Kherson and Swedish Norrköping became twin cities

In Sweden, the communities of Kherson and Norrköping recently signed a partnership agreement.  The cities established contact for the first time in June at the Ukraine-Sweden Municipal partnership forum organized by the Cities4Cities | United4Ukraine initiative together with the Swedish association of local authorities and regions SALAR, with the support of the Swedish agency SIDA.  And already in September, after the visit of Swedish colleagues to Kherson, they announced their intention to officially consolidate cooperation.

On December 11, 2023, yellow and blue flags were hung along the main bridge in the port city of Norrköping.  Thus, before the signing, Norrköping Mayor Anna Sotkasiira Wik and Norrköping Deputy Mayor Christopher Jarnvall met the Ukrainian delegation: Deputy Mayor of Kherson Vitaliy Belobrov and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Sweden Andrii Plakhotniuk.

“In September of this year, I personally visited Kherson, which was occupied by the Russians from the beginning of March 2022 until November of the same year.  Today I learned that the situation in the city has escalated.  Shelling has become more intense, and the need to demonstrate that the city and the country have Europe behind them has become even greater,” said Christopher Jarnvall, deputy mayor of Norrköping.

 At the meeting, the partners identified the main areas of cooperation that will help strengthen the communities of both countries.

“The municipality of Norrköping is interested in the experience of crisis management – how to respond to challenges and prepare for them, because they understand that the risks of war exist even in them.  We value their experience in moving the port from the city center to the outskirts.  In the field of education, we are both interested in how our high schools and colleges are doing.  In particular, we will develop the direction of cooperation with Swedish business from Norrköping, as we are currently creating industrial parks and want to attract their business to create jobs in Kherson”, said Vitaliy Belobrov, Deputy Mayor of Kherson.

Despite the fact that most of the above outlined areas of work are possible in the future, Vitaliy Belobrov calls on Ukrainian communities to establish partnerships now.

 “We have to prepare for recovery and reconstruction today, so as not to waste time.  For this we need a plan, projects and project teams that will implement them.  And we need partners.  It is in these directions that we are working today and we call on all communities not to wait for victory.  Of course, we should get closer as soon as possible, but part of the team in the community should also think about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,” Vitaliy Belobrov emphasized.

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Cities4Cities |  United4Ukraine

We establish Ukraine-Europe inter-municipal partnerships to build strong partnerships and support Ukraine’s aspirations for EU membership and post-war recovery.

Ukrainian communities looking for partners in Europe: https://cities4cities.eu/

Cities4Cities |  United4Ukraine is a partnership initiative that joined forces in September 2022. Cities4Cities was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the patronage of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

United 4 Ukraine was launched by SALAR International and the city of Lviv (Ukraine) with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida).