The Swedish-Ukrainian Forum, organised by the Cities4cities|United4Ukraine project in cooperation with the City Institute of Lviv City Council and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions SALAR, started its work and runs on 19-20 June. Mayors and deputies from 11 Ukrainian municipalities meet their potential partners in Sweden for the first time.

The participating Ukrainian cities include the recently de-occupied Kherson, Bila Tserkva, Kalush, Bilohorodka, Slobozhanske, Slavuta, Konotop, Zelenodolsk and Melitopol, which is still under occupation. Most of Ukrainian municipalities represented at the forum have suffered severely from the war - being under Russian occupation, facing massive destruction of social and critical infrastructure due to missile attacks, hosting internally displaced persons and providing physical and psychological support to people with war traumas.

"Very few Swedish municipalities have had a partner in Ukraine before. We presented this idea to Swedish municipalities in Stockholm just a few months ago. Immediately afterwards, we received a lot of requests to become friends with the Ukrainian municipality. Today, there are 11 partnerships, but we keep getting more and more requests from Sweden," says Svitlana Blinova, Project Manager of Cities4cities|United4Ukraine.

Some of the municipalities, such as Slobozhanske and Vennas, have already decided to sign a letter of intent to develop long-term cooperation and sharing of experience in STEM education, household waste management and local economic development.

"The forum's ultimate goal is not to sign official documents, but to develop concrete actions to express solidarity with Ukraine and support the recovery process. First and foremost, it concerns the support of urban planning expertise, because we want to help Ukraine reconstruct better in accordance with the best European and Swedish practices," says Magnus Liljestrom, Senior Advisor at SALAR International.

According to Marta Suprun, International Cooperation Expert at Cities4cities|United4Ukraine, such partnerships open doors to European programmes for which municipalities can apply and be supported.

Andriy Plakhotnyuk, Ambassador of Ukraine to Sweden, said that each Swedish city should find a partner in Ukraine. We need to work at different levels of cooperation, including business, to strengthen the economy. For instance, the Swedish company IKEA has already returned its production capacity to Ukraine. Municipalities can stimulate the restoration and development of economic ties so important for recovery.

The Swedish association SALAR is currently negotiating with the Swedish government's SIDA programme to extend cooperation between Sweden and Ukraine to support the reconstruction. This was announced by Ryan Knox, Executive Director of SALAR International.

If you are looking for a partner municipality in Europe, please contact the Cities4cities|United4Ukraine team. We connect Ukrainian municipalities with European ones to create strong partnerships and support Ukraine's aspirations for EU membership and post-war recovery.

Cities 4 Cities | United 4 Ukraine are partnership initiatives that joined efforts in September 2022. Cities 4 Cities was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the auspices of the Congress of Local Authorities and Regions 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 Cooperation Agency (Sida).