Only in partnership with communities can we build the foundation for the resilience of the whole country. This was emphasised by Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine, Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, during a meeting with the leaders of Ukrainian communities. At the meeting, the leadership of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development and the Recovery Agency presented the main priorities for 2025. This is the third working meeting in this format. It brought together more than 80 participants from all over Ukraine.
Oleksii Kuleba called on communities to partner and cooperate systematically.
"The Ministry for Communities and Territories Development is open to every community, and we have to find solutions to problematic issues together. It is essential to focus on the needs of people, on the needs of the military and those who need support the most: families, children, internally displaced persons.
In the Internal Resilience Plan of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, one of the points was based on strong solidarity communities. After all, it is in unity that we will be able to withstand the enemy and achieve victory and a just peace.
The team of the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development is convinced that only in partnership with communities we can build the basis for the sustainability of the whole country," said Oleksii Kuleba, addressing the participants of the meeting.
Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, in turn, outlined the areas of regional policy the Ministry plans to focus on in 2025. Among those are as follows:
Regional development in times of war - forming an approach to working with the occupied and temporarily occupied territories, preparing strategies for the post-war transition period.
Digital solutions - continuing to work with the DREAM Digital Restoration Ecosystem and the Unified Geographic Information System for Regional Development.
Community cohesion - first of all, we are talking about scaling up and further development of the "Shoulder to Shoulder: Cohesive Communities" project.
Developing human potential, tools and resources for regional development - launching pilot development projects and strengthening international cooperation, in particular with European communities.
Working with recovery and development instruments - preparing for URC4 and implementing projects in communities through the Ministry's financial instruments.
"Since 31 December, the Ministry has been empowered with new functions, under which reintegration and work with internally displaced persons have become our tasks. Therefore, we now have to work in this direction. We will develop separate policies and strategies for the occupied and temporarily occupied territories, taking into account all the challenges that exist in these regions. We must already think about how we will work with them after the war. We also continue to work with the rear communities so that they can continue to grow steadily.
For us, people are at the centre of regional development. That is why it is crucial for us to hear about the problems of hromadas and understand how we, as the Ministry, can help," said Oleksii Riabikin.
Kostiantyn Kovalchuk, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, outlined the situation in the energy support sector and stressed the importance for communities to work towards energy independence.
“We urge communities to work more actively on opportunities to introduce distributed generation. I would also like to emphasise the importance of installing cogeneration facilities. The war is still going on, and we can all feel the negative effects of enemy attacks on our infrastructure. We must do everything we can locally to help stabilise the situation in such cases.
We maintain an ongoing dialogue with the regions, engage in active communication with donors, and emphasise the importance of supporting our energy sector. We stand ready to hear about the needs of communities in this sector in order to jointly seek solutions to current problems," said Kostiantyn Kovalchuk.
Serhii Sukhomlyn, Head of the State Agency for the Restoration and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, spoke about what the Agency will be working on in the near future and outlined the progress of existing projects. In particular, these include:
Construction of a biofuel CHP plant as part of a public-private partnership (PPP) project. The goal is to reduce dependence on natural gas, solve the problem of solid waste disposal, reduce landfill areas, and produce sustainable energy.
Restoration of damaged facilities and development of social housing.
Construction of water pipelines in Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kyiv regions and the city of Lubny.
"We try to focus our work on targeted solutions to community problems. That is why we are actively working on all existing projects. We understand the importance of fast and high-quality implementation.
We have started preparatory work on the implementation and development of CHP projects that will run on solid secondary fuel. We are currently selecting communities to participate in the project.
In particular, we expect to complete the water pipeline projects by the end of this year. In Mykolaiv alone, we plan to provide clean water to more than 500,000 people. In Odesa region - over 40,000, in Kyiv region - 72,000, in Lubny - over 30,000," told Serhii Sukhomlyn.