Chaired by Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, a discussion was held on a draft regulatory act defining the priorities of state policy on the Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by the russian federation.

The document aims to define clear priorities for a consistent, long-term, and comprehensive state policy on temporarily occupied territories.

Among those attending the event were Tamila Tasheva, Member of Parliament and Chair of the Subcommittee on the Restoration of State Power and Local Self-Government in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, as well as representatives of central executive bodies, law enforcement agencies, regional military administrations, public and human rights organisations that provided expert support in the development of the document.

‘This work was facilitated by the strong support of our partners at PFRU, Members of Parliament, representatives of state authorities, local governments, military administrations, the military, volunteers, experts, and civil society. Ukraine will never relinquish its temporarily occupied territories. Our people live in these territories, and the Government continues to work to support them and ensure the future return of these territories,’ emphasised Oleksii Riabykin.

The document takes into account the humanitarian, demographic, legal, administrative, economic, social and other challenges caused by the occupation and provides for mechanisms of state response in priority areas:

• supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity and international legal non-recognition of attempts of annexation, implementation of transitional justice;
• creating the conditions for the restoration of state administration, local self-government, law and order, and readiness to work in the de-occupied territory;
• ensuring the rights of citizens who have moved from the temporarily occupied territories, with particular attention to children and young people;
• supporting Ukrainian citizens who live in the temporarily occupied territories, implementing cognitive de-occupation;
• strengthening Ukraine’s information presence and forming a national policy of remembrance;
• strengthening social cohesion and local identity, and developing a policy on the temporarily occupied territories in the context of European integration.

The developed regulatory act will form the basis for further steps by the state towards the de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories.