The Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze took part in the opening of the Third International Conference on Civil-Military Cooperation titled "Protection of the Civilian Population in Armed Conflicts."

"Given that forms and methods of conducting a military conflict are changed, hybrid methods of warfare are activated, wide involvement in the conflict zone, along with governmental, of non-governmental structures, forces both the Government and society to seek new ways of protecting the civilian population", said the Vice Prime Minister. According to her, Russian aggression has revealed a number of problematic issues, such as a lack of systemic and coordinated actions of state authorities, in particular, on the protection of civilians in the conflict zone.

"The objective for the authorities remains to develop or amend existing legislation, other regulatory documents that will enable the country to adequately respond to issues of preventing, reducing and compensating for damage to civilian population", stressed Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze. One of the steps in this direction was the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On the peculiarities of State policy on ensuring Ukraine's State sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions". The law outlines the main areas of protection of the rights and freedoms of the civilian population in the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but they are not exhaustive. Therefore, according to the Vice Prime Minister, there is a need to improve the state policy on the protection of civilians during armed conflicts.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze informed that in the context of Ukraine's aspirations to obtain membership of the North Atlantic Alliance, there had been launched an active study of the NATO Policy for the Protection of Civilians, which was approved at the NATO Summit in Warsaw in July 2016. This document is in fact a result of decades of the Alliance-led operations and was introduced as the outcome of important lessons learned on the protection of civillians during the NATO-led mission International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. "The provisions of this document apply not only during armed conflicts, but also during border protection, crisis management operations, and other NATO-led activities", said the Vice Prime Minister.

About 200 representatives of governments and local governments, leading military experts in the sphere of civil-military cooperation, international (including non-governmental) humanitarian organizations take part in the International Conference, which will last in the capital for two days. The event is aimed at development of proposals for improving the state policy on the protection of civilians during armed conflicts.