A year ago, on October 18, 2022, the Government established the Coordination Headquarters to ensure the departure of Ukrainian citizens from the temporarily occupied territories through the territory of third countries to Ukraine. Vice Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk heads it.

The priority task of the Coordination Center is to develop solutions that will facilitate the departure of Ukrainians from the TOT through other countries to the government-controlled territory.

As part of Headquarters’ work, several important legal acts were developed. Organizing the process of obtaining and restoring identity documents and confirming Ukrainian citizenship is a significant part of it. After all, many of our fellow citizens in the TOT have problems with their documents.

The Coordination Center also initiated several bills that were supported by the government and have now been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada:

– The Draft Law No. 9069 on the Special Features of the State Registration of the Civil Status Acts that took place in the Territories of the Temporary Occupation;

– Draft Law No. 9579, which regulates the issue of crediting time served in the TOT;

– Draft Law No. 9673, stipulates that documents issued by the occupation authorities regarding the death of a person in the TOT cannot be used as a basis for closing criminal proceedings.

The members of the Coordination Center are constantly focusing on the issue of opening and operating separate units of the State Migration Service of Ukraine in Europe and Turkey to process or issue the necessary documents to Ukrainian citizens. And also the question of assistance in the return to the homeland of fellow citizens who have found themselves in difficult circumstances abroad.