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The City of Kent is reaching out a helping hand in friendship half a world away … to war-torn Ukraine.

Kent has active sister city relationships with cities in Norway, Japan, and China. In non-pandemic years, student exchange groups and city government leaders from Kent will visit Kent’s sister cities and vice versa.

It’s all part of the objective of the sister city program, which was in 1956 to foster understanding across different cultures.

But Kent’s newest sister will be in a country we’ve all had our eyes on this year — Ukraine.

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Kent Mayor Dana Ralph said before this year, the city had started looking into a sister city relationship in Ukraine because Kent has a large population of Ukrainian immigrants.

“Immigrants from Ukraine were some of Kent’s very first immigrant population,” Ralph said. “They still make up a very large part of our community. So we’ve got longstanding history there.”

Kent chose the city of — a city of 200,000 in Northwestern Ukraine — because many of Kent’s Ukrainian immigrants once called Lutsk home. The city is different from Kent in many ways, but Ralph said the most important things remain the same.

“It is a larger city in population, and obviously a much older city,” Ralph said. “But I think values and desire to be a part of something and community and family and all of those things are really the key.”

With the pandemic fading enough to allow travel, plans were made for the mayor of Lutsk to visit Kent. But just before the trip, everything changed.

“We had set up time for the mayor of Lutsk to come and visit Kent, to talk about a sister city relationship,” Ralph said. “And then, with the war breaking out literally days before that visit was supposed to start, we put that on hold.”

Lutsk is close to Poland and is not under direct attack right now — earlier in the war. Like those living in every other Ukrainian city, Lutsk residents’ worlds have turned upside-down.

“I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine being the mayor of a city that has gone from everything being fine to being under attack in a matter of days,” Ralph said.

Ralph said many Lutsk residents have gone to fight the Russians, and the entire city is engaged in helping the war effort.

“I was doing my research and looking and thinking that this is just an amazing city,” she said. “And what we can pray for is that the damage isn’t extensive to that amazing architecture and their history.”

Kent is doing its part too. Kent is a place where refugees often settle — such as some of the Afghan refugees last year — and now Kent is ready to welcome Ukrainian refugees with open arms. Like other cities throughout the region, Kent is working with the Ukrainian Consulate General and local Ukrainian churches to help gather supplies and support for Ukraine.

Throughout the past few months, Ralph and the Kent city government have stayed in close contact with Lutsk leadership.

Finally, last week, Ralph and Council President Bill Boyce were able to meet with Lutsk Mayor Ihor Polishchuk over Zoom to sign a memorandum to pursue a sister city relationship.

The meeting wasn’t entirely virtual — Lutsk City Councilmember Roman Kravchukmade the trip to Kent to be there in person.

The two cities are looking forward to a postwar era when they can once again host student and city government exchanges.

“It was really heartening to hear their hope and their positivity, and that part of their desire in building this relationship was really looking forward to what does it mean when the war is over and how do we support each other and learn from each other,” Ralph said.

But in the meantime, Ralph hopes the sister city bond can be a symbol of friendship and peace in the face of war.

“It’s to send a message to our Ukrainian residents that we are here, we are standing by you, and we want to be a part of helping you as you go through this time with your family that is still in Ukraine,” Ralph said.

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