Around 22,000 people have been killed in Vadym Boichenko’s city since the Russian invasion began

Our organisation organised a trip of the Mayor of Mariupol to the UK, arranged for him a number of meetings with Members of Parliament at the Carlton Club, with the Attorney General of Great Britain, with the Mayors of Liverpool and Manchester, with Baroness Meyer.

The mayor of a war-devastated Ukrainian city visited Banbury.  

In an event which wasn’t announced in advance due to security concerns, Vadym Boichenko, the leader of Mariupol met civic dignitaries, councillors, and members of the town’s Ukrainian community at a reception in the town hall.

Mariupol is the city on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov which has seen some of the worst devastation since Russia invaded Ukraine.   An estimated 22,000 civilians have died and 90% of the city’s infrastructure has been damaged.   Mariupol was home to maternity hospital number three, where four people were killed in a strike on March 9.   Today the city of half a million people is down to just 120,000 trying to survive there.

It was thanks to the Mayor of Banbury the trip to the UK was possible.   Mayor Boichenko, like all Ukrainians in the war-torn country, is subject to martial law.   An invitation to visit Banbury from our Mayor, Councillor Fiaz Ahmed, provided a reason to grant Mayor Boichenko an exit visa.   He then had to head to Poland to get a UK visa and to catch a flight here.

Mayor Boichenko told last night’s reception what Mariupol had been like before the war and spoke of his vision for a rebuilt city once it is back in Ukrainian hands.   The mayor is currently living in exile in Dnipro, 200 miles to the north.   He and a team of architects have been working on the vision – a project called Mariupol Reborn.

Vadym Boichenko told Banbury FM: “We are temporarily displaced and today we are forming plans for our return to Mariupol.

“We are forming them right now, we have already formed a plan called an immediate response plan. They’ve been working on them for nine months.”

Councillor Mallon said: “I think we were the first In the country that ran the Ukrainian flag up our flagpole – it’s up there today.    We’re proud of the people of Banbury who pull together during these times.

“Any support that we can give anyone from Ukraine is tremendously important.  We went through the Second World War with the Blitz.  They must be going through similar things now.  Terrible, terrible times.  Even if it’s a small thing the word gets back to Ukraine – to the people in the villages and towns and cities – that we in the UK are 100% behind them.    That has got to be good.”

The reception ended with the singing of the Ukraine national anthem.

Vadym Boichenko proposed a model for attracting foreign investment to implement Mariupol's revitalisation projects during a meeting with Baroness Catherine Meyer, British Trade Representative to Ukraine and the UK Department of Trade.

The programme of the visit of Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko to UK