Now it’s official: Kiel is twinning with the Ukrainian city of Kherson. The agreement was officially signed on February 29, 2024.
Since the end of February 2024, the state capital Kiel has had a total of 14 instead of just 13 twin city partnerships. A new addition is the Ukrainian seaport city of Kherson, capital of the Kherson Oblast. For this reason, a delegation from Kherson is currently in Kiel. In addition to the signing of the town twinning agreement in the Kiel council chamber with city president Bettina Aust and Kherson’s deputy mayor Vitalii Bielobrov, there were also discussions with the municipal utilities, including a visit to the modern coastal power plant, the Kiel seaport and the Kiel economic development agency.
Many similarities between Kiel and Kherson
The city of Kherson is located near the delta of the Dnieper, around 30 kilometers from the Black Sea. There is a river port and a seaport, and the port’s economic importance is correspondingly high, including a significant shipyard industry. So conditions are almost similar to those in Kiel with its seaport in the fjord and an inland port in the Kiel Canal in the Wik. Before the start of the war, Kherson had around 280,000 inhabitants and until the beginning of 2022 it was also similar in size to Kiel in terms of population. However, only around 40,000 people now live in Kherson. There are three universities in Kherson, so possible connection points also exist in the areas of education and universities.
Leave A Comment