A delegation of 18 Ukrainian cities is on a study visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where their hosts, the leaders of Sarajevo and Mostar, will introduce them to their experiences in the post-war reconstruction of cities, and they will also discuss examples of good practice in reconstruction projects, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources.
The guests from Ukraine were received in the Mostar City Hall by the Mayor of Mostar, Mario Kordić, and the Chief Advisor of the City of Mostar, Radmila Komadina.
In a press statement, Komadina said that 80 percent of buildings in Mostar were destroyed during the last war, and that Mostar’s experiences can be very useful for Ukrainians, even though all the traces of war destruction in Mostar have not been removed to this day.
“The city of Mostar, unfortunately, even today, 28 years after the unfortunate war, has not been able to restore all the buildings due to the fact that there are no more international donations and that in 2005, instead of UNHCR, which led the reconstruction together with other international organizations, the reconstruction took over The Federal Ministry for Displaced Persons and Refugees, as well as the state ministry, and the funds we have at our disposal are insufficient to complete the reconstruction process,” said Komadina.
According to indicators from 2019, around 800 buildings awaiting renovation were recorded in the area of the City of Mostar.
“We are witnessing that there are still devastated buildings in Mostar that are really a mockery and a memory of unfortunate events and we need to find the means to finish their reconstruction as soon as possible,” concluded Komadina.
The deputy mayor of the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr Svitlana Olshanska said that the visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina was a valuable experience for the leaders of Ukrainian cities.
“As you know, Ukraine is going through very difficult times and for us this visit is important in order to get information about how Bosnia and Herzegovina survived the war, how the cities were rebuilt after the end of the war and to find out what mistakes you made so that we would not make them repeated,” said Olshanska.
Zhytomyr suffered heavily at the very beginning of the Russian invasion, and the reconstruction of the civil infrastructure has already started with the help of European funds, added Olshanska, Fena writes.
Photo: Fena/ Mario Obrdalj
