#18_1-8

MARCH 22, 2018 ISSUE No. 18 (1150) 

Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19, 

fax: +38(044) 303-94-20 

е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua; 

http://www.day.kiev.ua 

Sketch by Viktor BOGORAD 

REUTERS photo 

The day of 

reckoning for 

connections to 

Muammar Gaddafi 

What does former French 

president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 

questioning over unlawful 

financing of his election 

campaign mean? 

Continued on page 2 

Photo by Mykhailo PALINCHAK 

“PANOPTICUM” 


under the guise of “freedom” 

The largest leak of personal data in the history of 

the Net as a symptom of a global social catastrophe 

Ukrainian-Albanian 

relations: moving in 

the right direction 

Ambassador of the 

Republic of Albania to 

Ukraine on stereotypes and 

prospects for cooperation 

Photo by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day 

True gold of 

true athletes 

Hundreds of people 

welcomed in Boryspil 

on March 20 the 

Ukrainian national team 

that had triumphantly 

performed at the 

Paralympic Winter 

Games in South Korea 


Continued on page 8

2 

No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 

DAY AFTER DAY 

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA 

By Natalia ISHCHENKO 

would be more than 

happy to share its 

experience with Ukraine 

on the European Integration 

process issue,” “Albania 

Dr. Shpresa Kureta, Ambassador Resident 

of the Republic of Albania to the Republic 

of Poland and Ambassador Non-resident to 

Ukraine said, answering the question of 

The Day. The Albanian state has been a 

NATO member for nine years and is 

currently recognized as an official 

candidate for accession to the European 

Union. Ukraine has something to learn 

from this small Balkan country, which in 

recent years has completely got rid of 

totalitarian past and is moving fast and 

confidently along the Euro-Atlantic path. 

In recent years, Ukrainian-Albanian 

cooperation has intensified, but what 

needs to be done is much more than what 

has been done. 

Madam Ambassador, a draft freetrade 

agreement between Ukraine and Albania 

is under discussion. Do Albanian entrepreneurs 

have plans for what they will 

bring to Ukraine? And what Ukrainian 

goods do Albanians want to see in your 

market? 

“At first I would like to thank you for 

your attention and the opportunity you are 

giving to me to communicate with the 

Ukrainian audience. I am pleased to note 

that the last-years communication and 

exchanges between the two countries are 

becoming better and better. There is a 

very good cooperation and communication 

at the political level, and efforts are being 

made by both sides to identify areas of interest 

for the intensification of concrete engagement. 

In this context, economic cooperation 

and trade exchanges undoubtedly 

have a special place. For this purpose we are 

working on the preparation of the first 

meeting of the Joint Commission, based on 

the Agreement on Economic and Trade Cooperation 

between the two countries, a 

Photo by Mykhailo PALINCHAK 

meeting which, among others, will create 

the opportunity to discuss and identify the 

areas and products of greater interest for 

cooperation and exchanges between the 

parties. It is also expected that the issue of 

Free Trade Agreement will be discussed, 

with the aim of closing the negotiations and 

signing it.” 

Three years ago, first charter flight 

from Ukraine went to Albania. Have 

guests from Ukraine become visible on the 

Albanian tourism market? 

“Thank you very much for the question 

and I am very happy to talk about this topic, 

as things are going very well in this regard. 

Ukrainian citizens increasingly are 

choosing Albania as a touristic destination. 

The establishing of the direct charter lines 

between the two countries is a very positive 

development, which has directly influenced 

the increase in the number of 

tourists. I would also like to mention the facilitation 

of the movement as a result of the 

elimination of the visa regime by the Albanian 

side for the Ukrainian citizens 

since 2011 and the signing of the visa free 

regime agreement for the Albanian citizens 

to Ukraine, during the visit of Minister 

Klimkin to Tirana, in November 2016. This 

is also a very positive development to 

Ukrainian-Albanian relations: 

moving in the right direction 

Ambassador of the Republic of Albania to Ukraine 

on stereotypes and prospects for cooperation 

bring the two peoples and our two countries 

closer to each other.” 

Unfortunately, Ukrainians know very 

little about Albania and Albanians, and this 

is all from stereotypes of the time of the 

USSR. Does the Albanian side have a plan 

for the development of Albanian-Ukrainian 

cultural cooperation to overcome the 

outdated ideas about your country? 

“One of the issues we are working on, 

is undoubtedly the increase in the exchange 

of information in all areas. What 

you say is true on both sides. Even in Albania 

there is little information about 

Ukraine and it is necessary to intensify efforts 

to exchange more information. Actually, 

it is easier than ever, with the 

tools and techniques available to make 

this possible. Also the increase of exchanges 

and contacts – the Ukrainians visiting 

Albania and the Albanians visiting 

Ukraine – are an important asset in the progressive 

change of this situation. Also, the 

design and implementation of certain projects 

for the promotion of tourism, cultural 

exchange, art, education, etc. remain important 

goals in our work. I take the opportunity 

to mention another very important 

asset in the relationship between 

our two countries, which is the Albanian 

community, living in Ukraine for more 

than 200 years.” 

We see that in recent years the relations 

of our two countries are deepening. 

Are negotiations being conducted 

on the opening of the embassy of Albania 

in Ukraine and the Ukrainian one in 

Albania? 

“As I mentioned above, I am very happy 

to see that things are moving in the right 

direction between the two countries and 

many things have happened, which are certainly 

preparing the ground for concrete 

developments and exchanges between us. 

This will surely bring to our agendas and 

in our working tables the issue of raising 

the level of mutual representation and 

the opening of embassies in our capitals.” 

■ The Day’s FACT FILE 

Albania is situated in the Southeastern 

Europe and bordering the Adriatic Sea 

and Ionian Sea, between Greece to the 

south and Montenegro and Serbia (Kosovo) 

to the north. Area land is nearly 28,748 

square kilometers. Population is more 

than three million people. 

