Ostroh, Ukraine mayor Yurii Yahodka, left, and Athens Mayor Steve Patterson, right. Patterson is pointing in the direction of his city as displayed on a sign placed in Ostroh. Patterson traveled there as part of a program to help cities grow in governance. (Photo courtesy of Steve Patterson.)
There’s a good chance Southeast Ohio pawpaws are now growing in a small garden in Ukraine.
That’s thanks to Athens mayor Steve Patterson, who brought some of PawPaw Festival founder Chris Chmiel’s stash on a trip to get to know the city of Ostroh, a city similar in many ways to Athens with its small-town charm and educational institutions that are almost as old as the city itself.
Patterson made the trip in February – specifically choosing that time period to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s military invasion – to learn more about the city and establish the two far-away towns as sister cities.
“To see the resolve and the patriotism coming from the cities that I got to see, they’re all in,” Patterson said. “Everybody’s doing everything they possible can.”
The trip was made possible after Patterson attended a National League of Cities conference in 2022, where he met with the United States Agency for International Development representatives at a reception. USAID has a specific program called the Ukraine Governance and Local Accountability program that “helps create and strengthen local governance systems, processes, and institutions so they are more self-reliant, inclusive, effective, and accountable to citizens,” according to a USAID fact sheet on the program.
“We’re making ties between different sectors of commerce, we establish relationships with K-12 schools in both areas, and we’re looking at how to engage our institutions of higher ed,” Patterson said.
When the Athens mayor was setting up the trip, he asked organizers to connect him with a city that was similar geographically to Athens, and which had a lot of the same facilities and functions. That’s where Ostroh comes in, located in the oblast (a term for the regions of Ukraine) of Rivne.
“Geographically, (Ostroh) is in the southeast corner of the Rivne oblast, it has two rivers that run through it, it has rolling hills, and it’s got the Ostroh Academy,” Patterson said.
When the opportunity to become a sister city with Ostroh came up, the Athens mayor said he never planned to make it just an on-paper association.
“It wasn’t like just checking a box; I had to go over,” he said.
Armed with local goods such as Passion Works flowers painted in Ukraine yellow and blue, and pawpaw seeds and homemade jam, he made the trek, flying from Ohio to Krakow, Poland. A security detail then took him and a group of translators and organizers across the border to Ukraine.
From there, Patterson’s trip was marked by emotions more than landmarks. He started his trip in Lviv, a “cosmopolitan” city that also houses a hospital Patterson called “the epicenter in the whole nation for trauma, amputations, surgeries and prosthetics.”
The city has been the subject of Russian air attacks during the course of the war, and throughout his trip through Ukraine, Patterson was a part of multiple air raid alerts.
In one case, he talked to a class from the Ostroh Academy in an old crypt, because that was the closest air raid shelter to the classroom they were preparing to enter.
“They’re so used to this that they had seats already in there,” Patterson said. “Because this is their life at this point.”
Touring an elementary school in Ostroh, the Athens mayor walked through several “themed” rooms. One displayed the history and culture of Ostroh. Another was meant to teach kids how to react to an air raid siren, and the correct way to put on a gas mask.
School administrators opened a book case with stuffed animals, chocolate boxes, and purses, then showed Patterson the deactivated explosives the items hid. He was told Russian soldiers gave the toys to kids in Ukrainian neighborhoods.
One student showed Patterson traditional embroidered shirts and tablecloths from the region, and afterward, a teacher said his father had died less than a week ago on the front lines of the war.
“It was crushing for me,” Patterson said. “I was sitting there having to manage that and stay engaged while they were showing me things.”
In a volunteer center — one of many opened up after February 2022 across the country — he helped make candles to be used by soldiers (called “defenders”) in the trenches, and watched a group of predominantly women weave camouflage netting.
“Most of them are there because their spouse is on the front line, or they’ve lost their husband (in the war),” Patterson was told.
Every morning at 9 a.m., cities amplify a message through their town-squares PA systems, recognizing soldiers fighting and leading a moment of silence for those that have been lost. The cities come to a halt, with pedestrians pausing their days and drivers standing on the side of roads, according to Patterson.
“It moved me so much that for the next two days, whatever we were doing, even if we were inside, I would go outside just to experience it again,” he said.
Now that he’s back home, Patterson plans to continue the work he started with the trip. After talking to government leaders in Ostroh about Ohio’s Home Rule designation, and August and November’s ballot initiatives for constitutional amendments, and even Athens’ plastic bag ordinance, he also bragged about Ohio University’s Heritage College of Medicine and the training programs at the Athens Fire Department.
Patterson said he’s since met with leaders from OUHCOM and Athens Fire Chief Robert Rymer about connecting with related officials in Ostroh for help with projects like a clinic to study psychology, and technical fire skills training.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm and hope within the areas that I engaged in,” Patterson said.
He also said he plans to take the experiences he had in Ukraine to the National League of Cities Conference this year in DC, meeting with representatives on Capitol Hill and Ohio’s U.S. Congress members like U.S. Rep. Troy Balderson and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, who has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. offering assistance to Ukraine.
“I want to tell the story of having been eyes and ears on the ground in a war-torn nation, in a conflict zone, and having to truly endure what they endure every day,” Patterson said. “It’s heavy, but this is real, and this is what they’re going through to become a whole country again.”
