Zelenskyy met with civil society. The meeting was attended by Maksym Butkevych

Today, on October 23, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with representatives of NGOs working in the field of international policy, advocacy, human rights, security and defence to discuss the external and internal victory plan.

Daria Kaleniuk, Alim Aliiev, Tetiana Pechonchyk, Maksym Butkevych, Mariia Berlinska

The meeting was attended by representatives of two dozen NGOs. This was the first major meeting between the President and civil society during the full-scale war.

They discussed a wide range of issues, including promoting the victory plan through public diplomacy, developing Ukraine’s own military-industrial complex, strengthening sanctions, including against the tanker fleet, returning prisoners, supporting veterans, military rotation and recruitment, protecting democracy, and the quality of governance.

The meeting was attended by human rights defender and soldier Maksym Butkevych, who was released from Russian captivity five days ago and is a Co-Founder and Board Member of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Maksym Butkevych. Photo: Office of the President

In his speech, Butkevych thanked the state authorities and civil society, all those who contributed to the release of him and his comrades. He said that this was the first release from the colony in the Luhansk region, where he was serving his sentence along with four dozen other prisoners of war convicted in trumped-up cases, and that this release gives hope that “the process has been unfrozen”.

“Ukrainians in Russian captivity are like frozen insects in amber. For them, time has stopped, but it is important for all of them to know that everything possible is being done to free them,” he said.

Maksym Butkevych called for continued efforts to free Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians and made a special mention of human rights defenders and journalists held captive by the Kremlin. He handed over to Volodymyr Zelenskyy a list prepared by Human Rights Centre ZMINA, which included 30 imprisoned journalists and two human rights defenders.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ihor Zhovkva read the list of Kremlin prisoners prepared by Human Rights Centre ZMINA. Photo: Office of the President

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Maksym Butkevych on his return to his homeland and stated the need to unite efforts to restore justice and peace in Ukraine.

“Today we met with representatives of our Ukrainian civil society. There were a lot of organisations involved in foreign policy, defence development, human rights and freedom defence. Among them was Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender and soldier whom we recently managed to free from Russian captivity. We discussed in detail the Victory Plan and our need to unite – to bring justice to Ukraine, bring peace closer and talk to our partners about everything that can make Ukraine stronger. We count on unity in promoting the decision of our partners to invite Ukraine to NATO. And also in the development of our defence system. We need to be more active in calling on our partners to be decisive in defence cooperation. And we also have to work together on steps that will allow Ukraine to recover faster from this war,” Zelenskyy said.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Tetiana Pechonchyk, Head of the Board of Human Rights Centre ZMINA, who was present at the meeting, also handed over to Volodymyr Zelenskyy an appeal from 70 NGOs regarding the internal dimension of the Peace Formula and the need to keep reintegration issues in the focus of the government’s attention after the liquidation of the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine (MinReintegration).

She stressed the importance of preserving the ministry responsible for war victims in the government, regardless of whether they are under occupation, in the free territories of Ukraine or abroad, and called for the transformation of the MinReintegration into the Ministry of National Unity.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with representatives of civil society. Photo: Office of the President