‘Mark city’s links with troubled part of Ukraine’
FIGHTING around Cardiff’s twin city Luhansk in Ukraine is entering its fifth year – and now there are calls for the Welsh capital to mark 60 years of its links with the troubled region.
More than 10,000 lives have been claimed since fighting began in Ukraine’s Donbass region in March 2014, which saw pro-Russian separatists take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.
Almost two million people in the Donbass region have been displaced or have had to flee, while numerous attempts at a ceasefire between pro-Russian and Ukrainian forces have failed.
Luhansk, which entered a twinning agreement with Cardiff in 1959, is still being held by a pro-Russian rebel group and is not under Ukrainian control.
The Foreign Office advises against all travel to the Luhansk region and says: “The security situation in the southeastern parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts of Ukraine remains highly unstable with ongoing clashes between Ukrainian armed forces and Russianbacked armed separatists.”
But calls have been made for Cardiff to remember its historic links with Luhansk.
During the miners’ strike in the 1980s people from Luhansk sent money to help families in South Wales.
And when the war in Ukraine began in 2014, people from Cardiff moved to repay that help by sending donations to families affected by the fighting.
Councillor Phil Bale became leader of Cardiff council months before the conflict in Ukraine started.
He said: “I very much hope the people of Cardiff will use the 60th anniversary to renew and strengthen the historic links which exist between Ukraine and Wales.
“Whilst the current conflict in the region may present its challenges, it is precisely at times such as these that true friendships should come into their own.”
Councillor Bale, who visited Ukraine in the summer, says he has written to Cardiff ’s three universities to encourage them to support research and exchange links with the Luhansk region.
The East Ukrainian University has been forced to relocate from Luhansk to nearby city Severodonetsk due to the fighting. It now has around 6,300 students - before the conflict it had around 35,000.
Cardiff’s Labour group said it would meet with Councillor Bale to consider Cardiff’s future relationship with Luhansk.
A Labour spokesman said: “There are currently no plans in place to mark Cardiff’s twinning with Luhansk, which is no longer under Ukrainian control.
“However, senior Cardiff Labour Group officers will meet with Councillor Bale when he returns from his current overseas visit to help establish a Labour Group position on any on-going relationship with Luhansk.”