 refugees and the population of the city went up by 15%. He stated “As Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) we are doing everything we can to help through healthcare, psychological support, social protection and education. We are sending to Ukraine humanitarian aid including medical supplies, food and hygiene products.” Trzaskowski appealed for a voluntary relocation system, for UN agencies and EU agencies to work in Poland as well as direct funding for LRAs to respond to the crisis.
Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca said “In Romania, we have 100,000 refugees including 24,000 children to whom we provided the possibility to attend school and continue their education in Ukrainian. We also created a humanitarian hub where we centralized aid and sent 100 trucks from across Europe including Italy, France and Romania”.
Rastislav Trnka, Chairman of Košice Self-Governing Region said that Košice has become one of the first safe places for Ukrainians fleeing the disaster. He added “No matter the challenges, we will stand with Ukraine and try to help the refugees as much as we can. But to sustain our efforts, we need strong support from our national partners and you, our European partners.”
Debate on the current political context and EU response
Addressing the CoR Working Group on Ukraine, MEP Michael Gahler, the European Parliament’s Standing Rapporteur on Ukraine spoke on the importance of unity in approaching the crisis. “I am glad to see unity. Unity in saying who is the aggressor, unity in imposing sanctions and in accepting refuges. We are in good shape and Putin did not believe that we would stand together against his actions.” He added “We are facing a geopolitical fight. This is not about Ukraine, but about our global standing as democracies. This is a clear position against the way Putin governs and in favour of the European way of life”.
Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv, Ukraine and Head of the Association of Ukrainian Cities said that sanctions are effective. He added “Every cent sent to Russia is invested in the army. Money sent to Russia has blood on it. We want a clear position. It is not enough to say we are against the war while still doing business with Russia.” Referring to the impact of the war on democracy, Klitschko said “We are defending EU principles. We want to be part of the European family. We are defending our families as we do not want to be under an authoritarian regime where there are no human rights and no press freedom.”
Olgierd Geblewicz, EPP-CoR President said that this war is taking place because Ukraine wanted to follow the European democratic path. “This is a war against all of us. We believe that we have to focus on solidarity and impose real sanctions against Russia.” Geblewicz also stressed the need to become independent from Russian supplies and resources.