In the early 1990s, Albania put an end 

to 46-year communist rule and established 

a multiparty democracy. Albania joined 

NATO in April 2009 and in June 2014 became 

a candidate for EU accession. 

Dr. Shpresa Kureta, a Senior Foreign 

Service Officer of the Republic of Albania, 

at the rank of Minister-Plenipotentiary, 

on April 29, 2014, was nominated 

Ambassador Resident of the Republic of 

Albania to the Republic of Poland and 

Ambassador Non-resident to the Republic 

of Estonia, Republic of Latvia, Republic of 

Lithuania and Ukraine. 

From January 2014, until assuming 

her responsibility in Warsaw, in September 

2014, Ambassador Kureta has served 

as Director for Regional Affairs and Neighboring 

Countries at the Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs. At the same time she was appointed 

National Coordinator of Albania at 

the Central European Initiative (CEI), 

from May 2013. Ambassador Kureta has 

been Director for Southeast Europe at the 

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from August 

2009. Prior to assuming that assignment, 

she was the NATO Membership Action 

Plan (MAP) Coordinator, at the Department 

of NATO, from March 2006 to 

August 2009. As MAP Coordinator, 

Ms. Kureta coordinated the work of different 

ministries and agencies involved in 

MAP process, on drafting and monitoring 

the implementation of the MAP document, 

exchanging of information and prepared 

reports for the Prime Minister Office, 

as well as prepared meetings of the Interministerial 

Committee for Integration 

and meetings of the Working Group. 

The day of reckoning for 

connections to Muammar Gaddafi 

What does former French president Nicolas 

Sarkozy’s questioning over unlawful financing 

of his election campaign mean? 

By Natalia PUSHKARUK, The Day 

Early on March 20, a rather 

unexpected and high-profile event 

occurred in France, as the police 

took the former president of that 

country, Nicolas Sarkozy, into 

custody. After the law enforcement 

released the former head of state to his 

residence for the night, he returned to the 

police station on the next day and continued 

to answer investigators’ questions, reports 

The Washington Post. 

According to media reports, Sarkozy 

was detained for questioning in connection 

with suspicions that his 2007 campaign was 

allegedly financed by former Libyan leader 

Muammar Gaddafi. The money in question 

amounted to about 50 million euros, of 

which he seemed to have received 5 million 

in cash. Although the case was opened as 

early as 2013, Sarkozy was not questioned 

until now. Earlier, the former resident of the 

Elysee Palace limited his response to denials 

of any unlawful financing from Libya, calling 

such allegations “grotesque.” The police 

also detained for questioning in the same 

case a close ally of Sarkozy, Brice Hortefeux. 

According to Radio Liberty, Sarkozy 

allegedly did not declare the money received, 

so he probably both violated the 

rules limiting campaign financing (since at 

that time, the permissible expenses for 

presidential candidates were capped at 

21 million euros) and failed to declare 

money he had received from abroad. 

The former French president had a 

rather confusing relationship with the 

Libyan leader, notes France-24, because 

Sarkozy invited Gaddafi for a 

state visit immediately after the presidential 

election, but in 2011, France 

was in the forefront of the NATO-led 

coalition that hit Gaddafi’s troops, 

which ultimately helped the rebels 

overthrow his regime. RFI writes that 

before Gaddafi’s death, he mentioned 

a “major secret” in his relations with the 

West. Meanwhile, Euronews quoted 

his son Saif al-Islam as saying in 2011: 

“First, Sarkozy has to give back the 

money he accepted from Libya to finance 

his electoral campaign. We financed 

his campaign and we have the 

proof and stand ready to publish it.” 

“Since the end of his presidency, 

Mr. Sarkozy has faced multiple corruption 

inquiries, which are at various 

stages, and he has always denied any 

wrongdoing. In some cases, the charges 

were dropped; in others, investigations 

are continuing,” The New York 

Times writes. For example, in the socalled 

Bettencourt affair, in which the 

former head of state was suspected of 

manipulating the heiress to the L’Oreal 

fortune into financing his campaign, 

all the charges against him have been 

dropped. 

REUTERS photo 

“Panopticum” under the guise 

of “freedom” 

By Alla DUBROVYK, The Day 

The largest leak of personal 

data in the history of the Net 

as a symptom of a global 

social catastrophe 

Facebook and Cambridge University 

have got themselves into a high-profile political 

scandal. 

In one day, Mark Zuckerberg lost six billion 

dollars, which amounts to one tenth of his 

fortune as estimated by the American Forbes 

magazine. But this is nothing compared to 

dangers facing Zuckerberg now. If an American 

court finds that Facebook is to blame for 

the largest leak of users’ personal data in the 

history of the Internet, he will go bankrupt. 

The Massachusetts Office of the Attorney 

General has already launched an investigation, 

while a number of US congressmen 

have said that Zuckerberg should be summoned 

to appear before the Congress. 

They intend to demand that the founder 

of Facebook explain how such a large leak 

could occur and what measures are being taken 

to ensure that this does not happen again. 

Moreover, the US Federal Trade Commission 

has announced its intention to investigate the 

issue of protecting sensitive user data on Facebook. 

It has also become known that the European 

Commission intends to conduct its own 

investigation of the Facebook affair. 

Cambridge Analytica, which collaborated 

with US President Donald Trump’s campaign 

in 2016, in particular, with its former 

manager Stephen Bannon, took advantage a 

few years ago of a Facebook application that 

offered users an opportunity to compose a psychological 

portrait of themselves. This application 

has been installed by about 270,000 

people, who passed their personal data to it. 

Cambridge Analytica reported later that it 

had destroyed the data received, but as it has 

turned out, not all of it has been deleted. 

Western media write that during the latest 

election campaign in the US, the firm used 

personal data for most of the electorate to further 

its own objectives. 

