On 9 May 2023, Dr. Ulf Kämpfer, Mayor of Kiel, welcomed a delegation from Kherson State Agrarian and Economic University (KSAEU). The delegation included Prof. Dr. Viktoriia Hranovska, Vice-Rector of KSAEU, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Viktoriia Krykunova, Dean of its Faculty of Economics. The visit also brought the whole Kherson-Kiel project team together in person for the first time.
Discussing the city partnership
The delegation thanked its German partners for their ongoing support and expressed support for a city partnership between Kiel and Kherson. Prof. Hranovska introduced the City and Oblast of Kherson and presented KSAEU. She also described the difficult situation in Kherson, which continued to face Russian shelling.
The KSAEU delegation meets Kiel’s Mayor at the town hall.
At the Mayor’s office (left to right):
Prof. Dr. Viktoriia Hranovska, Vice-Rector of KSAEU; Dr. Ulf Kämpfer, Mayor of Kiel; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Viktoriia Krykunova, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and project member; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tetiana Skibina, project member (Photo: City of Kiel / Arne Gloy)
Challenges for the university
Damage to a KSAEU campus building in Kherson.
Prof. Hranovska reported that KSAEU’s premises had been damaged, some severely, and that equipment had been destroyed or taken by Russian forces. Laboratories could not be used. Despite the liberation of the city, shelling and the continued occupation of part of Kherson Oblast posed safety concerns for students, teaching staff and other employees. Financial needs also remained substantial. (Photos: KSAEU)
We thank the City of Kiel for welcoming the delegation and colleagues at Kiel University (CAU) and KSAEU for their work on the partnership. The wider teaching cooperation is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through Ukraine Digital, with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We are grateful to these funders for helping sustain academic cooperation.
