Irpin and Syracuse, located in the central part of the state of New York, became sister cities.

This was announced by Oleksandr Markushyn, Mayor of Irpin, who is currently on a working visit to the US.

“Syracuse is home to a very large Ukrainian diaspora, almost 7,000 Ukrainians, the largest in terms of percentage of the population in New York State and the fourth biggest in the entire US. We were very pleased to see Ukrainians who came to greet us and chat. There is a monument to the young Taras Shevchenko in Syracuse, just like in Irpin. I had the honour to bow to the bard together with the mayor of the city, Ben Walsh,” said Oleksandr Markushyn.

According to him, Syracuse will help rebuild Irpin. The cities also agreed to cooperate in the fields of education and culture.
The mayor of Irpin expressed his gratitude to Doctor Gennady Bratslavsky, MD, philanthropist, a native of Kyiv who has been living in the US for more than 30 years, for his support and help in establishing a partnership between Irpin and Syracuse.

Decentralization reminds that municipalities of Ukraine can use the International Municipal Partnership Guidelines to build communication with foreign municipalities and enter into twinning agreements. These Guidelines offer algorithms and practical advice on establishing a partnership, cases of successful partnerships, practical advice on customs clearance and accounting of various types of assistance that partners can exchange, information on how to choose partners, how to organise the work of competent professionals or division, as well as information on financing, bookkeeping and reporting and a lot of other useful information.

Based on these Guidelines, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine developed the Partnership for Recovery and Development section of the Decentralization national portal, with the support of DECIDE (Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education), a Swiss-Ukrainian project, and the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.

These Guidelines are based on the methodology of the Council of Europe, City to City Cooperation, and developed by the Council of Europe as part of the Programme “Decentralisation and Public Administration Reform in Ukraine” at the request of the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.