In the council room of Palazzo di Città, the mayor of Bari and the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Syenkevychhave signed a letter of intent in view of the twinning that will be stipulated between the two cities, in the name of San Nicola.
The letter of intent was signed during a meeting attended, in addition to the Consul General of Ukraine in Naples Maksym Kovalenko and the deputy mayor of Bari, the mayors of other cities to which Bari is linked by close friendships and who share with the Apulian capital the devotion and strong bond with San Nicola, which accepted the invitation of the municipal administration to participate in the celebrations for the feast of the Patron Saint.
Taking part in the meeting were Luc Bisinger, mayor of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port, a French city in the Lorraine region; Lieven Dehandschutter, mayor of Sint-Niklaas, a Belgian city in the Flanders region; Dominic Grech, mayor of the Maltese city of Siggiewi and Francesco Menna, mayor of Vasto.
This evening the first citizens guests for the celebrations will parade alongside the mayor of Bari during the Historical Procession of San Nicola which will start at 8.30 pm from Piazza Federico II di Svevia.
“I am very happy to be here in Bari today, even before the start of the war it was important for us to create a strong relationship of friendship with your city, in the name of San Nicola, the saint to whom Bari is so linked and who gives the name to the city of Mykolaiv – he stated Oleksandr Syenkevych -. Our city managed to stop the Russian invasion of southern Ukraine. In the first year of the war we were bombed for 265 days, 167 people died but the toll could have been even heavier: in some cases we had buildings completely destroyed, but luckily no one died inside them. This is why we think that Saint Nicholas protected our city. Today the situation has improved, although we still suffer attacks, often directed at some fundamental infrastructures, such as the plants that supply electricity and water, which makes the living conditions of our fellow citizens more difficult. Ours, if compared to Bari, is a very young city, it has around 235 years of history, but we have many things that we want to enhance within the collaboration with you – he continued Syenkevych -. We are an important port city and we hope that, in the name of San Nicola, the bond between our Municipalities can grow more and more, also in sectors such as those of cultural and tourist cooperation. And, above all, putting people at the centre, who are the strongest resource and tool that we all have. In a time of war, we must cling to hope. I thank you, therefore, for this wonderful meeting and we hope that it can be the beginning of a very fruitful cooperation, thanks to the twinning that we will stipulate”.
