The city council of Ternopil justified this decision by the fact that Belarus supported Russia's aggression against Ukraine, which led to large casualties among the military and the civilian population, as well as to the destruction of Ukrainian cities and villages.

On October 3, 2019, the Ternopil authorities signed agreements on partnership cooperation with Hrodna and Pinsk.

Earlier, the city of Ovruch of the Zhytomyr region refused to cooperate with the Belarusian sister city of Mazyr, Mykolaiv with Braslav and Mogilev, Chernihiv with Goml, Kyiv with Minsk.