USPS delegation at the World Forum for Democracy

The dates of this forum are symbolic for Ukraine because it was on November 9, 26 years ago, that Ukraine became a member of the Council of Europe. This step was important for recognizing the sovereignty of Ukraine and involving us, as a state, in formation of a common European policy.

Although the main theme is about environment protection, we also cannot ignore the issue of political prisoners of the Russian Federation. Ukrainian citizens are illegally detained behind bars in Russia, on the occupied territories of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. We should not keep silent about it. Therefore, our delegation in Strasbourg, with its action during the Forum, once again reminded Europe of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea and numerous human rights violations on the peninsula and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Air has no borders. Air pollution at one place affects health of millions of people.

Availability of necessary information is the first step to understanding and solving the problem. Even 3 years ago, Ukraine was a blank spot on the world map in the context of measuring air quality – no one knew what we were breathing. Meanwhile, about 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide every year.

Today, thanks to the digital tool SaveEcobot, co-founded by Artem Romaniukov, a graduate of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies, Ukrainians can learn about current state of air pollution almost anywhere in the country and participate in solving this problem. The chat-bot operates in 15 countries around the world and has more than 1.5 ml active users.

During the Forum in Strasbourg, Artem Romanyukov presented SaveDnipro and SaveEcobot as an initiative with the greatest national and international impact and explained how digital tools can affect protection of the environment globally.

Now we are experiencing an environmental crisis that affects the whole world and can only be overcome by joint efforts. The issue of clean environment in the modern world concerns fundamental rights of people. And here it is important to remember about deterioration of environment on temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This may not be an obvious fact but the environmental situation in eastern Ukraine is a huge problem and it is important to draw attention of the international community to it. Not only people suffer from actions of the aggressor but also the environment, and all this will have an indefinite negative impact on future generations of Ukrainians.

This was stated at the Forum by Maria Mezentseva, a graduate of the USPS in 2018 and head of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.