YORK is to adopt Lviv as a sister city in a show of solidarity with Ukrainian people as the Russian invasion enters its third month.

A Liberal Democrat motion, approved at a meeting of full council on Wednesday, asked councillors to reaffirm the council’s commitment to stand with Ukraine, welcome those fleeing the war to the city and support people living in York affected by the war.

Cllr Darryl Smalley, executive member for culture, leisure and communities at City of York Council, said: “The motion tonight is a small gesture of solidarity, which reaffirms our support for our friends in Ukraine and all those impacted by this horrific war.

“Both York and Lviv are thriving cities known for their cultural and historic richness and common day-to-day challenges such as flooding.

"There’s much we can learn from each other and strengthening our links both now is a sign of support as well as in the longer term.”

Since its creation in 1956, Sister Cities International has worked to create global relationships based on cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges, leading to  “lifelong friendships that provide prosperity and peace through person-to-person citizen diplomacy".

Cllr David Carr revealed during the debate that his father was a Polish soldier who fought with the British army in the Second World War before settling in Britain.

“I therefore feel the bloodied and twisted hand of Eastern European geopolitics and Russian imperialism gripping my shoulder probably tighter than most in this room,” he said.  “Whatever we as a city and as a country can do to aid the victims there and disrupt this latest brutal, mendacious and pointless piece of Russian adventurism receives my fullest support.”

The Labour group backed the motion, but Cllr Fiona Fitzpatrick said they felt there was an “an element of virtue signalling on the part of the administration in pursuing a twinning arrangements at this very difficult time”.

Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, visited York in November to discuss shared cultural, economic and local government links, but Cllr Fitzpatrick said more thought could have gone into choosing which city to adopt as a sister city.

She said: “It does not necessarily follow that they should be the city we suddenly extend a twinning invitation to.

"All the appropriate criteria involved in the twinning process should have been completed before a rushed announcement. For example, there are cities in the east of Ukraine desperately in need.”

An official twinning with Lviv was not considered appropriate currently as the process takes more time and work than creating a sister city relationship.

Cllr Smalley pointed out that Lviv’s deputy mayor welcomed York’s bid when he was interviewed with him on the radio.

York already has twin and sister city relationships with Dijon, in France, the German city of Munster and Nanjing in China, as well as a ‘temporal twinning’ with the tenth century Viking settlement of Jorvik.