During the war, the functionality of the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs changed significantly, — Denis Monastyrsky
Today, on October 18, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denis Monastyrsky met with the Head of the Foreign Policy Instruments Service of the European Commission Peter Michael Wagner to analyze the state of the equipment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the conditions of war and find solutions in areas of critical issues.
At the beginning, Denis Monastyrsky familiarized the foreign delegation with the work of the services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the conditions of war. He raised issues of humanitarian demining and protection of critical infrastructure facilities, in particular nuclear and thermal power plants, and recalled work on arms circulation control.
“The forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are part of the country's defense forces and account for almost a quarter of the total number of defenders. Of the more than 400 thousand employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the majority are involved in repelling the aggressor, which significantly changes their work. Therefore, the technical equipment also needs to be changed, because our border guards, national guards, policemen, rescuers are constantly serving under shelling, risking their lives. In this regard, we need more armored vehicles, weapons and protective equipment.”
Also, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs reminded that the issue of protection of critical infrastructure objects, which are daily under shelling, is acute. Their protection is carried out by the soldiers of the NGU, whose equipment needs to be optimized. Also, technical assistance is needed by the employees of the State Emergency Service, who carry out humanitarian demining.
“By the end of the year, we have to carry out operational demining of Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv regions — these are life support facilities, schools, kindergartens. Now there is an active demining of the de-occupied territories, in particular Kharkiv region. However, it will take years to completely clear the territories because our territories are too contaminated with enemy shells. And if we can equip the staff, it is problematic to provide ourselves technically with our own forces,” added Denis Monastyrsky.
In addition, the Minister of the Interior informed foreign guests about the launch of the Unified Register of Weapons, which will help control the circulation of weapons. For more efficient work, a dialogue with Europol and an agreement on the exchange of information has been established, which will later be formalized in the relevant Protocol.
The head of the European Commission's Foreign Policy Instruments Service, Peter Michael Wagner, said he was looking forward to meeting with Ukrainian colleagues. He is ready to discuss and respond to crisis topics. In particular, related to the mining of territories and the investigation of war crimes.
“We must examine the issues thoroughly, including your needs, in order to develop strategic approaches to our assistance. The EU and international organizations, of course, have their best practices in the issue of demining territories, but we must understand the specifics of Ukraine and take into account the scale of pollution,” Peter Michael Wagner summed up.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
