Today, July 19, there took place a meeting of the Organizing Committee on the preparation and celebration of the 26th anniversary of Ukraine's Independence under the chairmanship of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko.

"We regrettably continue to celebrate the Independence Day of Ukraine amid external aggression and, actually, the struggle for our independence and territorial integrity is underway. At the same time, we can not but emphasize that the situation inside the country is changing toward improvement. A number of systemic reforms have been implemented, and in the last year we have made significant progress in our European integration processes, Ukraine has obtained a visa-free regime with the countries of the European Union. Therefore, certainly, we have tremendous achievements", said Pavlo Rozenko in his opening statement.

"It’s worth remembering that in the coming days we start celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Ukrainian Revolution. Hence, it stands to reason that the events dedicated to marking the 26th anniversary of independence will be entwined with episodes that took place in 1917-1919", explained the Vice Prime Minister.

The participants discussed a draft Action Plan prepared by the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine designed to implement measures to ensure preparation to commemorative events and heard reports of representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Information Policy and the Kyiv City Administration on the implementation of the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On the Celebration of the 26th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence."

Pavlo Rozenko instructed the members of the Organizing Committee in two-days’ term to develop proposals for the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine to the Action Plan and submit the agreed draft for the next meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.