Mayors of Boulder and Vinnytsia, Ukraine shared hopeful sentiments translated between English and Ukrainian on Wednesday morning before signing a Sister Cities agreement.

Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett officially signed the agreement Wednesday alongside Gov. Jared Polis, who recently signed a Sister State agreement with the Ukrainian region of Volyn.

Through an online video meeting, Vinnytsia Mayor Serhii Morhunov signed the agreement in Ukraine while Brockett signed it in Boulder, and the two mayors talked about a hopeful future of collaboration between the cities in their respective languages.

Morhunov expressed gratitude to “the American people, politicians and communities” for their support of Ukraine through the war.

“Nowadays, cities become points of resilience at the community level,” Morhunov said. “As we say, no one can be a lonely warrior in the battlefield, so we understand that no city can be strong on its own.”

The Sister City agreement began with Boulder resident Gaea Logan and a team she assembled providing trauma response training to Ukrainian clinicians at Vinnytsia State Pedagogical University in 2022. The Highland Institute started supporting her team’s work and, in 2023, the institute’s director visited Vinnytsia to discuss the potential for further collaboration between the cities.

The Boulder City Council unanimously approved a Sister City proposal in November and the two mayors signed the documents Wednesday, formalizing the agreement.

Officials in both cities have already collaborated on trauma healing projects, education and cultural exchange, the sister cities website says.

Part of the relationship between the cities will include shared research efforts between their universities on the efficacy of trauma and resiliency training in the context of war, Logan said.

“Knowledge is not owned by one community, but grows through a relationship,” Logan said. “The sister city agreement is more than a formal bond between municipalities, it is a living bridge between communities, histories and people who are choosing together to remain engaged in a fragmented world that drifts toward polarization and authoritarian regimes.”

Boulder has had a sister cities program for more than 20 years, signing similar agreements with 10 other cities including Nablus, Palestine, Ramat HaNegev, Israel, and Kisumu, Kenya.

“There is so much darkness in the world right now, but let this Sister City relationship be a beacon of light that shines forth and gives hope to people in Boulder, Vinnytsia and across the world,” Brockett said.