The mayor of Liskeard recently met with a council in Ukraine to discuss the twinning of the two towns.

On December 14, Cllr Simon Cassidy attended an online call with members of the Kopychyntsi Council where a unanimous vote was cast to approve of the twinning. 

This meeting has followed months of virtual meetings between the mayors of the towns. 

Mayor of Kopychyntsi, Bogdan Kelichavyi, reached out to Liskeard Town Council after hearing about the rebuilding work with Quimperle in France. 

The town of Kopychyntsi lies to the south east of the city of Lviv. 

Cllr Cassidy said: “In many ways, Kopychyntsi has much in common with Liskeard. It has a population of similar size, and is predominantly surrounded by farming communities.”

Whilst the town has escaped much of the brunt of the war in Ukraine, many of the town’s citizens have fought and died in the conflict. 

Children in the schools are struggling to learn English as their teachers have been sent to the front to fight. 

When Liskeard joins with the town of Kopychyntsi it will become one of just a handful of places in the UK to have created a formal twinning link. 

Kopychyntsi’s mayor believes that one benefit of establishing links with Liskeard will be in giving their youngsters the chance to speak English - perhaps by the setting up of penpal schemes and Zoom calls. 

This week, Cllr Cassidy will be travelling to Warsaw in Poland on an aid convoy to Ukraine with Cornwall and Devon Sending Love to Ukraine. 

Cllr Cassidy continued: “Whilst in Warsaw, I will be meeting with the Mayor of Kopychyntsi where we will sign the official twinning document. I hope that we can learn a lot from each other going forward and it gives the people and the children of both our towns the opportunity to engage with people they wouldn’t otherwise be able to engage with.” 

Cornwall and Devon Sending Love To Ukraine arrived back in Callington from their 17th trip to Ukraine in the beginning of December. 

They successfully managed to unload five vehicles full of aid in the snow and ice into the Warsaw warehouse.

Darren Tait from Cornwall and Devon Sending Love to Ukraine, said: “It was a very successful, however, also a very emotional trip as once they had unloaded  we got to meet some Ukrainian people that we have been helping and also receive gifts from one of the orphanages that our team in Warsaw have been sending aid out to.” 

The next trip left England on December 17 with seven vans making the journey out.