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Korosten mayor praises its Lithuanian twin city: “We have found true friends”

After the sudden Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of last year, the city of Korosten had to break its twinning relations with a few cities in Siberia and Belarus. “They became our enemies”, declares the Mayor of Korosten. However, that was not the case for its Lithuanian twin Urkmerge who became a close ally of the Ukrainian city. 

In the framework of the “Bridges of Trust” project, the Ukrainian city of Korosten signed a cooperation agreement with the Lithuanian city of Ukmerge. The municipalities have already exchanged visits of their delegations: “There were more Ukrainian flags than the Lithuanian ones,” recalls Volodymyr Moskalenko, Mayor of the city based in the Zhytomyr region in the northwest of Ukraine. In an interview with the U-LEAD, he describes how the cooperation has helped many Ukrainians so far.

“Initially we asked for medicines and long-term food packages,” he says. However, Urkmerge keeps offering this kind of help even after the initial support. In addition to medicine and food, the Ukrainian city has also received generators, a large bus, and trench candles for the military. 

As their Baltic counterpart is advanced in the use of alternative energy, Moskalenko wonders about utilising their experience to help bring this kind of energy to Ukraine. Russian attacks are often directed towards the energy infrastructure, which shows the importance of the capacity of a municipality to address these kinds of needs on its own according to the Mayor.

He mentions the positive attitude of the Lithuanians towards Ukraine and its citizens. “Each of our conversations comes down to the question ‘How can we help you?’. We are impressed,” Moskalenko says. He assures that the cities intend to further develop their cultural cooperation and exchange: “We have found true friends.”

However, that wasn’t the case in some of Korosten’s former twin cities in Russia and Belarus. On the day of the Russian invasion in February, the city council had a session and immediately broke the twinning relations with Mozyr from Belarus and two cities from Siberia in Russia: “What twinning relations can we have with them if they are our enemies?” ponders Moskalenko. 

However, he thinks that it is worth mentioning that the invasion was the catalyst for uniting national cultures in Ukraine, as Ukmerge isn’t the only city that has expressed the desire to become Korosten’s twin. “Bourges in France contacted us. They hosted 200 women and children from Korosten,” informs the Mayor while declaring that they are keeping in touch with them. They are also in contact with cities in Great Britain, China, and Japan. “But just contacts so far,” concludes Moskalenko. 

Source: U-LEAD

TARAN Stanislav

Project Officer – International Partnerships (U-Lead)

Building partnerships to empower municipalities

From March 2021 to November 2022, the Council of European Municipalities and Regions and PLATFORMA have been implementing a project “Empowering Municipalities in Ukraine and the European Union through building municipal partnerships” within the framework of U-LEAD with Europe’s initiative “Bridges of Trust” and with the support of U-LEAD with Europe. 

Based on a careful matching process, which included analysis of the socio-economic factors and sectors of development of the EU municipalities, the Initiative matched 10 Ukrainian municipalities in 7 regions with municipalities in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Slovakia. Online bilateral meetings between partners allow to launch the partnerships, identify common interests as well as plan joint activities such as study visits to exchange best practices.

After the start of the Russian war, some European municipalities, upon request of their Ukrainian partners, provided humanitarian and financial assistance. Such support from European partners is extremely valuable. For example, Šiauliai district municipality in Lithuania sent eleven tons of humanitarian aid to the Dolyna community in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The total amount is approximately 100 thousand euros. The same partner organised a summer school for 36 children from Dolyna.

“Through such projects, we are trying to link those Ukrainian municipalities, especially small and medium size, that need support but might have no experience in international cooperation, with municipalities in the EU that are motivated and ready to help. We remember the important role peer-to-peer cooperation and twinning played in the post-WWII reconstruction of Europe. It should also help Ukraine recover, rebuild, renew, and become a member of the EU family. These are the real and long-term bridges that CEMR together with our Associations, and with the support of actors like the U-LEAD, are helping to build”, – says Fabrizio Rossi, Secretary General of the Council of European Municipalities and Regions. 

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an important objective of the project became organization of the solidarity events, in close cooperation with the Associations of Local Government and the U-LEAD with Europe, in order to communicate about the wartime realities and the needs of Ukrainian municipalities and to motivate other EU municipalities to engage and establish new partnerships. 400 participants took part in the Poland-Ukraine, Slovakia-Ukraine and France-Ukraine Solidarity Forums. Ukrainian mayors presented the realities of both destroyed and formerly occupied municipalities as well as those that have accepted internally displaced people but have not suffered damages to the physical infrastructure. The EU municipalities have also presented concrete actions of support.

“For us at U-LEAD, the “Bridges of Trust” is not just another initiative, not just one of numerous projects we do every day. It is literally one of the main pillars of our work. We constantly wish to bring Ukrainian municipalities closer to their counterparts in the EU. The importance of the “Bridges of Trust” during the Russian invasion hasn’t decreased in the slightest, but, quite the opposite, it has become even more crucial. The forums that we’ve had over the last months have been more than an opportunity for international cooperation – they provided a perspective to Ukrainian municipalities and thus a bit of hope to their citizens. But in the long run the aftermath of our work will be even much more valuable, for the partnerships we have facilitated will turn from bridges to foundations – the foundations of the future European local self-government. There is so much work that is still ahead of us, but for getting this far I am sincerely grateful to all our partners who made the “Bridges of Trust” possible: the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, the European Coalition of cities and regions PLATFORMA, the Ministry for Communities and Territorial Development, and, of course, all the municipalities that participated”, – Bastian Veigel, GIZ Programme Director of U-LEAD with Europe

The project has also contributed to the understanding of key success and failure factors for the international municipal cooperation of Ukrainian municipalities. The publication prepared in the framework of the project provides an annotated mapping of existing partnerships between Ukrainian and EU municipalities; an analysis of key success and failure factors of international municipal cooperation with a special focus on cooperation between Ukrainian and EU municipalities and recommendations for future sustainable cooperation between Ukrainian and EU municipalities.

The Council of European Municipalities and Regions will continue its work in supporting cooperation between local governments in Ukraine and in the EU member states.

To see more stories of support consult this page. 

TARAN Stanislav

Project Officer – International Partnerships (U-Lead)