The cultural and humanitarian cooperation between Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is based on the Agreement on cooperation within the spheres of education, science and culture, which was concluded in 1993 between the Governments of our states.

The Embassy of Ukraine has been cooperating closely with leading British cultural institutions and the community organisations of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Great Britain with the specific purpose of fostering bilateral cultural exchange. The Ukrainian and British people ought to have an improved level of mutual awareness with regard to our cultures, traditions and historical heritage.

The main organisation from the British sphere that assists with the development of long-standing and mutually beneficial cultural relations between our states is the British Council. At present, five branches operate in Ukraine, particularly in the cities of Kyiv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv.

From the Ukrainian side we endeavour to present the best Ukrainian ensembles, painters and artists in Great Britain. During the last few years the Odessa State Academic Opera and Dance Theatre has found true connoisseurs of Ukrainian Opera in Great Britain through performances in the best opera venues in this country. In 2007 the sixteenth successive tour of the Chamber Music Choir “Boyan” (which is drawn from the ranks of the L. Revutskyj National State Male Voice Chorus) is being planned.

Numerous exhibitions of art of Hryhoriy Shyshko, Anton Yakutovich, Serhiy Savchenko, Petro Magro and many other Ukrainian painters have taken place in prestigious art galleries in London and Edinburgh and, in their turn, have become established as a new phenomenon in contemporary painting for British art lovers.

Through active participation in world-renowned international projects such as the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Singer of the World based in Cardiff and the Llangollen International Eisteddfod we have been able to acquaint the world with the best displays of Ukrainian musical arts.

Among the well-known composers and musicians and dancers who work in England there are several talented Ukrainians – the composer Alla Sirenko, Ivan Putrov, a dancer at the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden as well as Dmytro Tkachenko and Yevhen Kostritskiy who graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. All of them greatly contribute to the popularisation of Ukrainian culture.

The development of bilateral relations between Great Britain and Ukraine is also fostered through the twin town scheme that has brought about fruitful joint bilateral relations between cities and towns, for example:

Kyiv-Edinburgh, Vinnitsia-Peterborough, Horliva (Donetsk region)- Barnsley, Donetsk-Sheffield, Zaporyzhia-Birmingham, Luhansk-Cardiff, Lviv-Rochdale, Nova Kakhova (Kherson region)-Gateshead, Odessa-Liverpool, Striy (Lviv area)-Mansfield, Uman (Cherkassy region)-Milford Haven, Eupatoriya (Crimea)-Brighton and Yalta (Crimea)-Margate. In addition, twinning connections have been established between the Kirovohrad region and the County of Staffordshire. Partnership contacts have been initiated between Wales and the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine.

Being very aware of the profound historical joint relationship of the British and Ukrainian peoples the Embassy continues to develop in whatever way possible the best traditions of the mutual self-awareness of our both states in the fields of art and culture and concentrates its maximum efforts in presenting the best manifestations of Ukrainian national culture in Great Britain.