Jelenia Góra’s partner cities include Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine. Officials from Jelenia Góra responded to questions concerning the current relations between the Jelenia Góra Municipality and Sievierodonetsk, as well as the measures being taken by the City Hall as part of ongoing cooperation:

We inform you that:

  • from the very beginning of the conflict, we tried to establish contact with the authorities of our partner city in order to assess the scale and types of assistance needed. In practice, official relations between cities do not usually involve organizing such initiatives “intuitively,” and certainly material aid cannot be sent without a specific recipient for the shipment. Unfortunately, probably [ze względu] due to the exceptionally complicated internal situation in Ukraine, and particularly in the Donetsk region, we received no response whatsoever to our inquiries. In June 2014, among other things, we sent a declaration offering to host representatives of Sievierodonetsk as part of support for local-government reforms in Ukraine, but this invitation also went unanswered
  • in this situation, we declared our intention to participate in activities organized by the Association of Polish Cities, which coordinates a program for hosting delegations from Ukrainian cities while having a structural partner of its own. Our declaration was accepted; however, during the first round of such contacts, the Association of Polish Cities was also unable to establish contact with the authorities of Sievierodonetsk on our behalf. We hope this will happen during the planned second round
  • we became involved in two ways: by participating in organizing the transport of donations collected by nationwide non-governmental organizations (PSP firefighters took part in this operation in December 2014).

Secondly, in November 2014, we declared that we would host a delegation representing the “Art Gallery of the Children of Ukraine,” which proposed organizing an exhibition of children’s art in Jelenia Góra in May 2015. We are awaiting confirmation that our declaration has been accepted.

We are fully prepared to organize and coordinate work related to a possible collection of donations for our partner city (or other cities if contact with Sievierodonetsk proves impossible). Nevertheless, this will certainly take place with the participation of a larger group of Polish local governments. Given the distances involved, organizing a separate shipment from Jelenia Góra alone would be pointless in terms of the costs in relation to the actual material effect.

We are also prepared to provide institutional assistance and support to any non-governmental organization that undertakes this initiative. However, an absolutely essential condition is a specific institutional recipient in Sievierodonetsk who will responsibly accept and distribute the shipment from Jelenia Góra.

We will return to this subject.

Jelenia Góra City Hall/ii