The mayor of Beziers, Robert Menard, stayed in Ukraine for five days from July 1 to July 5. He says.
“Destruction”. This is how Béziers mayor Robert Menard describes his five-day trip to Ukraine on Wednesday 1.is until Sunday 5 July.
“I arrived in Romania on Thursday morning, accompanied by the municipal councilor Jean Cardoville, a delegate of the security commissions, and Olga Barbash, a Ukrainian woman who has lived in Beziers for more than twenty years and worked as a translator. The mayor of Chortkiv, Vladimir Chmatko, was waiting for us. He spent five days with us.”
Why this stay? “I wanted to show Beziers’ solidarity with our Ukrainian sister city. Moreover, this week we welcome about forty teenagers from Chortkiv to Beziers.”
Busy schedule
The group spent the first two days on the front line in Dombas and the last two days in Chortkiv, a city that Béziers has been twinned with since 2022.
A visit to a bunker on the front line, from which soldiers control drones, a meeting with wounded soldiers in the Chortkiv hospital, with the families of refugees who fled from the east of the country, participation in a ceremony in memory of soldiers killed by the Russians during this war… The program was eventful.
“It was truly overwhelming because we felt both tired and hopeful on the part of Ukrainians in the face of a war that lasted four years. Because the balance of power is changing. Two years ago we thought Ukraine was ruined. Today Ukrainians are confident in the future.”– Robert Menard admitted upon his return.