Luhansk holds Days of Lviv

Luhansk has recently tried to make Ukraine’s east and west to know each other closer. For two days the city has held the Days of Lviv. Lviv’s Deputy Mayor Vasyl Kosiv with a delegation came to present their city: they treated the residents of Luhansk to famous Lviv coffee and chocolate, showed thea­ter performances, and showed the traditions of their land. “This day is an invitation for all of you to come to Lviv, the city of unique spirituality and traditions, where a hundred of cultural festivals take place during a year. We have brought only a small part of our cultural life. I want you to feel the flavor of our festivals, chocolate, and coffee,” Kosiv said.

The event could not do without discussion on why Luhansk and Lviv communicate and know each other so little that this gives reason to stereotypes about animosity between them. Luhansk’s mayor Serhii Kravchenko assumed that bad transport services impede the communication between the cities, and air communication should be established between them to improve the si­tuation. “This is the problem of our entire country. Lviv and Luhansk seem to be on different poles. Air communication should be established between the cities. After the Euro-2012 good airports will appear in Do­netsk and Lviv, but the train ‘Lviv-Luhansk’ will become shorter, and we will think how to resolve this problem. People should have possibilities to come to each other, because we scarcely know each other,” the Luhansk mayor considers. Lviv’s deputy mayor agreed, because the delegation had to use different transport means to come to Luhansk: some people went by bus, others – by train.

For two days the Lvivites held open lectures for students in Luhansk, and historian Ilko Lemko presented his books about Lviv. And in the evening Voskresinnia showed the play Gloria in the central city square in order that the residents of Luhansk felt the bright atmosphere of Lviv festivals.

Luhansk’s mayor expressed his desire to go in spring on a similar trip to Lviv in return to the friendly visit. “From this day on Lvivites will be frequent guests to our city. Most importantly, politicians should understand that they will not succeed in dividing the country into two parts. We, the mayors, do understand each other and we have common problems. I would like a si­mi­lar delegation to come from Lviv to Luhansk in spring and show what we are proud of,” Serhii Kravchenko stated.