The delegation of the French city of Reims has arrived in Chernihiv as part of the preparation of the twinning agreement between the two cities. During the multi-day visit, representatives of the foreign municipality will get to know the city and study the scale of the destruction of Chernihiv’s infrastructure as a result of the large-scale armed invasion of Russia.

This is reported by the official website of the Chernihiv City Council.

In November last year, representatives of Chernihiv visited the French municipality, and already in December, the Chernihiv City Council approved its intention to establish sisterly relations with Reims.

According to Dimitri Oudin, Deputy Mayor of Reims for International and Partnership Relations, the partnership will become a strategic and long-term one.

“The partnership between Chernihiv and Reims will be signed and continue into the future, despite the suffering you are going through now,” said Dimitri Oudin.

Reims, which suffered significant destruction during the First World War, has the experience of post-war recovery. As its representatives reported today, they now consider it their duty to contribute to the recovery of Chernihiv, as the European community once did for them.

Works are already underway in the previously discussed areas of cooperation such as waste processing and water treatment, as well as in education and culture. Oleksandr Lomako, Acting Mayor of Chernihiv expressed hope for expanding the areas of cooperation during the visit of the French partners.

“The main priority for our country is victory on the battlefield. But Ukrainian cities and Ukraine as a whole are already thinking about post-war development and recovery. This is very important; this is our duty to the people. That is why cooperation with partner cities, with Reims, is very important for us on many issues. First and foremost, it means experience. We have already discussed involving engineers and the experience of Reims in water treatment and waste processing. We talked with the mayor of Reims about cooperation in the field of public transport, and I have been asking for a certain number of buses. They might not be new, but they could be used in Chernihiv. [We also talked about] cooperation in the field of culture and rehabilitation of our children who would go to Reims in the summer, as well as cooperation at the university level. That is, we have already built certain cooperation on the exchange and development of joint activities between our cities. The main thing is communication, experience and the opportunity to participate in joint projects that will be submitted for funding to European structures,” said Oleksandr Lomako.

Photo from the Official Web Portal of the Chernihiv City Council