On April 21, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna and UN Crisis Coordinator for Ukraine, Assistant Secretary-General Amin Awad signed the founding documents for the launch of the National Coordination Platform - Ukraine.

The platform is designed ti strengthen coordination between the Government of Ukraine and the United Nations on providing humanitarian assistance, as well as addressing other pressing issues.

Representatives of ministries and agencies of the UN system took part in the first meeting of the National Coordination Platform.

"This mechanism will allow us to avoid duplication of effort because today Ukraine receives support from various countries and organizations that seek to help our country," said Olha Stefanishyna. "We also expect an increase in humanitarian aid from the UN, as more than 13 million citizens need urgent humanitarian aid across the country. In addition, russia's armed aggression continues and the need for humanitarian aid will only grow. We count that the constant contact between the UN and the Government will enable us to better adjust our activities."

During the meeting, representatives of Ukrainian ministries and the UN system discussed coordination between national authorities and international organizations on demining of the de-occupied territories of Ukraine. Nearly 300,000 square kilometers of territory may require humanitarian demining.

"People fleeing the fighting are starting to return to their hometowns. Therefore, demining of liberated territories should remain a priority. The scale of the work is absolutely unprecedented. We are relying on the UN's significant experience in this matter and we expect that its specialists will work side by side with our specialists," said Olha Stefanishyna.

During the meeting, the coordination platform’s members paid special attention to the issues of housing and reconstruction of damaged facilities. Representatives of the Government informed about the current work in this direction (the Prykhystok [Shelter] program and mobile towns). The UN told about the mobilization of resources for the repair of damaged buildings.