Today, November 14, there was an online meeting of the head of the Lviv OVA Maksym Kozytsky with the Head of the Federal Land of Styria (Austria) Christopher Drexler and the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria Vasyl Khymynts.
During the meeting, the parties discussed cooperation within the framework of the current Agreement on Cooperation between the Lviv Region and the Land of Styria, Austria. In addition, Maksym Kozytskyi spoke about the preparation of the Lviv Oblast for the winter period and work with internally displaced persons.
Currently, more than 400,000 IDPs live in Lviv Oblast. In addition, evacuation trains arrive in Lviv Oblast every day. Most often, the most vulnerable categories of the population come: children, people with disabilities, and pensioners.
With the onset of cold weather and rocket attacks by the occupier, a new wave of forced migrants is expected in Lviv Oblast. That is why heating points are being deployed in the region.
“Institutions where IDPs live are now overcrowded. We are trying to develop new places for settlement. Within the framework of the regional Program for the implementation of priority infrastructure projects, it is planned to repair 30 institutions in 22 communities of the region and create more than 3,000 places for IDPs. For this, more than 200 million hryvnias have been allocated from the regional budget. Given the increase in the number of IDPs and the approach of winter, we need alternative sources of heating, electricity and communication. That is why we are deploying heating points in the Lviv region, where, if necessary, people can rest, eat, charge household devices and phones. For this, we need large awnings, generators, warm things and long-term storage products,” Maksym Kozytsky emphasized.
The head of the region also outlined the key challenges currently facing Lviv Oblast, in particular due to the fact that Russia is purposefully attacking Ukraine’s energy facilities.
“As a result of rocket attacks in Lviv Oblast, 4 electrical substations failed. Currently, electricity in the region is supplied according to temporary schemes, so there is a power deficit in the power grid. In order to reduce the load on the system, we have developed recommendations for the population to reduce the amount of energy use,” added Maksym Kozytskyi.
In turn, Christopher Drexler highly appreciated the work of the Lviv region in terms of providing IDPs with everything they need, and also expressed his readiness to continue helping the region in various directions, including preparing for the heating season.
“Austria has full respect for the way Ukrainians are fighting, because it is a fight for the values of Europe. We promise to continue to support you. All we need from the administration is a list of specific needs so that we know exactly what we can do to help and when. At the same time, we are ready to establish new cultural and economic projects. Therefore, we will be happy to come to Lviv Oblast to personally agree on everything,” emphasized the Head of the Federal Land of Styria.
For reference: The Land of Styria is one of the oldest partner regions of Lviv Oblast. The first Cooperation Agreement was signed back in 1998. The new Agreement was signed already in 2013 (the agreement is open-ended). Areas of cooperation include: trade and agriculture; industry; transport; education and science; medical cooperation; tourism; ecological cooperation.
As a result of the meeting, the parties agreed to include new points in the current Agreement, taking into account the military-political situation in Ukraine and the challenges faced by the Lviv region.