On March 19, The New York Times and 

The Guardian published the story of former 

Cambridge Analytica employee Christopher 

Wylie. By the way, Facebook blocked his account 

on the day of the story’s release. Now, 

Wylie says that his former employer Cambridge 

Analytica had a contract with the 

company owned by a teacher of the department 

of psychology at Cambridge University, one 

Alex (Aleksandr) Kogan, a native of the former 

USSR. It was Kogan who developed the 

application by which people got interviewed 

on Facebook. Facebook, according to Wylie, 

did not object to disclosing data, satisfied with 

the company’s explanation that information 

was collected for scientific purposes. 

In 2015, this array of personal data 

came at the disposal of Cambridge Analytica. 

Kogan’s firm received a million dollars for its 

services, says Wylie. An interesting detail 

that has not been investigated further so far: 

while working at Cambridge Analytica, Kogan, 

as indicated on the website of St. Petersburg 

University, received a two-year 

grant from the federal budget of the Russian 

Federation. 

Independent expert Eduard RAK- 

HIMKULOV noted in a comment to The Day 

that headquarters are getting ready. “Such 

programs – for Facebook, VKontakte, and 

Odnoklassniki, which, albeit banned in 

Ukraine, still remain popular among our internet 

users, are already being designed,” 

Rakhimkulov says. In the expert’s words, earlier 

such parties as BYuT and the Socialist 

Party traditionally gathered information by 

polling people in the provinces, which not always 

produced adequate results. Pro-presidential 

parties have been relying on information 

from state administrations since the 

Kuchma times, which did not always work either. 

But the expert has no doubts that social 

media are a field of activity during parliamentary 

elections in the near future. Not to 

fall under manipulations, he advises Ukrainians 

to closely follow all that he says about himself 

in the Web. For, unfortunately, our 

laws and courts are not so “attentive” as in the 

US about protection of personal data.


DAY AFTER DAY No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 3 

22 

By Ruslan HARBAR 

Last year the Ministry of 

Economy and Trade made public 

the Export Strategy of Ukraine. 

facts about Nigeria that can help 

It names 20 top-priority countries 

for us and the EU. Among 

them is Nigeria, the only state from 

Sub-Saharan Africa. An official 

Ukrainians open business there 

business delegation of Ukraine with 

deputy ministers of the economy and 

the agro-industrial complex at the 

head is going to visit that country in 

early April. 

problems. Once a year, governors 

7But there is also another Nigeria 

Nigeria is too big a country for a gather in Kaduna to play polo at the 

which lives and develops. Without 

newspaper article to spotlight all the country’s only stadium for this game 

laying claim to a thorough analysis of 

sides and complexities of its life. Some and, at the same time, to share experience 

in the solution of local problems. 

while to fragmentarily present some 

the state of affairs, it is still worth- 

facts about that interesting and promising 

country may be of interest to 

facts in order to have unbiased information 

about that country. 

readers and to those who wish to implement 

their business plans there. 

1Nigeria is 1.5 times larger than 

Ukraine in terms of territory and 

more than 5 times in terms of population. 

Unofficially (there has been no 

census for a long time), there are more 

than 220 million people living there. 

The UN estimates that there will be 

450 million by 2050 – third place after 

China and India. The median age 

of the population is 18.5 years. 

There are about 400 ethnicities and 

tribes in the country, more than 500 languages 

and dialects, with English having 

the official status. These ethnicities 

roughly make up three big groups. 

In the north, it is the Hausa (almost 

50 percent of the population). 

Twelve states officially recognize 

Sharia Law. 

The south-east is populated by the 

Roman Catholic Ibo (or Igbo). It is the 

largest oil-producing area. 

The south-west is the Yoruba, also 

Roman Catholics. Lagos, the former 

capital of Nigeria with a population 

of over 20 million, is located here. 

Lagos is today sort of a commercial 

hub of West Africa. Ships from all 

over the world arrive here, and the 

cargo is reloaded onto tractor-trailers 

which carry it to various countries. 

On the whole, Muslims and 

Catholics are tolerant towards each 

other. There happen excesses, of course. 

There is an informal agreement between 

the elites that the presidency 

should alternate between a Muslim and 

a Christian. The current president, 

General Muhammadu Buhari, is a Muslim 

from the northern state of Kaduna. 

2Nigeria is a federal country, consisting 

of 36 states. The chief executive 

at the state level is the governor 

elected by popular vote for a 4-year 

term. Subordinated to him is the state 

government consisting of relevant 

ministries. The states have budgets of 

their own. While the federal government 

is responsible for defense, foreign 

policy, the oil and gas sector, and 

national projects, such as railways, 

nuclear energy, and space exploration, 

state governments tackle all the other 

3There are similar moments in the 

history of Nigeria and Ukraine. 

Nigeria gained independence on October 

1, 1960. As soon as May 1967, the 

eastern region declared independence 

as a state called the Republic of Biafra. 

They reasoned as follows: we are 

a rich region and we have oil, so why 

should we feed the poor agrarian 

north? Let’s secede and live prosperously. 

On the same day, the federal 

president imposed a state of emergency. 

It took a month to get prepared, 

and a civil war broke out in early 

July. In two years, it claimed an estimated 

2 million human, mostly civilian, 

lives, but territorial integrity of 

the country was restored. 

Today, the country’s north-east is 

suffering from the militant Islamist 

organization Boko Haram. The army 

managed to neutralize their strongholds 

in Nigeria, but it is incapable of 

preventing suicide bombers from 

killing hundreds of people. We hear 

tragic news from these regions time 

and again. About 2 million refugees, 

kidnappings, more than a half of 

schools in the state of Borno are 

closed, more than 3,000 teachers were 

killed, the populace cannot take care 

of their households, starvation is 

rife – a familiar picture, isn’t it? On 

March 1, 2018, the army was ordered 

to guard all schools in the three states. 

4Oil and gas are Nigeria’s main 

wealth and, at the same time, 

nemesis. Nigeria has the 7th largest reserves 

of oil in the world, which should 

suffice for another 15 years or so. Oil 

production accounted for up to 90 percent 

of hard-currency revenues. 

