Mayor ends Sister City relationship with Perm

As the war and suffering in Ukraine continues, Mayor Fischer has ended Louisville’s “sister city” activities with Perm, Russia, as an expression of Louisville’s frustration with the international values broken by Russia.

“It is completely unacceptable that Russia is continuing its unprovoked and totally unjustified invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign country,” Mayor Fischer said in a letter sent to Perm Mayor Aleksey Demkin. “There is no indication this war will end soon, and the Russian government has not taken any steps to indicate it is willing to terminate this outrage. The killing of innocent women, children and the elderly is a disgrace.”

Mayor Fischer said Louisville would be willing to resume sister city activities with Perm should the atrocities in Ukraine end.

“At that point, we can mutually consider restoring our relationship around a future based on the respect of basic human rights,” he said, urging Mayor Demkin “to use everything in your power to bring this war to an end.”

Mayor Fischer has joined local and national leaders in condemning Russian atrocities against Ukraine since the war began in February. In March, the Mayor, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth and other local leaders held a rally in support of Ukraine and Louisville's Ukraine immigrant communities.

Mayor Fischer continues to urge people to find ways to help the people of Ukraine. More information can be found at https://louisvilleky.gov/ukraine.

Louisville and Perm have been sister cities since 1994. The relationship resulted in multiple delegation visits to inform work on challenges including youth engagement and entrepreneurship, and also resulted in several higher education initiatives.