Five Ukrainian communities have signed a memorandum of partnership with the city of Hrybiv in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of Poland.
All of them are united by their participation in the project “Side by Side: United Communities” and an existing partnership with the Velyklyuchkiv community of the Transcarpathian region, whose head took an active part in the implementation of the initiative.
Support and expertise in concluding the agreement was provided by the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development.
The following outpost communities joined in signing it:
▪️ Myrnya settlement military administration
▪️ Maryinsk city military administration
▪️ Chornobayevsk village military administration
▪️ Petropavlovsk settlement council.
This is an ambitious and promising approach to international cooperation at the local level. One European city works not with one community, but with a whole network of Ukrainian partners and frontline cities.
The wide geography of the project — from Transcarpathia to the frontline territories of Donetsk and Kherson regions — allows Polish partners to get to know Ukraine better, with communities that have different needs and different development experiences.
Ukrainian communities will be able to adopt the Polish experience of attracting EU grants and implementing local development projects — mechanisms that are already successfully working in Hrybov.
The partners are already planning practical cooperation. In particular, trips of children from frontline com
munities to Poland are being discussed. Joint working visits of Polish and Ukrainian communities to Germany and Austria to exchange experience in administrative management will soon take place.
The format of cooperation “one city — several communities” is a pilot one, but it is already clear that it can become a model for new international partnerships of Ukrainian communities.
The meeting was also attended by William Cull, mayor of the Slovak city of Velky Šarys, another partner of the Velky Luchkivska community. He announced that his community also plans to conclude memorandums of cooperation with Ukrainian communities within the framework of “Side by Side: United Communities.”