The authorities of the town of Trostianets (Sumy region) plan to involve international partners in the implementation of the project to equip bomb shelters with electronic locks in order to ensure their accessibility for citizens, Mayor of Trostianets Yuriy Bova said.

"Now I'm thinking about a very useful thing and I have commissioned my specialists to work on it – these are electronic locks that would be unlocked remotely. That is, one official, who gives an alarm, presses the button – and all the bomb shelters are opened. In this situation, the human factor must be removed altogether. We are preparing an application to our international partners: we will ask for funds to finance this project," Bova told Interfax-Ukraine.

He also said that after the liberation of the town from the Russian occupiers, people in Trostianets began to be more aware of the fact that the direction of security is one of the priorities.

"We weighed how much money we have and what can be done. We equipped the first shelter in the center of the town, and we are also repairing the second one now. We made bomb shelters in the schools. For information: in Trostianets, children went to school physically in May 2022. That is in the community that was occupied back in March, my children have already gone to school, and now 50% of children study offline," Bova said.

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The interview with the Mayor of Trostianets, Yurii Bova, was prepared as part of a joint special project of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and East Europe Foundation “Community Experience” (https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/919611.html), launched in support by the Stiykist’ Programme which is implemented by East Europe Foundation within a consortium of non-governmental organisations led by ERIM (Equal Rights and Independent Media, France) and funded by the European Union. Its purpose is to show the experience of Ukrainian communities in the adaptation and integration of forcibly displaced persons in order to increase the efficiency of the work of local self-government bodies. You can learn more about effective interaction with IDPs in the free online course "Adaptation and integration of IDPs: experience and opportunities" on the educational "Zrozumilo!" platform

The opinions and statements expressed in the material do not necessarily coincide with the views of the consortium partner organizations and the European Union.