RIGA, May 25 (LETA) - Ukrainian Ambassador to Latvia Olexandr Mischenko made a working visit to Latvia's southwestern port city Liepaja on Wednesday to meet with the leadership of the Dienvidkurzeme municipality and Liepaja City for discussions on expanding bilateral cooperation, as well as to meet with Ukrainian civilians and present children's books to Ukrainian preschoolers, LETA was told at the town hall. 

During the visit to Liepaja, representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy met with Liepaja Mayor Gunars Alsins (Liepaja Party), Deputy Mayor Atis Deksnis (Latvian Association of Regions), Liepaja's executive director Ronalds Fricbergs, as well as representatives of the institutions providing assistance and support to Ukrainian civilians. 

The ambassador's meetings in Liepaja focused on various matters related to the provision of assistance to Ukrainian civilians. Representatives of the local authority told about the assistance and support Ukrainians receive in Liepaja, operations of the centralized registration point for Ukrainian war refugees, the number of Ukrainian schoolchildren in Liepaja's schools, employment issues, social support and other subjects. 

The embassy's representatives were also briefed on the latest statistics (as of Wednesday, May 25, Liepaja had received 1,063 Ukrainian refugees) and a new compensations mechanism for local families accommodating people from Ukraine. The talks also touched on possibilities of expanding cooperation and ideas on how to enhance the provision of support. 

Ambassador Mischenko thanked Liepaja for the support provided to the Ukrainian civilians. 

After a meeting with the Ukrainian civilians, the ambassador met with Uldis Hmielevskis, the acting CEO of Liepaja Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and visited Liepaja SEZ territory and companies based in Liepaja SEZ including enterprises employing Ukrainians. 

Before the meetings at Liepaja Town Hall, the ambassador visited the Dienvidkurzeme municipality where he met with local council chairman Aivars Priedols (Greens/Farmers), visited the NGO Tabit's Heart and met with its head Kristine Vidzeniece. 

At the beginning of this week, Liepaja and the Dienvidkurzeme municipality together had admitted 1,306 war refugees from Ukraine. Liepaja had admitted 1,043 people and the Dienvidkurzeme municipality 263 people.