On the surface, Kherson, Ukraine, and Worcester, Massachusetts, have about as much in common as Canada and Florida. Vitalii Bielobrov, Kherson’s deputy mayor, was late for a recent call between the two cities because he was struggling to find a secure connection amid heavy Russian shelling. Charles Goodwin, a city commissioner from Worcester, assured him not to worry. His schedule was not quite as tight and very unlikely to include any incoming ordnance.
The call was a form of quiet diplomacy that is providing unexpected insights for U.S. cities even as leaders around the world keep scratching for a solution to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Kherson and Worcester are one of 10 American-Ukrainian city partnerships, facilitated by Cities4Cities, a Ukraine-based nonprofit group. You would think that the Ukrainian cities—who have been at war with Russia for more than three years—would rely on the Americans, and indeed, the U.S. cities are doing things like sending old fire trucks and medical equipment.
But the most striking thing is that the partnership is going the other way: Cities like Worcester are picking up disaster relief innovations as they face potential cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Goodwin, 37, who runs Worcester’s emergency services, reached out to Bielobrov to learn disaster relief strategies, which Kherson, on the front line in southeastern Ukraine, has honed through three years of war. “We’ve now had four or five calls,” Goodwin told me. “We started with emergency relief but are now cooperating across healthcare, veteran services, and education.”
