Rayon Pustomyty
The Saarpfalz district's cooperation with Ukrainian partner districts began in 2017 with the establishment of friendly contacts with the Pustomyty district. After several reciprocal visits with fruitful exchanges on local administrative practice, the heads of the districts, District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo and District Council Chairwoman Halyna Hychka, signed the official district partnership at a ceremonial meeting in Pustomyty on 31 August 2018. The two were accompanied by District Administrator Jan Pączek from the Polish district of Przemyśl, with which both the Pustomyty district and the Saarpfalz district are twinned.
The following year was characterised by the deepening of the newly established connections and an understanding of possible areas of cooperation. In May 2019, two German-Polish-Ukrainian friendship concerts were organised in the Ludwigskirche in Saarbrücken and in the large conference hall of the Homburg Forum to celebrate the tri-national partnership together and to get to know the cultural characteristics and traditions of the various partner districts. A delegation visit from the Saarpfalz district to Pustomyty in December 2019 for the Day of Self-Government also provided an opportunity to discuss specific starting points for cooperation in the areas of history, education, tourism, agriculture, student exchanges, healthcare and economic development, thereby reinforcing the partnership at a professional level.
With the administrative reform in Ukraine, the Pustomyty district was dissolved on 18 July 2020 and became part of a larger regional authority. However, it quickly became clear that a continuation of the partnership with the newly founded Lviv district, into which the former Pustomyty district was merged, was expressly sought by both sides.