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The Norfolk City Council voted to suspend its sister-city relationship with a city in Russia as the nation’s invasion of Ukraine continues.
The council passed a resolution unanimously Tuesday night calling for the suspension of the relationship “until peace and sovereignty are restored in Ukraine,” even though the nonprofit that fosters the relationship has said it wanted to maintain it.
In the letter to the City Council last week, Marguerite Inscoe, president of the Norfolk Sister City Association, wrote that lasting peace “can be best achieved” through the development of personal relationships.
“To that end, we desire to continue our quest to establish a meaningful relationship with the people of Kaliningrad,” Inscoe wrote.
It is the City Council’s decision whether to begin or end a sister-city relationship.
Councilwoman Andria McClellan said Tuesday night’s decision to suspend the relationship was “a tough one.”
“I think that the work the sister cities do is so important, and it is a people-to-people relationship,” McClellan said. “It is not about politics, and it provides an opportunity for us to have discourse and to spread and promote our democratic ideals in our sister cities.”
She voted in favor of the measure, saying she was glad the relationship was being suspended rather than severed.
The move was part of the city’s effort to “do all it can to denounce President Putin’s atrocities and crimes against humanity,” according to the resolution.
The City Council also called on the people of Kaliningrad, a port city on the Baltic Sea, to do what they could do to safely oppose the invasion.
More than 400 civilians, including at least 27 children, have died since the invasion began, according to numbers released Monday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The organization warned that real numbers could be higher.
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Norfolk’s relationship with the Russian city came under scrutiny after Gov. Glenn Youngkin called for Virginia to take “decisive action” in support of Ukraine.
He called on Norfolk and Roanoke to end their sister city relationships with Russian municipalities.
Before the council voted to suspend the relationship, the Norfolk Sister City Association made the decision to cover its signage for the Russian sister city at Town Point Park as a demonstration of support for Ukraine.
The organization said in its letter to the city that of its 10 relationships, the one with Kaliningrad was one of the least active.
Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander offered a statement at the meeting Tuesday night thanking the sister-city organization for the work it has done building and maintaining relationships around the world, saying “it has certainly added to peaceful relations and democracy and goodwill.”
“We’re praying for the people in Ukraine and also the people of our sister city,” Alexander said.
Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com