Fort Myers’ sister city connected to Russian invasion of Ukraine

One of the staging areas for Russia’s invasion is connected to Southwest Florida. That city is Gomel, Belarus, and it happens to be Fort Myers’ sister city.

Now, a Fort Myers city leader wants to suspend the relationship with Gomel. The relationship with our sister city came up in Monday night’s city council meeting.

City Council member Liston Bochette brought up the proposal at the meeting. However, the council ultimately decided to table the idea until the mayor gets back to work.

Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson broke his femur over the weekend after falling at Publix.

Bochette says he’s passionate about the issue and that it will be brought up again.

“I know the area very well. And this is the right thing to do for the right reasons. It is the right time now as the City of Fort Myers have any impact on this?” Bochette said. “No. But our citizens can actually understand that we have moral fiber and will stand up for what’s right, you know, the values of freedom and self-determination.

It’s worth noting that an Honorary council of Belarus is listed in North Port. WINK News called all of the numbers listed, but only one worked. We left a message.

WINK News also emailed the Embassy of Belarus in Washington D.C., but no one has responded to our request for comment so far.