Those were some of the results of a recent visit organised by the British Council with the Churches’ Regional Commission in the North East of England as part of their Active Citizens Programme for a group of young people from areas including Lviv, Crimea and Dnipropetrovsk.

In return, a group of young people from the UK visited Ukraine in June 2011. You can read more about the exchanges programme and how it highlighted UK and Ukrainian models and practices of community engagement at the Active Citizens link above.


Six cultures meet together.


At Crimean Tatars’ family, hospitable home made dinner.


Friendship has no borders


Friendly football game between British students and project participants from Ukraine, Tynemouth seashore, UK.


Learning from each other


Learning Crimea Tatars dancing at the youth centre “Arslan” in Backchisaray, Crimea.

Leigh Turner has been the British Ambassador to Ukraine since June 2008. You can read all his blog entries at blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turnerenglish (in English) or blogs.fco.gov.uk/roller/turner/ (Ukrainian)