Bozeman forges Ukrainian sister city ties
- Bozeman’s City Commission approved an agreement on April 21 authorizing Mayor Joey Morrison to form an international partnership with Kopychyntsi, a municipality in Ukraine’s Ternopil region, through the Cities4Cities initiative. - City documents say the agreement carries no direct fiscal effect for Bozeman, while Kopychyntsi’s community profile lists 13,798 residents and 494 internally displaced people as of January 1, 2025. - The move formalizes aid and civic ties Bozeman supporters built after Russia’s invasion and plugs the city into a wider municipal partnership network for Ukraine. (bozeman.net)
Bozeman formally added Kopychyntsi, Ukraine, as a partner city on April 21, when the City Commission approved an international cooperation agreement. (bozeman.net) (d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net) The city memo says Mayor Joey Morrison was authorized to sign the agreement with the Community of Kopychyntsi in the Ternopil region through the Cities4Cities initiative. The agenda item was listed for the April 21, 2026 commission meeting at Bozeman City Hall. (d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net) (bozeman.net) Bozeman’s staff memo lists no direct fiscal effect from the agreement. The document frames the partnership under the city’s strategic goal of expanding business and institutional ties. (d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net) Kopychyntsi is a small territorial community in western Ukraine. Cities4Cities says it had 13,798 residents, covered 170.7 square kilometers, and was hosting 494 internally displaced people as of January 1, 2025. (cities4cities.eu) That profile helps explain why a Montana city would pair with a rural Ukrainian municipality instead of a capital or industrial center. Cities4Cities was built to match foreign municipalities with Ukrainian communities for long-term cooperation, and the network says more than 80 municipalities in Sweden, Germany, Poland, and France have already started partnerships. (cities4cities.eu 1) (cities4cities.eu 2) Bozeman’s move also formalizes ties that appear to predate the 2026 vote. In 2023, NBC Montana reported that Belgrade artist Jim Dolan was sending a blue steel horse sculpture called “Mustang” to Kopychyntsi and described the city as Bozeman’s sister city. (nbcmontana.com) The same NBC Montana report said Bozeman’s Ukraine Relief Effort board helped arrange the shipment. Dolan said he wanted to send artwork, not only supplies, and expected the sculpture to travel through Krakow, Poland, before reaching Ukraine. (nbcmontana.com) Cities4Cities has featured Kopychyntsi in other cross-border programs, including mayoral exchanges in Germany in 2024. In that report, Mayor Bohdan Kelichavyi said Ukrainian municipalities were still trying to build European partnerships despite wartime strain. (cities4cities.eu) For Bozeman, the April 21 vote turns that informal solidarity into a city-backed relationship with a named place, a signed agreement, and a route for future exchanges. (bozeman.net) (d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net)