Petrodollars were enough to meet all 

needs, including the enrichment of 

people close to governmental circles. 

You did not have to rack your brains 

over the development of other industries. 

But the price of oil plummeted to 

an all-time low a few years ago. When 

you are short of money, this opens your 

eyes to many things. The government 

had to recall that the agrarian sector 

was neglected, there were no roads, 

and there was an acute shortage of electricity 

– its production met a mere 

40 percent of the country’s needs, with 

the remaining 60 percent being made 

up by means of diesel generators. 

5Nigeria is really a country of 

diesel generators. Paradoxically, 

the oil-rich country has to import almost 

all the fuel it needs (including 

for diesel generators). Three small refineries 

work at a 40 percent capacity 

and have no essential effect on this 

market. People have to elementarily 

steal oil from pipelines and process it 

as fuel at home – often risking their 

life. More than a hundred people were 

burnt alive recently during this “procedure” 

by an accidental spark. Damaging 

pipelines has become business of 

sorts: they damage one today and 

make a deal with a company to repair 

it tomorrow. This “business” especially 

affects Shell. This American company 

was even forced to sell some of 

its assets. Nigerian Aliko Dangote, 

Africa’s richest man, is going to solve 

this problem. He has invested his own 

5 billion dollars in the construction of 

the largest refinery in Africa, although 

his main business is cement 

production. He has factories all over 

Africa. Incidentally, he started his 

business by borrowing 3,000 dollars 

from his uncle to buy sugar and sold it 

at market prices. He is not an oligarch 

– he does not have a political 

party, TV channels, or newspapers. 

6It will be logical and fair to say after 

this that Nigeria is also a country 

of corruption. This is another factor 

that brings us closer. Here are two 

fresh examples. Earlier this year Nigeria 

finally purchased 12 US warplanes 

at a price of 50 million dollars each. Bolivia 

bought the same planes for 10 million 

dollars each. See the difference? It 

is interesting to follow up this story. 

The second: in Abuja, the capital of 

Nigeria, a man reported to the police 

that he had not seen his neighbors for 

several months. Obeying the law, the 

police broke down the door and entered 

the apartment, only to find bales (!) of 

dollars, pounds, euros, and yens worth 

a total 123 million pounds. The owner 

was not identified. And it is not an isolated 

case – also a familiar picture for 

us. The difference is that owners do not 

hide in our country. 

The current President of Nigeria, 

General Muhammadu Buhari, is 

known as a corruption-buster. Back in 

his first presidential term, he did not 

confine himself to words and began to 

put the best-known corruptionists behind 

bars, for which he was overthrown. 

He arrested 55 generals at the 

very beginning of his term. 

8Nigeria has become Africa’s premier 

state in terms of GDP, leaving 

behind South Africa. In 2001-12, 

the average GDP growth rate was 

9 percent. It has slowed down now due 

to oil price fall. Add to this a 40-percent 

devaluation of the naira. Nigeria 

is now slowly coming out of recession. 

9There are 40 million of those in the 

country who belong to the middle 

class. It will number an estimated 

60 million in 5 years’ time. 

There are 645 millionaires (officially!), 

520 of them staying 

10 

in Lagos, and 20 billionaires in Nigeria. 

The second-richest African, 

Folorunsho Alakija (beauty parlors, 

oil, 1,600 million dollars) spent 

280,000 euros on one million roses for 

the marriage of her son with an Iranian 

model. 

The National Space Agency 

11 functions actively. They plan to 

launch the first astronaut by 2030. A 

nuclear power station is being built 

with Russian assistance. The Ministry 

of Defense is trying to launch the production 

of drones. 

The Nigerian film industry – 

12 Nollywood – is the world’s second 

largest producer of motion pictures. 

The average cost is 15 million 

dollars. With an average production 

of 50 movies per week and about $590 

million revenue annually, Nigeria’s 

film market is booming. 

Nigeria took part for the first 

13 time in the South Korea Winter 

Olympics with two bobsledders. 

There is a $6-billion-worth 

14 business center on the artificial 

island near Lagos. The main investor 

is billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. 

After the visit of the king of Morocco 

to Abuja in December 2016, 

15 

it was decided to resume discussing the 

construction of a trans-Saharan gas 

pipeline between Port Harcourt, Benin, 

Togo, Ghana, and Senegal, and later to 

Spain through Gibraltar. 

China is actively building a network 

of railways. The first of 

16 

them, 186-km-long, links the president’s 

native city of Kaduna and the 

capital. The next are being built along 

the Guinean coast at the cost of 12 billion 

dollars. In the west it branches off 

as the Lagos-Kano line to the north, 

and in the east – as the Port Harcourt- 

Maiduguri line also to the north. 

The average wage throughout 

17 the country is 200 dollars, and 

400 dollars in cities. 

A Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka, 

was awarded the Nobel 

18 

Prize in Literature in 1986. 

The favorite beverage is beer. 

19 The consumption of it is annually 

growing by 9 percent. The main 

producer is Heineken. 

China and India are competing 

20 for a place on the Nigerian 

market, with the goods turnover being 

18 billion dollars and 17 billion dollars, 

respectively. Incidentally, President 

Buhari graduated from a military 

college in India. About a million 

Indians work in the country. 

Out of Africa’s 100 most influential 

people, 21 are from 

21 

Nigeria. 

Ukraine’s place on this promising 

market is quite modest – 

22 

0.11 percent of Nigeria’s total commodity 

turnover. In better times, our 

turnover was about 300 million dollars, 

but it has been maintained at the 

level of 100 million in the past few 

years. Nigeria is closely watching 

these processes, and it is no accident 

that the question of closing the embassy 

of Nigeria (one of the three embassies 

of Sub-Saharan countries) in 

Ukraine was raised in 2016. Our side 

had to make a strenuous effort for the 

embassy to remain behind. We hope 

that the business delegation will 

change the situation for the better, although 

its status is insufficient for 

such hopes to come true. 

