Svitlana Hrynchuk, Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine, and Carlo Formosa, Ambassador of the Republic of Italy, discussed current areas of cooperation between Ukraine and Italy in the field of environmental protection and climate change. Italy has a number of technological developments that are extremely interesting for us.

The parties focused on the topic of environmental monitoring and touched upon the recent case of air pollution in the capital due to peat burning.

"Air monitoring is essential, both for such emergencies and for documenting russian acts of ecocide on the territory of Ukraine. Italian monitoring technologies are considered to be among the best in the European Union. In 2023, our ministries signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in a number of environmental areas. There are already agreements within the document, so we are looking forward to the practical results of negotiations on the establishment of Italian reference laboratories for air quality monitoring in Ukraine," said Svitlana Hrynchuk.

Svitlana Hrynchuk and Carlo Formosa also discussed Italian practices in waste management, in particular plastic. Ambassador Carlo Formosa spoke about the success of investments in Italian factories producing eco-friendly packaging. This experience is relevant for Ukraine at the stage of implementing waste management reform.

"Italy is one of Ukraine's strongest partners in the fight against russian armed aggression, so Ukraine's environmental agenda in the international arena has not been ignored. Today, it is important to expand the geography of support for Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Peace Formula and its Point 8 on environmental safety," Svitlana Hrynchuk emphasised.

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources and the Italian Ambassador exchanged views on the upcoming Ukraine Recovery Conference 2025. ‘Italy is a strong ally on this path, in particular in the area of post-war green recovery, so we look forward to strengthening our initiatives within #URC2025.

"I thank Ambassador Carlo Formosa for a fruitful conversation. I hope that our meeting will soon be followed up in practice," summed up Svitlana Hrynchuk.