Bratislava to Give Kyiv 25 Buses and Help with Rehabilitation Centre

The Mayor of Bratislava, Matus Vallo, has offered Kyiv assistance in attracting global consulting experts to help rebuild its infrastructure and develop its transport system, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said after a meeting with his Slovak counterpart.

According to the mayor, Bratislava is an example of change and innovation today. It can already successfully compete with cities such as Vienna. 

Bratislava was also one of the four signatories to the Pact of Free Cities, which Kyiv joined last year. Pact cities defend the rights of local self-government. Bratislava has been supporting Kyiv since the beginning of the large-scale war, sending humanitarian aid. Slovakia has also taken in more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.

"Our cities are linked by sister city relations... We agreed on Bratislava's further assistance, including in setting up a rehabilitation centre for the military, which is being set up by Kyiv. We also discussed the future recovery of Ukraine and Kyiv," Klitschko wrote.

Also, according to him, in the near future Bratislava will hand over 25 city buses to Kyiv as an aid. They are currently being prepared for shipment, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.

Reference.

The Pact of Free Cities is an open and progressive urban alliance launched in 2019 by the mayors of Warsaw, Budapest, Prague and Bratislava. European cities cooperate in defending democracy, fighting corruption and populism, protecting local governments, and building effective cooperation with national governments. They also implement joint initiatives and projects tailored to the needs of individual cities.

In particular, since its inception, the Pact of Free Cities mayors have initiated Pan-European lobbying for direct access to EU funding for projects important to cities. They have also reached out to other like-minded mayors for more effective cooperation and future expansion of the network.

During the last summit of the Pact of Free Cities in Prague, Vitali Klitschko met with the mayors of Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Athens and Vilnius.

Earlier it became known that the Slovak government had decided to support refugees from Ukraine. In particular, private individuals and hotels that continue to host Ukrainian refugees will receive a financial subsidy from the government, although the amount has not yet been made public.

When deciding to extend the period of support for refugees from Ukraine, the Slovak government took into account the "ongoing military conflict".

The decision to provide support to Ukrainian refugees was extended until the end of 2023.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, more than 13 million Ukrainians have become forced migrants, according to UN estimates (of which more than 5 million are internally displaced and about 8 million are refugees).