In an interview with Agence Europe on Wednesday 17 April, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Reintegration of Ukraine's Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk, stressed that the EU should continue its support for Ukraine, a support that she hoped would be more targeted. According to the EU Council website, the EU and its Member States have allocated €3 billion in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
“We need considerable help to survive the winter of 2024”, explained the Minister, expressing concern about the use of winter as a weapon.
Ms Vereshchuk also stressed that the territories that had been temporarily occupied by Russia and then recovered by Ukraine needed international assistance. “These people need ongoing support, because the economic opportunities are very limited, there is no investment and a lot of destruction of facilities that could provide potential jobs. That's why the people of Kharkiv and the Mykolaïv region will always need our support and that of international donors”, she explained.
Humanitarian demining is another challenge, given that Ukraine is the most heavily mined country in the world. “The country is relying heavily on the joint efforts of EU countries, and not only EU countries, to help us”.
The Minister praised the sponsorship systems set up between EU countries and regions in her country. “Some countries have ‘adopted’ certain regions of Ukraine and focused on their economic development and recovery, such as Belgium, which is helping the Chernihiv region, Denmark, which is helping Mykolaïv, Austria, which is helping Zaporijjia and Germany, which is helping Kharkiv”, she explained.
Another challenge is the risk of revenge and the trial of those who collaborated with Russia. “People want justice for those who collaborated with the Russians and caused the murders and arrests of others in their community. So it's very difficult for people to come back and discover that these people are still there, without any punishment. There is a great deal of conflict and instability in the communities”, said Ms Vereshchuk, who pointed out that as a “civilised country with the rule of law”, it is not possible in Ukraine to accuse and convict someone of collaboration without proof and without a trial. The Minister therefore asked for advice from the international community in terms of legal experts and experience from countries that have experienced a similar situation and incorporated it into their legislation, so that they can adjust the Ukrainian judicial system “to ensure that justice is properly done, in accordance with international law”.
The Minister also called on the EU to put pressure on Russia regarding deported children. There are thought to be 20,000 of them. “We need more pressure from the international community on Russia, because Russia should not continue to do this without a sense of the consequences to come and the sanctions imposed on those who openly abduct and erase the identity of Ukrainian children”, she pleaded. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)