Photo: Nonstop Local News Montana
On September 22, Kopychyntsi in Ukraine’s Ternopil region and Bozeman, Montana, officially signed an Agreement on Territorial Cooperation. But this partnership did not begin with a document – it is built on four years of working together.
Over this time, Bozeman residents have raised funds for Kopychyntsi, while American volunteers have travelled to Ukraine, supported the local hospital and delivered medical equipment. Architects and Montana State University have also joined the cooperation, and one volunteer from Bozeman even stayed to live in Kopychyntsi.
The two municipalities decided to formalize a partnership that was already working in practice and join the Cities4Cities network. They identified four areas for future cooperation: economic development, education, local governance and veteran support.
The agreement was signed in Bozeman during a visit by the Kopychyntsi delegation to the United States through the Open World program. The program is administered by the Congressional Office for International Leadership (COIL), with organizational support for the visit provided by American Councils for International Education, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and Cities4Cities.
“This moment where we are right now is actually a very important moment for us. And this is really a new beginning. But at the same time, there is a very big background behind it. I can’t even believe that we are standing here today together with Mayor Morrison. So many moments, so many pictures come to mind – different projects, different ideas, different people we met along the way – and all of this eventually brought us here, to this moment”
What Kopychyntsi Can Learn from Bozeman
One of the key areas of the new stage of cooperation is local economic development. Kopychyntsi is exploring how Bozeman supports small businesses, works with universities, fosters entrepreneurship and creates opportunities for young professionals to stay and build their careers in the municipality. During the visit, the delegation is learning about these practices through meetings with representatives of the municipality, businesses and educational institutions.
The team is also exploring how education connects with the labor market, as well as strategic planning and resident engagement in local governance. Another area is veteran support, ranging from education and employment to entrepreneurship and cooperation between the municipality and civil society organizations.
What Bozeman Can Learn from Kopychyntsi
The partnership is not intended to be a one-way exchange of experience.
For Bozeman, Kopychyntsi offers an opportunity to learn from a municipality that continues to operate amid Russia’s full-scale war: making rapid decisions, maintaining essential municipal services, welcoming internally displaced people, and mobilizing residents and local organizations in times of crisis.
Bozeman Mayor Joey Morrison also highlighted this during the meeting:
“It’s impressive, the challenge that the municipalities faces: living with the constant threat of war while at the same time continuing to perform all the daily functions of a city – providing electricity and water, maintaining streets and ensuring a good quality of life”
How It All Began
The first connection between Kopychyntsi and Bozeman was established even before Russia’s full-scale war.
In 2018, Bogdan Kelichavyi, who was then working on a project supported by the U.S. Department of State, met Brit Fontenot, a local economic development professional from Bozeman. Brit came to Kyiv as a guest speaker at a conference for Ukrainian municipalities, where he shared Bozeman’s experience with GIS systems, urban development planning and infrastructure projects.
Three years later, they met again in the United States at the annual International City/County Management Association (ICMA) conference in Portland. By then, Bogdan Kelichavyi had become Mayor of Kopychyntsi.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale war, Brit Fontenot contacted the Kopychyntsi mayor and asked how he could help. He connected Bogdan Kelichavyi with a journalist from The Boston Globe, and on April 3, 2022, a fundraising event was held in Bozeman to support Kopychyntsi. The Ukraine Relief Effort volunteer initiative grew out of the local community’s efforts to support the Ukrainian municipality.
At first, the support focused on the municipality’s urgent wartime needs. Funds raised in Bozeman helped provide showers and restrooms at facilities accommodating internally displaced people, as well as a vehicle for humanitarian work. But it was not long before Bozeman residents decided they wanted to help in person as well.
“While our municipalities have different histories and circumstances, we also recognize something familiar in each other: a connection to the surrounding countryside, pride in local enterprise, and a desire for young people to see a future in the place they call home. Those shared hopes give us a strong foundation for cooperation”
From Fundraising to Volunteers in Kopychyntsi
In the summer of 2022, the first group of seven volunteers from Bozeman arrived in Kopychyntsi. They included medical professionals, architects and project management specialists. They spent 11 days in Ukraine, with some members of the group staying longer. The architects worked on plans to restore buildings, while the medical professionals focused on supplying equipment and developing professional connections between specialists.
That fall, representatives of Kopychyntsi travelled to Montana. During the visit, they met with representatives of the Bozeman municipality, local businesses, the hospital, fire department, schools, universities and civil society organizations.
Meanwhile, American volunteers continued travelling to Kopychyntsi. One of them was Michael Behm, a 32-year-old architect from Bozeman. In January 2023, he returned to Kopychyntsi with humanitarian aid and decided to stay. Michael ultimately lived in Kopychyntsi for around two years. It was there that he met his future wife.
When Cooperation Moved Beyond Humanitarian Aid
Gradually, the relationship between the two municipalities expanded beyond humanitarian assistance.
Montana State University joined the cooperation. In 2023, architecture students at the university developed projects for Kopychyntsi, including solutions focused on integrating internally displaced people into the municipality.
In 2024, another symbol of the connection with Montana appeared in Kopychyntsi: the Mustang sculpture by American artist Jim Dolan. It was presented to the municipality as a gift from Bozeman, while its delivery to Ukraine was funded by Ukraine Relief Effort with the support of local Ukrainian-American resident Mark Rosolovskyi. The sculpture symbolizes the municipality’s strength and resilience.
Over the years, an entire network of relationships has developed around the two cities – connecting municipalities, volunteers, medical professionals, universities, architects and other specialists. The formal agreement became the next step for a partnership that had already produced tangible results.
What Comes After the Agreement
Following the visit, the two municipalities plan to turn the four identified areas of cooperation into a concrete action plan. For each area, they will define goals, identify responsible people on both sides, and connect with specialists in Bozeman who can continue working with their Ukrainian counterparts.
“For smaller municipalities, partnerships like this can be especially valuable. They provide direct access to experience and professional networks that would otherwise be difficult to build independently. But the most important thing is not simply to see a successful practice. It is to find specific people on the other side of the partnership, understand the processes in detail, adapt them to your own needs, and continue working together”
For Kopychyntsi and Bozeman, this process effectively happened in reverse: first came the people, trust and shared work – and only four years later did the partnership receive its formal framework. Копичинці та американський Боз…
This article was produced as part of the U.S.-Ukraine Municipal Cooperation Summit project with the support of the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
