French Delegation Visits Vinnytsia, Ukraine for Strong Cooperation: Highlights and Future Plans

A joint delegation of elected officials from the City of Dijon, the metropolis of Dijon and the Burgundy-Franche-Comté Region visited Vinnytsia in Ukraine from April 23 to 27, 2024.

Led by Patrick MOLINOZ, vice-president of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region in charge of European policies, and by Nathalie KOENDERS, first deputy mayor of Dijon, vice-president of the city of Dijon, this trip aimed to show their loyalty and commitment hard. of the three communities and their partners who are for Ukraine and the city in the south-west of the country, in the extraordinary and crucial problem for the future of Europe that this country has been going through through from the Russian attack in February 2022.

Bringing together elected officials from the three communities – Patrick MOLINOZ and Laëtitia MARTINEZ, vice president in charge of higher education and research, for the Burgundy-Franche-Comté region; Nathalie KOENDERS, Lydie PFANDER-MÉNY, deputy mayor responsible for international relations with partner cities and Antoine HOAREAU, deputy mayor in charge of solidarity and vice-president of the CCAS, for the metropolis of the City of Dijon and Dijon -, this delegation also consisted of officials from the School of Science Po Dijon represented by its director Lukas MACEK, from the University Hospital of Dijon Bourgogne represented by his deputy general director Lionel PASCINTO, from the University of Technology Belfort-Montbéliard represented by the director Ghislain MONTAVON and from the University of Burgundy represented by the president’s chief of staff Cyril GOMET. This is the largest delegation of French local authorities visiting Ukraine from February 2022, going beyond political relations and protocol.

During this visit, the French delegation was able to meet and intensively prepare the institutions for a future cooperation agreement with the region and the City of Vinnytsia by communicating directly with the mayor of Vinnytsia Serhiy MORHUNOV and the president of the oblast Viacheslav SOKOLOVYI and their teams, but also with several executive managers from the hospital sector, universities, the school system and the agricultural sector.

The first act of strong solidarity will involve welcoming to Dijon, from May 27 to June 14, 2024, a replacement class of 26 students from Vinnytsia together with their four teachers. All these children are the sons and daughters of soldiers who fell on the front, or are currently in battle; their reception in Dijon is the result of a partnership between the City of Dijon, Sciences-Po and the associations Aidons l’Ukraine Dijon and Prykhystock (the Shelter), with the support of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region.

For Nathalie KOENDERS and Patrick MOLINOZ, “beyond the intense feeling of seeing the suffering of Ukrainians, the opportunities for regional cooperation between the communities are real, which could be beneficial for the populations of both regions and giving hope to Ukraine and Europeans.”

Lionel PASCINTO, for his part, said that he “especially appreciated the presentation of the health and teaching group and the visit to the city’s hospitals. The development of today’s technical and biomedical infrastructures around surgical and cardiology operations is impressive. A high level of skills in emergency care and a strong knowledge in rehabilitation medicine are cultivated, in the difficult context of war medicine. The warm, professional welcome given to us testifies to the determination of Vinnytsia hospital staff, extremely respectful and resilient, to build an ambitious and lasting partnership between hospital and university with Dijon Bourgogne University Hospital. “

“This research mission aimed to meet in particular with our counterparts from several Ukrainian universities located in Vinnytsia oblast, to estimate the potential for cooperation in the fields of training and research,” said director of the Belfort-Montbéliard University of Technology (UTBM), Ghislain MONTAVON. “It is mainly with the National Polytechnic University of Vinnytsia that promising opportunities have been identified with UTBM, especially on the topic of self-consumption energy communities: we will fully explore these opportunities together later in the coming weeks. The amazing flexibility of the institutions visited and the special determination of our peers are two memorable points of this trip.”

The director of Sciences-Po Dijon Lukas MACEK pointed out that “this trip was rich and moving.” On the one hand, it gave us the opportunity to see and experience living moments of a Ukrainian city, certainly far from the front, but nevertheless we always feel an impressive mix between the presence of war and the suffering of the t – population On the other hand, it led to meetings that opened the way to concrete joint projects, especially with the University of Donetsk, which moved to Vinnytsia since the Russian occupation of the original cities began in 2014…” .

For the University of Burgundy and Cyril GOMET, “the meeting with the head of the transition university in Donetsk in Vinnytsia made it especially possible to discover the capacity of a university institution to change. The commitment of the teams in the context is impressive. The discussions were an opportunity to highlight several things in our own training areas. In conjunction with teachers and teacher researchers who are likely to create partnership relations, the UB will start discussions to establish strong links with this Ukrainian university. »

With this move, both political and technical, the City of Dijon, the city of Dijon, the Department of Burgundy-Franche-Comté and their partners thus confirm their commitment to cooperation with Ukraine and City of Vinnytsia.