Council signs agreement with Ukraine region

Volodymyr Kohut said the agreement was "extremely important" for collaboration

A Ukrainian politician has hailed a council's agreement with the region he heads as "extremely important".

Suffolk County Council has signed a memorandum of understanding with Poltava Regional Military Administration.

The council said the agreement would help to strengthen ties and collaboration on economic development, agriculture and food production, and tourism.

Volodymyr Kohut, head of the Poltava administration, said: "It is extremely important for us because this is the chance for us to find those shared common points within the number of areas."

He and Conservative council leader Matthew Hicks signed the document on Wednesday at the XR Lab at West Suffolk College, Bury St Edmunds.

Kohut (centre) and Hicks signed the agreement on Wednesday

Kohut said: "I do hope that this will be the first point, the initial step for us, to grow our potential stronger.

"We are here, first of all, to establish new connections, to find new people, to find opportunities which can help and be mutually beneficial."

Matthew Hicks said Suffolk and Poltava had "common strengths", including agriculture, engineering, and digital technology

Hicks said the agreement was a "bigger opportunity than just money".

He said it could include joint research, student and workforce exchanges and business partnerships

"This is about sharing knowledge and collaboration in areas where we have common links, and actually Poltava and Suffolk have many things in common, so this is a really good opportunity for us to sign this memorandum of understanding," he said.

Lesi Hunko, Sasha Hordeenko and Tanya Chukhochuva all studied English Language at the college

Gifts, including a picture of a Suffolk Punch horse and a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, were exchanged during the agreement,

Lesi Hunko, from Kyiv, has lived in Suffolk for three years and studied English Language at the college.

The 54-year-old, who lives near Newmarket, said: "It is a very nice event, and I think English and Ukrainian people are very the same, and I think this event will be good for progress in agriculture and IT."

Sasha Hordeenko, 39, moved to the UK from Dnipro in Ukraine about two and a half years ago.

Now living in Thurston, she said: "It is like a historical moment as Ukrainian people know they are not alone in this world."