“Local governments around the world must join their efforts and demand unanimously that politicians in each country take tough decisions that would help stop Russian aggression, and bring punishments for the war crimes that are being committed in Ukraine,” said Oleksiy Chernyshov, Minister for Communities and Territories Development, outlining the goal of the International Online Marathon “Local Governments Unite for Welfare and Peace”.

The Marathon was organised by the Ministry in partnership with the Council of Europe Programme “Enhancing Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine”, the USAID Economic Resilience Activity, the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE) project, the Association of Ukrainian Cities, the Association of Amalgamated Communities, and the Decentralisation Portal.

Between 18 March and 7 April 2022, five online conferences between Ukraine’s local leaders and their peers from 35 countries were held, engaging more than 1,000 participants.

Ukrainian mayors as Kyiv’s Vitaliy Klychko, Kharkiv’s Ihor Terekhov, Mariupol’s Vadym Boichenko, Lviv’s Andriy Sadovyi, Chernihiv’s Vladyslav Atroshenko, Vinnytsia’s Serhii Morhunov, Bucha’s Anatoliy Fedoruk, Novoukrainka’s Oleksandr Korinnyi and many others using their local examples explained the current situation in Ukraine, the true face of the war against Ukraine, the scale and brutality of the Russian army’s war crimes as well as the challenges which Ukrainian local governments face daily..

Following the decentralisation reform, which has been implemented since 2014, local governments of Ukraine transformed into a powerful force that plays a key role in countering Russia’s aggression. “I want to give credit to Ukrainian community leaders who currently perform titanic work. Local communities play a crucial role in the Ukrainian resistance during the war”, noted Claudia Luciani, Director of Human Dignity, Equality and Governance, Council of Europe, during one of the meetings.

Leaders of Ukrainian communities have called on mayors, representatives of municipalities and their associations from other countries to take on an equally important role in fighting Russian aggression. Not only were they grateful for the significant humanitarian support offered to Ukrainian communities from all over the world, but also pleaded with local governments globally to appeal everywhere to central authorities – presidents, prime ministers, politicians, – and representatives of international organisations in order to support those demands that would help Ukraine rebuff the aggression and make it impossible for Russia to continue the war.

These demands include imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine and providing increased military support in the form of modern weaponry; tighter economic sanctions against Russia and its economic isolation; preventing companies from doing business in Russia; ousting Russia from international organisations; banning the operation of Russian propaganda channels in democratic countries; identifying the organisers and perpetrators of war crimes and bringing them to justice in an international tribunal; facilitating Ukraine’s accelerated European integration.

In response, dozens of speeches have been made by representatives from the cities around the world and their associations, including Joachim Roth, Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe (NALAS); Alison Gilliland, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland; Martin Horn, Mayor of Freiburg, Germany; Christophe Ramond, President of the Tarn Departmental Council; Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Kraków; Alec von Graffenried, Mayor of Bern, Switzerland; David Linard, Mayor of Cannes, France, President of the Association of Mayors of France; Vasileios Foivos Axiotis, Vice Mayor, City of Athens, Greece; Ilias Apostolopoulos, Union of Municipalities of Greece; Mario Rajn, Mayor of Križevci, Croatia; Vladimir Prebilič, Mayor of Kočevje, Slovenia; Moses Elisaf, Mayor of Ioannina, Greece; Massimo Bello, Member of the Italian Section of the Association of Council of Municipalities and Regions of Europe (AICCRE); Christian Giordano, Mayor of Villanova d'Asti, Italy, Ellen Glasser, Mayor of Atlantic Beach, Florida, USA; Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago, USA; Berry Vrbanovic, Mayor of Kitchener, Canada; Edward Mermelstein, New York City’s Commissioner for International Affairs; Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal, Canada; Marianne Schuurmans, Chairperson of the Dutch Association of Mayors; Mārtiņš Staķis, Mayor of Riga, Latvia; Lars Gravråkk, Political Adviser, the City of Oslo, Norway; Anna-Kaisa Ikonen, Mayor of Tampere, Finland; Remigijus Šimašius, Mayor of Vilnius, Lithuania; Anders Knape, President of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), and others.

Their predominant motive was solidarity with the Ukrainian people, Ukrainian communities, and condemnation of Russia’s criminal actions. At the Marathon, many speakers have stressed that this war was not only Ukraine’s business, but posed a threat to the entire planet. “This is not a special operation, this is not even a war, this is genocide! If the Russians can defeat Ukraine today, they will advance further. The entire world, everybody must do their best to stop them,” stressed Maxim Babitski, Deputy Mayor of Rishon LeZion, Israel, during one of the meetings. Alison Gilliland, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland: “We understand that the Russian attack is a challenge to everything we believe in! Your struggle is our struggle!” Christoph Wiederkehr, Vice Mayor of Vienna: “This is not a war against Ukraine, this is a war against Europe, against democracy!”

Mayors of the world also expressed their willingness to join in the lobbying of Ukraine’s demands before their national governments. “The least we can do is to appeal to our government, demanding that all requests from Ukraine are met,” emphasised Moses Elisaf, Mayor of Ioannina, Greece. Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montreal, Canada, assured that “we will do everything in our power to send a very clear message to our government that this invasion is unacceptable and must be stopped.”

The global dialogue between local government representatives, which took place during these difficult weeks, will continue, since solidarity of municipalities from around the world, one voice of cities’ mayors should become a strong argument for everyone.

“We will continue this work as international support for Ukraine is essential. I am convinced that today much of the global decision-making to help Ukraine is the result of the efforts on behalf of the International Marathon of Local Governments as a powerful unified voice of municipalities” said Oleksiy Chernyshov.

The Minister suggested that the Association of Ukrainian Cities should organise the international municipal rally.

“During the conference with municipalities from the United States, Canada, Israel, Mexico, a suggestion was made about collective written appeals from Ukrainian mayors and mayors of other countries to governments, parliaments to support Ukraine and end the war. It may be arranged as an international municipal rally.”