Representatives of the State Emergency Service of Ukriane and local authorities responsible for safety and public order in the regions of Ukraine, as well as decentralisation experts, traveled to Warsaw and the Mazowieckie Voivodship in the framework of the Study Tours to Poland programme.

The aim of the meeting was to acquaint the Ukrainian side with Polish experience in crisis management, and study the Polish experience of establishing Community Safety Centers in order to build such structures in 2018 in three pilot oblasts – the Donetsk, Vinnytsya and Sumy ones.

The Sumy Oblast was represented by the delegation consisting of Yuriy Yaremchuk, head of the Krasnopilska AH, Andriy Oleynikov, first deputy head of the General Directorate of the SESU in the Sumy Oblast, and the team of the Sumy Local Government Development Centre: Oleksandr Khoruzhenko, director of the Centre, and Dmytro Lukyanets, decentralisation advisor.

The delegates got acquainted with the system of crisis management and safety in Poland, with the state rescue and fire fighting system. Special attention was paid to the function of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and administration as the main safety system organiser, its competence and the “minister – voivode – self-government” relations. Ukrainian guests got detailed information on operation of the National Firefighting and Rescue System of Poland, based on the experience of Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

“Every firefighter and policeman is now able to staunch bleeding, restore breathing, use defibrillator in any crisis situations. It took 15 years. They were trained, retrained, and all changes are very painful. Every rescuer is obliged to spend 80 hours to study the practice and pass the exam,” said Oleksandr Khoruzhenko. “Reforms are not implemented in one day, and it is worth keeping that in mind. Everyone here understands their role in case of accidents or disasters.”

The Ukrainian representatives visited the Centre for Security and Crisis Prevention in Warsaw. According to Oleksandr Khoruzhenko, it breaks patterns both in technical equipment and in the philosophy of creating a safe city environment. It is not about surveilling local citizens, but monitoring situations and reacting whenever necessary. 7,000 cameras and situational congress centres are a management tool for the modern city mayor.

“By studying Polish experience, together with MinRegion, SESU and heads of AHs we are planning to suggest interesting and up-to-date solutions for hromadas in our oblast, and preparing projects for establishment of a new system of civil protection and hromadas’ Safety Centres,” commented Oleksandr Khoruzhenko.