The municipalities of Merefa and Pervomaiske agreed on cooperation with Italian municipalities. This became possible under U-LEAD’s Bridges of Trust initiative aimed at helping Ukrainian municipalities find partners among the municipalities of EU countries and establish cooperation.

These municipalities recently held meetings with the heads of Italian municipalities for the first time. The Merefa municipality and its head, Veniamin Sitov, had a meeting with representatives of the Italian comune of Buscate and Mayor Fabio Merlotti. The team from the Pervomaiske municipality led by the head of the municipality, Mykola Baksheiev, met with the team from the Italian comune of Arconate and Mayor Sergio Calloni.

According to Oksana Cherkas, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in Kharkiv region, the municipalities presented their achievements, discussed possible ways of cooperation and agreed on the further development of their relations and cooperation at the meetings.

“Municipalities of the Kharkiv region continue to establish international partnerships under the Bridges of Trust initiative. Last year, the Chuhuiv municipality had such an experience in the Kharkiv region. This year, despite the war, this initiative was supported by the Merefa and Pervomaiske municipalities. This kind of cooperation is critical, because it facilitates the implementation of joint projects and the exchange of best practices in various areas of municipal life. U-LEAD is committed to supporting municipalities in the direction of international partnerships, and hopefully we will be able to announce new partnerships in the near future.”

According to Mykola Baksheiev, Mayor of Pervomaiske, the development and support of business, joint project activities, development of municipal and social infrastructure were identified as prospect directions of cooperation with the Italian municipality.

“Our municipality continues to establish international contacts with the help of U-LEAD. During the meeting with colleagues from the Italian municipality, in addition to joint areas of work, we also discussed the functioning of the Ukrainian municipality in wartime. Furthermore, our Italian colleagues pledged to help our municipality to further develop our volunteer movement, as well as to support internally displaced persons temporarily residing in our municipality,” he said.

As part of a partnership, the Merefa municipality together with the Italian comune of Buscate will implement joint projects to restore critical infrastructure damaged by the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, as well as projects aimed at improving the municipality’s security, attractiveness and functionality. This was noted by the head of the municipality, Veniamin Sitov.

“Together we also plan to develop business and establish international contacts in culture and youth exchange,” he said. “The Merefa municipality is proud that from now on it has a reliable partner — Buscate — and believes that this cooperation will be strong and long-term. As we are dealing with the full-scale invasion and reconstruction of war-torn cities, such a partnership takes on new meanings and perspectives. I am grateful to the reliable partner of the Merefa municipality, U-LEAD with Europe, for the opportunity to join such an important initiative.”