The Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine has developed a draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers ‘On the Priorities of State Policy Regarding the Territories of Ukraine Temporarily Occupied by the russian federation’. The document is intended to serve as a practical framework for the activities of state authorities and local governments regarding Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories (TOT).

Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, announced this during the Forum ‘Crimea: Home we are Fighting for. Resistance to russian Occupation’. The document is currently under discussion and will be submitted to the Government for consideration in the near future.

According to the official, preparation for the de-occupation and reintegration of territories requires clear management decisions today. The draft resolution provides for mechanisms for state response in several priority areas. These include:

• support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine;
• creation of the conditions for the restoration of state administration, local self-government and law and order after de-occupation;
• protection of the rights of internally displaced persons;
• support for Ukrainian citizens who remain in the temporarily occupied territories;
• strengthening Ukraine’s information presence in these territories;
• strengthening the social cohesion of Ukrainian society on issues of policy towards the temporarily occupied territories and aligning this policy with Ukraine’s European integration process.

The document places particular emphasis on staffing for the future de-occupation.

‘We need to form a pool of managers who will work with the temporarily occupied territories and will be able to quickly restore Ukrainian authority there after de-occupation. The document clearly defines the tasks for state authorities and local governments in the de-occupied territories: to maintain contact with people, record violations of international humanitarian law, and systematically monitor the socio-economic, demographic, and environmental conditions of the territories. This is necessary in order to have a ready plan for the reintegration and restoration of these territories,’ emphasised Oleksii Riabykin.

The Deputy Minister also emphasised the importance of supporting children and young people from temporarily occupied territories and creating conditions for their safe relocation and access to Ukrainian education.

The Forum was held in Kyiv and was dedicated to the 12th anniversary of the start of resistance to the occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The event was organised by the Representative Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Crimean Platform Office in cooperation with civil society organisations.