Ukrainian children study in air raid shelters using school furniture from northern Hesse. woman comes out lion supported in setting up their own company in Frankfurt. And children and teenagers from Kamyanets-Podilskyj are recovering at a summer camp in Wiesbaden.
Several cities in Hesse has municipal partnerships with Ukrainian municipalities. Partnerships have increased, especially since Russia’s war of aggression. But what did they look like in wartime?
A year and a half ago, Hesse’s largest city, Frankfurt, established ties with Lviv in western Ukraine. “Everyone has the right to live in peace, freedom and democracy. And it is this right that Ukrainians defend every day. That’s why partnership with Lviv is very important for Frankfurt,” said Frankfurt Mayor Mike Josef (SPD). “Our solidarity is reflected in many interpersonal relationships and concrete projects.”
Young Ukrainian woman with entrepreneurial spirit in Frankfurt
Last year, about 20 Ukrainian students came to Frankfurt for recreation. This year, Eintracht Frankfurt welcomed representatives of the first division football team FC Karpaty Lviv as well as several young footballers. And in September 2025, the city invites young women with an entrepreneurial spirit from the twin cities of Krakow and Lviv to support them in setting up their own companies through practical training and networking opportunities.
“This project changes the daily lives of young women in a real way: the European network creates initiatives that enable self-development,” says Josef. “This is a foundation for the younger generation who will hopefully soon forget this terrible war.”
Darmstadt has had its sister city Uzhhorod since 1992
The partnership between Darmstadt and Uzhhorod in western Ukraine is much older. According to the city, the first contact between the municipalities began in 1988, when representatives from both municipalities met at an international school match in Uzhhorod. This partnership has existed since 1992. Just in August, Darmstadt, the Darmstadt-Dieburg district and the transport company HEAG mobilo donated two buses and medical supplies to the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod.
Meanwhile, in summer, children and teenagers from Kamianets-Podilskyj come to summer camps in the twin cities Wiesbaden. “The goal is to give participants a break from everyday life affected by war,” he said.
But it was not only Hessian cities that were affected Ukraine tied together. The Gudensberg community in northern Hesse entered into a partnership with Schtschyrez. “In smaller cities, things are more direct and immediate – and in my opinion, there are more people personally involved in these kinds of partnerships,” says Eberhardt Kettlitz, who is responsible for sister cities in the Gudensberg city government.
Children study in air raid shelters using school furniture from northern Hesse
Since the start of the war, more than 40 people from the town of Shchyrets, which has a population of 10,000, have died on the front lines. “Probably everyone there – whether through clubs, professional circles and families, or perhaps through the church community – knows at least one family in the area who has had to mourn their death,” he said. “These numbers, however abstract, remind me again and again of the horrors of this war.”
And in an air raid shelter in Schtschyrez, students are now learning about school furniture from northern Hesse. Because when a school was renovated in Gudensberg, materials that were no longer needed were brought to Ukraine, as Kettlitz explains. “Two classrooms are now in the basement of the large school in Shchyrets so that children can continue to be taught there if the alarm goes off.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:251111-930-275438/1