Meanwhile, there is a basis for serious 

economic cooperation. There 

are thousands, if not dozens of thousands, 

of Ukrainian university and 

college graduates working in Nigeria. 

Unfortunately, nobody has ever taken 

them into account or paid attention 

to them. Dr. Olumuyiwa B. Aliu, 

a National Aviation University graduate, 

is doing a second term as President 

of the Council of the International 

Civil Aviation Organization 

(ICAO), a highly efficient organization 

that caters for all the world’s 

aviation companies. He is married to 

a Kyivite. A graduate of Kharkiv 

University, also married to a Ukrainian 

woman, headed the National 

Space Agency. A graduate of Kyiv 

National University’s Institute of International 

Relations was the speaker 

of Nigeria’s senate. 

The Nigerian diaspora in Ukraine, 

including families, numbers almost 

30,000 people today. 

Ruslan Harbar is director of the 

Center for African Studies 

Photo from the website HOPEFORNIGERIAONLINE.COM

4 

No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 

TOPIC OF THE DAY 


By Emilia NAZARENKO, 

Switzerland, special to The Day 

As is known, our newspaper has 

declared 2018 as Year of the 

Hetmanate. The existence of a 

Ukrainian state in the form of 

the Hetmanate (April 29 – 

December 14, 1918) is inseparable from 

the name of Pavlo Skoropadsky referred 

to as “Most Illustrious Hetman of All 

Ukraine.” It is up to experts to analyze 

historical facts, while this publication is 

of a purely biographical nature – its aim 

is to shed light on the descendants of the 

one who, by decree of fate and by force 

of his origin, became the last hetman of 

Ukraine. 

Pavlo Skoropadsky and his wife 

Oleksandra, who also came from a 

wealthy aristocratic family, had six 

children: three daughters and three 

sons. But personal happiness eluded all 

the Skoropadskys except for the last one, 

Olena. Pavlo died aged three, Petro suffered 

from epilepsy, although he lived 

for 56 years. Danylo, a public figure, father’s 

assistant, leader of the hetmanite 

movement, chair of the Union of 

Ukrainians in Great Britain, died in 

London in 1957 under unclear circumstances. 

The hetman’s two elder daughters 

– Maria Montresor-Skoropadska 

(1898-1959) and Yelyzaveta Kuzhym- 

Skoropadska (1899-1975) – were leaders 

of the hetmanite movement, the socalled 

hetmanivny, by turns after the 

death of their brother and according to 

the “Acts on the Procedure of Succession 

of Hetnmanite Power and in our Family 

by Right of Seniority.” None of them 

had descendants except for the last 

daughter, Olena, who was born in 1919 

in Germany, where the Skoropadsky 

family had to move after the hetman’s 

abdication and restoration of the Ukrainian 

National Republic in December 1918. 

In the 1920s, the hetmanite movement 

politically led by Skoropadsky 

continued to develop in exile. Its centers 

gradually began to function in many European 

countries, Canada, and the US. 

In Germany, where most of the emigre 

hetman followers were staying, the existence 

of the hetmanite movement was 

in jeopardy in the late 1930s. It is perhaps 

for this reason, being aware of 

Hitler’s belligerent aspirations, Skoropadsky 

sent his son Danylo to Britain 

in 1939. Thus, the viability of the hetmanite 

movement outside Germany was 

guaranteed, and the hetman’s heir Danylo 

was its leader to his last breath. 

As is known, Skoropadsky used his 

connections to free many Ukrainians 

from Nazi concentration camps. The 

hetman’s elder daughters also rendered 

help to their compatriots as far as they 

could. During World War Two, Maria 

Skoropadska, who resided in Warsaw, 

helped the Polish Resistance Movement 

– she was hiding and transferring 

to the countryside the Jewish children 

who were rescued from the Polish ghetto. 

Her sister Yelyzaveta cared about the 

Ukrainian women deported to Germany 

for slave labor: she visited camps and saw 

to it that the women were duly provided 

with food and clothes. Back in the 

1930s she had chaired the charitable 

Committee for Helping the Famine- 

Stricken in Ukraine, trying to raise as 

many funds as possible to help Ukrainians 

during the 1932-33 Holodomor. 

All the children of Pavlo Skoropadsky 

have already departed this life. Fate 

gifted family happiness and longevity 

only to the hetman’s last daughter Olena. 

She had been rather independent 

since her green years. After her father’s 

death in 1945, when her mother, 

sisters, and sick brother settled in the 

German town of Oberstdorf, she had already 

lived separately from the family. 

In the same year, Olena’s first husband 

Gerd Ginder, whom she had married less 

than a year before, died from a wound. 

He was Swiss by origin, and his parents 

lived in a country that had always attracted 

Olena. So the young widow went 

to her parents-in-law in Switzerland. In 

1947 she found a job in Zurich, where she 

met her future husband Ludwig Ott 

whom she called in no other way than 

“mein lieber Ehemann” – my beloved 

husband. Twin daughters, Alexandra 

Olena Ott-Skoropadska: 

“Father believed that independence 

was the only way out for Ukraine” 

A voice from the past – the last 

interview with the hetman’s daughter 

and Irene, were born to them in 1954. 

Clearly, the name Alexandra was chosen 

in honor of Olena’s mother Oleksandra 

Skoropadska. The couple lived in their 

own house on the outskirts of Zurich. 

Ludwig worked as commercial director 

of the Zurich newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. 

The daughters were brought up in a 

purely German-Swiss spirit: neutrality, 

politeness, and correctness. Olena had to 

admit later that her girls were “very far 

from political affairs.” 

When sister Yalyzaveta died in 

1957, Olena Ott-Skoropadska automatically 

took over as leader of the hetmanite 

movement. The hetmanivna first 

visited Ukraine in 1991 immediately after 

the proclamation of political independence. 

