Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi opens Brussels office

Speaking on 13 January at the opening, the city's mayor, Oleksandr Symchyshyn, said via video that the occasion was a "historic day" and that "we will gain new knowledge, we will gain new experience" from having a presence in Brussels. "We have long felt and perceived ourselves as a full member of a large European family," he said.

The city's deputy mayor, Mykola Vavryshchuk, attended in person. He said that Khmelnytskyi, a strategically located city of roughly 300,000, has seen an influx of people displaced by the war, prompting it to embark on projects to build new housing. Shelling by Russia is necessitating extra investment into medical facilities and energy infrastructure. But, he emphasised, "despite the war that is going on, we are trying to move forward and develop". He highlighted Khmelnytskyi's ambition to become a "green city" within ten years. Projects to improve waste management and transport infrastructure are major elements of its efforts to meet its green ambitions.

The inauguration was attended by Ondřej Kolář (CZ/EPP), a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, and by CoR Secretary-General Petr Blížkovský.

MEP Kolář recalled his own cooperation with Khmelnytskyi in his previous role, as mayor of a district of Prague. After Khmelnytskyi reached out to the Czech capital for support weeks after Russia's invasion in February 2022, he had "loaded a truck" full of items from a "wish list" provided by Mayor Symchyshyn and Deputy Mayor Vavryshchuk and driven to Khmelnytskyi. "There is a lot that Ukraine will need," he said, expressing the hope that "Europe will find the courage to help as fully as needed".

Secretary-General Blížkovský said that the Committee of the Regions is "trying to help city to city, region to region", telling representatives from Ukraine that the CoR's "members are fully on your side" in the face of Russia's full-scale invasion. He encouraged the city to become involved in the political work of the CoR, in its Working Group on Ukraine, and in CoR outreach programmes to local councillors and young politicians.

The CoR's offer of office space is part of the CoR's 10-point support package for Ukraine, which aims to prepare Ukraine for membership of the EU as well as to help Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction. The CoR also serves as the secretariat of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, which it co-founded in June 2022.

Khmelnytskyi will share working space in the CoR with representatives from the cities of Lviv, Vinnytsia and Lutsk, the region of Dnipropetrovsk, the All-Ukrainian Association of Communities and the Association of the Invincible Communities. The Ukrainian Association of District and Regional Councils also benefits from the CoR offer and operates out of the Brussels office of a French region, Grand Est.