French engineer cycled over 2200 km to Lviv and delivered letters of support to Ukraine

French engineer Antoine Lecouana arrived in Lviv by bicycle, covering over 2,200 kilometers from France to Ukraine in 26 days. He dedicated his journey to the Ukrainian people and the successful completion of the project to ensure backup water supply for the UNBROKEN National Rehabilitation Center, reports UNN citing the Lviv City Council.

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During his visit, he personally handed over letters of support to Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi from Cannes Mayor David Lisnard and Grasse Mayor Jérôme Viaud.

The initiator of the journey was Antoine Lecouana himself — a water supply engineer who worked for two years on implementing the backup water supply project for the UNBROKEN center in cooperation with the French non-governmental organization Aquassistance. During this time, he visited Ukraine eight times to monitor the progress of the work and made a promise to himself: if the project was successfully completed, the next time he would return to Lviv by bicycle.

"For me, it was completely logical to materialize the connection between our cities. I did not want to arrive by plane or train, but to cover this distance on my own strength, so that my feet and bicycle wheels would touch the ground and unite our communities. And I also gave myself my word: if we managed to successfully complete the backup water supply project for UNBROKEN, I would return to Ukraine by bicycle. The project was completed, so it was time to keep the promise," said Antoine Lecouana.

He began his route in Cannes — Lviv's sister city — and also visited Grasse, where he is from. Then, passing through Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland, he reached Lviv. The entire journey lasted 26 days. According to Antoine, the biggest challenges were the abnormal heat in France and traveling on busy highways.

The French engineer delivered two official letters of support. One from Grasse Mayor Jérôme Viaud, whose community has hosted a large number of Ukrainians forced to leave their homes due to Russian aggression since the start of the full-scale war. The second from Cannes Mayor David Lisnard, who is also the President of the Association of Mayors of France and has maintained partnership relations with Lviv for many years. In turn, the Mayor of Lviv prepared a response to the letters.

A symbol of this journey will also be the bicycle on which Antoine Lecouana covered over 2,200 kilometers. After the visit, he will donate it to the UNBROKEN rehabilitation center, where the two-wheeled vehicle will help patients remain active after severe injuries and return to normal life.