Reykjavik, the capital and largest city of Iceland, became the 22nd partner city of Lviv. Andriy Sadovyi, Mayor of Lviv, and Dagur Eggertsson, Mayor of Reykjavík, signed an agreement on cooperation between the two cities.

“This is a historic visit of Reykjavík leadership to Ukraine and Lviv. Earlier, we had an in-depth conversation with the mayor about rehabilitation, and I feel his understanding of how important it is. So now we have a historic opportunity to formalise our partnership,” said Andriy Sadovyi.

The Mayor of Reykjavík, Dagur Eggertsson, thanked all Ukrainians for standing up for freedom and peace for the whole world and expressed hope that the partnership with Lviv will last for decades.

“In this war, Ukraine is fighting for our values, for human rights, for the right to be free. When we met at the celebration of the 700th anniversary of Vilnius, the mayor of Lviv told me about the UNBROKEN project. This idea stuck in my heart, and since then I have been wearing the UNBROKEN bracelet I’d received as a gift without taking it off. I am very glad that we are building such cooperation. Thank you, friends,” said Dagur Eggertsson.

The delegation from Reykjavík visited the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Centre and honoured the memory of fallen Ukrainian Heroes, who had given their lives defending Ukraine from the Russian invaders, at the Lychakiv Cemetery.

“We experienced strong emotions when talking with the employees and patients of the UNBROKEN Centre. I am very happy to see this great passion and this great strength that you are putting into this rehabilitation centre,” said Thordis Loa Thorhallsdóttir, President of the Reykjavík City Council.

Immediately after the official signing of the partnership between the cities, the company Össur (Iceland), the Lviv City Council and the First Medical Association of Lviv signed a Memorandum of Cooperation that will help as many people as possible to get high-quality prostheses, and doctors to adopt best practices and share their own prosthetics experience.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Reykjavík City Council expressed solidarity with Ukraine, condemning Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion. Reykjavík froze all relations with its partner cities in Russia even before the start of a full-scale invasion and sent them an appeal condemning the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Reykjavík also terminated the agreement on cooperation with Moscow, which was signed in 2007.

Lviv now has 22 partner cities in different countries of the world, including Banja Luka, Budapest, Vilnius, Winnipeg, Wrocław, Kraków, Kutaisi, Łódź, Lublin, Przemyśl, Plovdiv, Rishon LeZion, Rochdale, Rzeszów, Tbilisi, Freiburg, Chengdu, Cannes and Würzburg, Aarhus, Pula (Pola) and Reykjavík.