Members of the European Committee of the Regions have expressed their solidarity with Ukraine's regional and local administrations as they prepare their communities for the possibility of an invasion by Russia.
Members of the Working Group on Ukraine created by the European Committee of the Regions – led by Alexandra Dulkiewicz (PL/EPP), mayor of Gdańsk – expressed their "deepest concern about the Russian military build-up" and said they "unequivocally support Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity".
The letters, sent by Mayor Dulkiewicz on 15 February, were addressed to the leaders of associations of Ukrainian local authorities: Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv and head of the Association of Ukrainian Cities; Sergii Chernov, member of Kharkiv Regional Council and president of the Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils; Oleksandr Korinnyi, head of the All-Ukrainian Association of Amalgamated Hromadas; and Ivan Slobodianyk, chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Hromadas.
Members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) said they stood "ready to further support Ukrainian cities in building their resilience". The CoR has been providing political and practical support for Ukrainian local and regional authorities since 2015, initially through a task-force focused on decentralisation in Ukraine.
"Reinforcing anticorruption measures, pursuing judicial reforms and building stronger democratic institutions respectful of minorities' rights will certainly help Ukraine be stronger in front of Russian military aggression," members of the CoR said.
In addition to Mayor Dulkiewicz, EU members of the Working Group on Ukraine are: Krzysztof Iwaniuk (PL/EA), mayor of Terespol; Gints Kaminskis (LV/RE), member of Auce municipal council; Władysław Ortyl (PL/ECR), President of the Podkarpackie Region and president of the ECR group; Stavros Stavrinides (CY/PES), member of Strovolos Municipal Council; and Bernd Voss (DE/Greens), member of Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament and co-president of the Greens.