The Ukrainian city of Bucha and the German city of Bergisch Gladbach signed a cooperation agreement. This was reported by the press service of the Bucha City Council.

“I believe that city-to-city cooperation opens up new opportunities for faster and better solutions to urgent problems. This platform facilitated our partnership history, which started with the support of Pszczyna, Polish sister city of Bucha,” said Anatolii Fedoruk, Mayor of Bucha.

He also noted that this municipality provided an ambulance, two fire trucks and humanitarian aid in the first days of de-occupation.

Frank Stein, Mayor of Bergisch Gladbach, stated:

“This is not just our pleasure but a great honour. It’s great that we’re signing the agreement and are able to implement it.”

The help to Bucha from its sister city did not stop with humanitarian aid after the occupation. Ukrainian migrants are able to live in Germany, and they are provided with support. In addition, vacations abroad are organised for the children of the Bucha municipality.

“The priority directions, which we will try to jointly implement in the future, are primarily related to transportation and safety. Here, in addition to support, we will benefit from European experience in the development of transport and logistics infrastructure as well as attracting German investments for this purpose,” said Anatolii Fedoruk.

In March, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine initiated the International Marathon of Local Governments aimed at drawing the attention of the municipalities around the world to the tragedy of Ukrainian municipalities and boosting the process of establishing sisterly relations.

In May, the state of Mississippi, US, twinned with the Khmelnytskyi region.

In June 2022, the Twinning Pact was signed by the cities of Bucha and Bergamo (Italy).

The Irpin City Council and the municipality of Miami, US, have recently decided to twin officially. The agreement is to be signed.

In August 2022, the Chortkiv municipality of the Ternopil region officially twinned with the city of Talsi, Latvia.