The Cities4cities|United4Ukraine Intermunicipal Partnership Forum is taking place near Stockholm. Within the forum, 2 new intermunicipal agreements were signed: Slobozhanske (Dnipro Oblast, Ukraine) and Vennas (Sweden), to cooperate in STEM education, household waste management and local economic development. Another signed agreement on cooperation is between the Bilohorodka municipality (Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine) and Tureso (Sweden).

As a reminder, these days Kherson, Melitopol and 10 other Ukrainian cities establish cooperation with Swedish partners.

The participating Ukrainian cities include the recently de-occupied Kherson, the cities of Bila Tserkva, Kalush, Bilohorodka, Slobozhanske, Slavuta, Konotop, Zelenodolsk and Melitopol, which is still under occupation.

Johan Forssell, Minister for International Cooperation Development of Sweden, said at the forum that further on, Ukraine will be the largest recipient of international financial assistance from Sweden.

"Sweden will support Ukraine not only during the war, but also in peace," he said. It should be noted that Sweden has already provided €1 billion in support to Ukraine.

Minister Johan Forssell also said that Sweden is keen to increase trading between our countries and that there are many private companies willing their presence in Ukraine. Therefore, Sweden is going to open an office in Kyiv to establish business partnerships.

If you are looking for a partner municipality in Europe, please contact the Cities4cities|United4Ukraine team. We connect Ukrainian and European municipalities to build 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 their efforts in September 2022. Cities 4 Cities was founded by the city of Sindelfingen (Germany) under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities 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).