Law of Ukraine No. 2750-IX “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Operation of Local and Volunteer Fire Brigades” effectively regulates their activities. Maksym Tkach, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe, talked about this in more detail at the event “Updates in the Legal Framework of the Operation of Local and Volunteer Fire Brigades”.

According to him, from now on these brigades can be established as legal entities or their separate units. They can be created not only by local self-government bodies by engaging persons permanently residing in a given locality, but also but NGOs by engaging their own members and by legal entities with their employees.

As was stressed by the speaker, the decision on the organisation of such units is made by the local council. However, their activities must be coordinated and agreed upon with the central body of the executive power implementing the state policy in civil protection, i.e. the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

In general, the purpose of the meeting was to explain the details of creating emergency and rescue units to the municipalities. The event also discussed the training and advanced training of the employees of local fire brigades and members of voluntary fire brigades, as well as financial considerations related to the entry into force of the Law of Ukraine No. 2750-IX.

 “The Law stipulates that the employees involved in firefighting and emergency response must undergo training at the institutions attached to the State Emergency Service and pass preliminary/regular medical examinations “Yet another new requirement of the Law is insurance. Insurance will be mandatory for the founder of the unit from January 2024,” said Maksym Tkach.

The event was held by the Regional Office of the U-LEAD in Donetsk region for the municipalities of the Donetsk, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv and Cherkasy regions.