President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the International Summit of Cities and Regions held by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

“With this Summit, we are unlocking a new level of interaction on the Congress site, the interaction between our municipalities — municipalities of Ukraine and municipalities of our partner states. Those who, like all Ukrainians, value the most important things, freedom and effective local self-government,” said the President.

According to him, the Ukrainian system of government, like any normal European system, is completely opposite to the Russian model.

“Our strength lies in our people, in our municipalities, in our ability to act for a common goal in a decentralised manner in particular — when needed; and when we need unity and state action, this is achieved, first of all, by people’s faith in Ukraine and people’s trust in their state, its defenders and each other. I am very grateful to most of our municipalities and all our people.”

He addressed the representatives of the international community and invited them to build direct relations with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities and, therefore, facilitated by the Congress, with Ukrainian municipalities in order to start joint efforts as soon as possible and jointly build a new system of protecting people’s lives.

“We see what safety standards cities and villages need today. By our example, other countries can see what security standards are required for their towns, villages, utility networks, transport, energy, entire infrastructure (which has also been tested by this war), schools, education networks in order to guarantee the most important thing under any circumstances — the protection of human life. And I invite you to participate in the development of a new security infrastructure in Ukraine — so that later this important work can be shared with other countries and regions. From bomb shelters in schools to a completely new standard of cyber security for all systems of the country, from a new protected infrastructure in every municipality to a new decentralised energy system in general in the country, which cannot be destroyed by the missile terror that the Russian Federation unleashed against our state,” said the President.

According to the President, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities was created to ensure respect for each municipality and to give each municipality all the tools to explore its interests, the interests of the people in this municipality, the municipal interests.

“Here, in the Congress, the central power of our country is involved in joint work — both the executive and legislative power. We must work together so that the municipality does not have to look for solutions in offices in the capital. All our local self-government is here. To make it easier for our municipalities to interact. Interact faster. Now we are adding an international component,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

As reported earlier, the International Summit of Cities and Regions was attended by more than 250 representatives of municipalities from more than 50 countries of the world, as well as heads of Ukrainian municipalities, representatives of associations of local self-government bodies, heads of regions and districts, Ukrainian MPs, officials of central executive bodies, representatives of international technical assistance projects.

Following the Summit, the Final Declaration and a number of partnership agreements at the municipal level were signed.

Photo from Office of the President of Ukraine