After acquainting with the 

homeland of her ancestors, during the 

next visits to Ukraine, Olena aimed her 

efforts at spreading information about 

her father, Hetman Skoropadsky, and 

promoting research into the history of 

their lineage. In 2004 Ott-Skoropadska 

handed over some things that belonged 

to her father and seven portraits of the 

Cossack-era figures painted by Olga 

Mordvinova, a close friend of Olena’s 

mother, to the Museum of Hetmanship 

in Kyiv. 

In 2008 Ott-Skoropadska and her 

husband moved from their house in 

Kuesnacht to a retirement home near 

Zurich. They needed medical care owing 

to the old age. The last hetmanivna 

died in 2014 at the age of 95. Her husband 

passed away a year later, only 

three months before his centennial. 

Olena’s two daughters still live in 

Zurich. This year they turned 64, the retirement 

age for women in Switzerland. 

One of the twins, Irene, once studied foreign 

languages and playing the violin. 

She did a secretary training course. Her 

husband Roger Cahn, a universitytrained 

journalist, worked for the wellknown 

Swiss German-language newspaper 

Neue Zuercher Zeitung and at 

the culture department of Swiss television. 

After retiring, he opened Culture 

Link, an agency that organizes music and 

culture events. Irene helps her husband. 

They have no children. I once 

called Irene Cahn-Ott to speak about her 

mother and her childhood reminiscences. 

Unfortunately, the conversation was 

short. Irene rejected the idea of any interview. 

I also failed to get in touch with 

the other daughter, Alexandra. As far as 

I know, she gained a medical education, 

is married, and has two children. 

Her husband Martin Koenig, a lawyer by 

profession, runs a consulting company 

of his own. Their younger son Dmitri, 

29, was born sick and is in fact disabled. 

The elder daughter, Vanessa Koenig, 33, 

married a Colombian last year. The 

young couple went to live in Colombia. 

In 2003 the Lviv-based Litopys publishers 

printed the Ukrainian edition of 

The Last of the Skoropadskys, the book 

of Olena Ott-Skoropadska’s reminiscences. 

Frankly speaking, the book’s 

title proved to be prophetic. Only the hetman’s 

last daughter had children, but, 

owing to their upbringing, education, socio-cultural 

milieu, Pavlo Skoropadsky’s 

granddaughters have only a biological 

link with the hetman of Ukraine. 

“The last of the Skoropadskys” was 

aware of this state of affairs, and she decided 

to write about her childhood and 

youth reminiscences of the father and 

family. As a result, we received an invaluable 

nonmaterial legacy – information 

about the last hetman of Ukraine 

from the last representative of the hetman’s 

lineage. Olena was an active member 

of the Ukrainian Association in 

Switzerland. This association, which 

has existed in Switzerland since 1945, 

publishes a small informative trimonthly 

newspaper Trembita Helvetsii. After 

the publication of The Last of the Skoropadskys 

in Ukraine and the last visit 

of the hetmanivna to this country, this 

newspaper printed an interview with Olena. 

But the readership of Trembita Helvetsii 

is incomparable to that of Den/The 

Day, which numbers many thousands. 

By courtesy of Andrii Luzhnytsky, president 

of the Ukrainian Association in 

Switzerland, we offer you, in memory of 

the family of Ukraine’s last hetman, the 

last interview with the hetman’s daughter 

Olena SKOROPADSKA as a “voice 

from the past.” 

● “THE SKOROPADSKY 

LINEAGE DATES BACK 

TO THE 17TH CENTURY” 

Ms. Olena, what prompted you to 

write this book of reminiscences? 

“I wanted to leave reminiscences of 

the life of my family and me to my own 

children and grandchildren. So I first 

told about my childhood, nanny, and 

school. Then there was a story about my 

sister Marika who lived a very tragic life. 

Going on, I realized that I was now 

writing not for my children but for myself, 

recalling and reliving the events of 

bygone years. I understood that if I did 

not narrate some periods of my lifetime, 

nobody else would ever do this. This is 

why I added chapters about our life in 

Wannsee before World War Two, 

wartime details, the circumstances of my 

father’s death, the life of my mother and 

sisters thereafter. When I was examining 

my parents’ notes, I clearly pictured 

their life before and during the 

Hetmanate.” 

Who helped you write the book? 

“Nobody did. I wrote everything by 

myself in German. Even in my school 

years I had a gift for writing compositions 

very well. I must have inherited 

this ability from my father who could describe 

any event very expressively.” 

Your parents come from very old noble 

families… 

“That’s right. The Skoropadsky lineage 

dates back to the 17th century. 

There were a lot of outstanding figures 

in this lineage. The best-known one was 

Cossack Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky. 

Pavlo Skoropadsky’s aunt Yelyzaveta 

Miloradovich helped found the 

Shevchenko Scientific Society in Lviv, 

donating enormous funds for this purpose. 

“Besides, the Skoropadsky family 

was matrimonially linked to other noted 

Ukrainian families. The ancestors of 

my mother Oleksandra Skoropadska 

(nee Durnovo) also belonged to the nobility. 

In the male line, it is the Durnovo 

family which began from Sviatoslav 

II, the son of Yaroslav the Wise, 

and the female line begins from the 

Kochubeis. Yes, the Kochubei who betrayed 

Mazepa. 

“It is my mother who did the entire 

research of our lineage in the last years 

of her life in Berlin. She spent all of her 

free time in the library, gleaning information 

bit by bit.” 

Ms. Olena, you were brought up in 

a noble family that cherished values typical 

of people of a certain social status. 

What directives were your parents giving 

you, with due account of their aristocratic 

origin? 

“In any case, my parents were guided 

by the principle that one must respect 

people regardless of their social status. 

They applied this principle throughout 

their lifetime. But, at the same time, father 

always said you should behave as befits 

the role model. 

“After 1917, aristocratic origin 

ceased to be of any importance in human 

relations. The proof of this is that my 

first husband was the grandson of my 

grandfather Durnovo’s gardener in Petersburg.” 

