By GREGG MONTGOMERY
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A Ukrainian mayor with an eye toward rebuilding his city toured Riverview Health’s cancer unit in Noblesville on Friday.
Photo provided by City of Noblesville
Noblesville Communications Director Emily Gaylord said the visit to Riverview by Serhiy Sukhomlyn, the mayor of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, was not announced in advance for security reasons. Sukhomlyn only visited the hospital and no other places in the city, Gaylord said.
Zhytomyr is about halfway between the borders with Belarus and Moldova in western Ukraine. Its 2021 population was more than 263,000.
The Ukrainian city has not escaped the war with Russia. Photos from Getty Images show rubble left in Zhytomyr when a bomb on June 7 damaged a school and other buildings. Photos taken in February show roads leading to the city littered with destroyed and burned Russian tanks and other military equipment.
Noblesville hopes to add Zhytomyr as a Sister City. The Washington, D.C.-based Sister Cities International matches U.S. communities with foreign entities to foster broad-based, long-term partnerships.
Zhytomyr would be part of the first four-party Sister City partnership including the Noblesville city government, the Mission to Ukraine organization, the Ukrainian Society of Indiana, and the International Center of Indianapolis.
Gaylor said the Sister City agreement could be formalized sometime in 2023.
Photo provided by City of Noblesville
Photo provided by City of Noblesville