23 June 2017, 23:30
‘The difficult and tense environmental situation in Donbas will be the key issue for the next session of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee,’ denoted Iryna Herashchenko, the First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine within the joint working visit to eastern Ukraine together with core Ukrainian parliamentarians, the European Parliament’s representatives and heads of diplomatic missions.
The overseas visitors were much appalled at the security situation in Donbas.
They paid visit to the industrial zone in Avdiivka, Donetsk oblast which had been ruined with the numerous shelling by SRDLO’s militants, and communicated with servicemen of the 72nd Mechanized Brigade. “Within the past nine months 57 brigade men were slain near Avdiivka,” informed I.Herashchenko.
Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant was also called on, where the guests had talks over its activities and the problems related to the local environment.
All they saw need immediate actions to cope with, and thus the European politicians agreed to include the issue in the agenda of the next session of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee.
Also, there was a regional conference held within the visit, dedicated to the production induced and environmental security, and extreme emergency in Donbas, having pooled members of the Parliament, the core ministerial officers, the regional authorities’ representatives, European officials and diplomats.
It was agreed at the conference that urgent measures ought to be taken to restore the local industrial enterprises damaged as soon as possible. At the same time there was noted that the restoration works could only be launched after the security assurances having been received.
Within the
conference scope the TCG’s humanitarian subgroup representative Iryna
Herashchenko informed the audience that the environmental problems were the
core issue to discuss in Minsk. There was also a Red Cross’s initiative to establish
safety-purposed spots (safety spots) nearby the local industrial plants and
enterprises in order to enable there a twenty-four-hour monitoring by OSCE SMM
and the Red Cross’s representatives. The initiative has not yet agreed by the
other side though.
A great deal of attention was paid during the visit to local humanitarian problems. The visitors called on “Maiorsk” checkpoint to become acquainted with the advanced in-out system and communicate with locals. More than ten thousand persons cross the checkpoint daily. During the regional tour the delegation inspected some other projects executed under the aegis of the European Union, viz. Kreminna district library in Luhansk oblast in particular. The object was customized and made comfortable for the internally displaced persons to help them integrate into the local community by means of a training centre, a library-sited cinema, a puppet theatre group, a child’s playground etc.