What kind of a relationship was 

there in your family? 

“Very confidential. There was no ceremoniousness 

in communication, parents 

called each other by first name, and 

children were on familiar terms with 

them. Mother was the linchpin of our 

family, who shouldered all everyday 

cares. Her life was very hard. Accustomed 

to sheer luxury, in which she was 

born and raised, mother had to get used 

to the new lifestyle that emerged after 

the Bolshevik revolution. For the life 

that had existed before those events 

was gone. However, she bore all the 

hardships silently, without complaining, 

and gave father all kinds of support.” 

How was the attitude of the members 

of your family to life in Germany? 

“As I have already said, my mother 

quite easily adapted to the new living 

conditions. She was a realist and took life 

the way it was. But sisters felt very difficult 

from the moral angle. Having 

grown up in entirely different conditions, 

they found it hard to live in a new 

milieu. Besides, they were hetmanivny, 

the daughters of a hetman, which left a 

certain imprint on their relationships 

with people. As for me, I was born 

abroad and was not brought up as aristocratically 

as my sisters were. I grew the 

way other children around me did.” 

What language was spoken in the 

family? 

“We spoke Russian. Everybody in 

the family knew Ukrainian very well. My 

elder sisters and brother Danylo learned 

the language in childhood, when they 

spent the summer in our Ukrainian estate. 

In exile, too, all members of the 

family could hear Ukrainian because 

many Ukrainians used to visit father and 

put up at our place for some time. I can 

clearly remember a big dinner table, at 

one end of which my mother, nanny, and 

sick brother Petro sit and speak Russian, 

and on the opposite side – my father, his 

secretary Shemet and several Ukrainian 

guests argue loudly about something in 

Ukrainian.” 

Your father, Pavlo Skoropadsky, 

carved out a brilliant military career in 

the tsarist army, rising to the rank of a 

life-guard general. What caused him, a 

former tsarist officer, to stage a coup 

and take power in Ukraine by proclaiming 

the Hetmanate? 

“Father could not put up with ruin 

and chaos in Ukraine at the end of the 

Central Rada’s rule. He could see its incapability. 

Besides, there was a threat on 

the part of Germany which viewed 

Ukraine as its likely province. He could 

not allow this to happen. Moreover, father 

knew very well how to set up an adequate 

and full-fledged state apparatus.” 

Your father opted for a Russian- 

Ukrainian federation. Did he change his 

viewpoint later, in exile? 

“In that difficult period, many politicians 

favored, one way or another, the 

idea of a Russian-Ukrainian federation. 

Even the Central Rada included a clause 

on a federative link with the former 

Russian state’s republics into its 4th 

Universal. Father viewed a federation as 

a union of separate states with totally autonomous 

structures, equal rights, etc. 

“I want to emphasize that all figures 

in the Central Rada, the Directory, and 

my father wished Ukraine well, but 

they had different visions of achieving 

this by force of their persuasions and 

views. Staying in exile and knowing 

the situation in Soviet Ukraine – massscale 

repressions and a terrible famine, – 

father believed that independence was 

the only way out for Ukraine.” 

With which figures of the Central 

Rada or the Directory did Skoropadsky 

maintain relations in exile? 

“With Hetmanate-time comradesin-arms. 

He maintained no relations at 

all with Vynnychenko, for he totally rejected 

this man’s human qualities. Father 

respected Petliura despite the fact 

that the latter had staged an uprising 

and in fact toppled him. He even attended 

his funeral in Paris.” 

In exile, Pavlo Skoropadsky founded 

the hetmanite movement which won 

certain popularity and attracted some 

followers. After some time, its centers 

opened in other countries. What kind of 

activities was this movement engaged 

in? 

“The hetmanite movement was an 

organization that stood above the parties. 

It is Viacheslav Lypynsky who


TOPIC OF THE DAY No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 5 

worked out the movement’s ideology. 

The main idea of the movement was to 

rally Ukrainians together under the 

guidance of a hetman, and the ultimate 

goal was independent Ukraine. Father 

believed until his death that Ukraine 

would be independent. The movement offered 

assistance to everybody who needed 

it, regardless of ideological views. Father 

had connections in the German 

government, which he widely used for resolving 

all kinds of Ukraine-related 

problems. In 1926, a Ukrainian Scientific 

Institute was established at Berlin 

University, which promoted the development 

of Ukrainian sciences. During 

the Holodomor in Ukraine, the hetman’s 

followers set up a committee for 

helping the famine-stricken, in which my 

sister Yelyzaveta took an active part. As 

World War Two was drawing to a close, 

Skoropadsky helped release from prisons 

such OUN figures as Bandera, Melnyk, 

Stetsko, and others. Today, there is also 

a hetmanite organization in the US 

and a small association of hetmanship 

followers in Kyiv.” 

Where is your father buried? 

“Father was first buried in the 

Bavarian town of Metten, where he died 

in the abbey hospital from the wounds he 

received during a bombing. He was reburied 

later in the commune of Oberstdorf, 

Bavaria. There is our family crypt 

there, in which all members of our family 

were buried, except for brother Danylo 

who was buried in London.” 

Why was your father reburied in 

Oberstdorf? 

“When the Soviet army was near 

Berlin, it was impossible to stay behind 

in Wannsee for obvious reasons. So it 

was decided to move to Oberstdorf. 

Mother’s childhood friend Olga Mordvinova 

lived there, and we could put up 

at her place for some time. Mother, sisters 

Maria and Yelyzaveta, and sick 

brother Petro stayed on in this town. I 

lived separately at the time.” 

How come you found yourself in 

Switzerland? 

“The point is that the parents of my 

first husband Gerd Ginder lived in and 

were citizens of Switzerland. So I went 

to stay with them after his death on quite 

legitimate grounds – as the daughterin-law. 

I began to work and then moved 

to Zurich. I met there my current husband 

Ludwig Ott, and we got married in 

1948.” 

A few years ago you handed over a 

bronze bust-relief of Pavlo Skoropadsky 

and portraits of some Ukrainian hetmans 

to the Ukrainian Museum of Hetmanship. 

What kind of pictures were 

they? 

“These portraits are an almost a 

true copy of the pictures that hung on the 

walls of our Ukrainian manor in Trostianets. 

The originals were destroyed 

during the revolution. Fortunately, my 

mother had a hobby – photography – in 

her young years. Among her photographs 

there were images of the rooms 

with the entire interior. On the basis of 

these photos and the existing engravings, 

mother’s artist friend Mordvinova 

reproduced these pictures.” 

Ms. Olena, do you visit Ukraine? 

What are your impressions? 

“I first visited Ukraine in 1991 at the 

invitation of the Ukrainian Academy of 

Sciences. From then on, Ukraine became 

second life for me and my husband. 

I found a lot of friends there. I noticed 

in Ukraine that young people take a 

keen interest in their history and the national 

identity of Ukrainians is much 

higher now than it was in my father’s 

times.” 

Photo from the book The Skoropadskys: Family Album 

“ 

The hetmanite movement was an organization that 

stood above the parties. It is Viacheslav Lypynsky who worked 

out the movement’s ideology. The main idea of the movement 

was to rally Ukrainians together under the guidance 

of a hetman, and the ultimate goal was independent Ukraine. 

Father believed until his death that Ukraine would be independent. 

The movement offered assistance to everybody 

who needed it, regardless of ideological views. Father had connections 

in the German government, which he widely used 

for resolving all kinds of Ukraine-related problems. 

An aspirant with... 

16 years of experience 

What needs to be done for Ukraine to achieve 

genuine progress in NATO integration 

By Mykola SIRUK, The Day 

The recent news of Ukraine’s 

inclusion in the list of countries 

seeking membership in NATO, 

also known as the aspirant 

countries, has sparked a lively 

discussion in social networks and a lot of 

opinions about the significance/insignificance 

of this status. Let us recall that it 

has to do with the North Atlantic Alliance 

posting the following message on its 

website: “Currently, four partner 

countries have declared their aspirations 

to NATO membership: Bosnia and Herzegovina, 

Georgia, the former Yugoslav 

Republic of Macedonia, and Ukraine.” 

The question arises, why did NATO 

name Ukraine as an aspirant country only 

now, even though a presidential decree 

which stated this country’s aspiration to 

join the Euro-Atlantic structures was issued 

on the initiative of then-Secretary of 

the National Security and Defense Council 

Yevhen Marchuk as early as 2002? 

We have also learned lately that President 

of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko sent 

a letter to NATO Secretary General Jens 

Stoltenberg asking the bloc to grant a 

Membership Action Plan (MAP) to 

Ukraine and include it in the Enhanced 

Opportunities Program. 

As is known, Ukraine sought to get a 

MAP at the Bucharest summit of NATO 

in 2008, but German Chancellor Angela 

Merkel and the then French President 

Nicolas Sarkozy blocked the decision then, 

and the final declaration of that summit 

said instead that Ukraine could become a 

member of the Alliance in the future. 

Therefore, the question now arises 

again as to what might the reaction of NA- 

TO be to the request of President 

Poroshenko this time to grant Ukraine a 

MAP, what obstacles are there on the path 

to obtaining this status, and how Ukraine 

can benefit from joining the Enhanced Opportunities 

Program. 

● ASPIRING SINCE 2002 

If you look carefully at the history of 

Ukraine’s relations with the North Atlantic 

Alliance, Ukraine got the status of 

an aspirant country for NATO membership 

back in 2002. This was asserted in the 

declaration of the Prague Summit, which 

took place in 2002. In particular, the 

9th paragraph of that concluding document 

reads as follows: “We note Ukraine’s 

determination to pursue full Euro-Atlantic 

integration, and encourage Ukraine 

to implement all the reforms necessary, to 

achieve this objective.... Continued 

progress in deepening and enhancing our 

relationship requires an unequivocal 

Ukrainian commitment to the values of 

the Euro-Atlantic community.” 

And this aspirant status was withdrawn 

in 2010 after president Viktor 

Yanukovych had come to power and officially 

told NATO that Ukraine did not 

want to get a MAP and instead wanted to 

become a non-aligned country. 

Interestingly, this situation effectively 

continued until March 9, 2018. 

However, it could have been rectified in 

June last year, immediately after amending 

the Laws of Ukraine “On the Fundamentals 

of National Security of Ukraine” 

and “On the Principles of Domestic and 

Foreign Policy” to identify integration into 

the Euro-Atlantic security space for the 

purpose of gaining membership in NATO 

as one of the priorities. 

And it turns out that to make changes 

on the NATO website which reflect the aspirations 

of Ukraine to acquire membership, 

our government merely needed to officially 

announce such an intention. And 

it was done, but only after a delay of... 

nine months. It took that much time for 

President Poroshenko to send an official 

letter to the Alliance’s secretary general 

to inform him that with a NATO summit 

approaching, Ukraine wanted to restore 

its aspirations which were now based on 

legislation. The question arises, why did 

our government delay making such an appeal 

for so long? This can be partly explained 

by the almost two-year absence of 

Ukraine’s ambassador to NATO, since it 

is the new ambassador Vadym Prystaiko, 

who was appointed late last year, who is 

credited at the NATO headquarters with 

the initiative to make changes to the 

NATO website. 

Another moment should be addressed 

as well, it being the exaggerated attention 

of some Ukrainian media and Ukrainian 

politicians to Ukraine’s recognition as an 

aspirant for membership in the Alliance. 

In fact, no decision was made by NATO, 

they just made a correction to the website 

in the section “Enlargement.” 

● KEYS TO GETTING A MAP 

Another important issue which is 

raised in the letter-appeal of the 

Ukrainian president to the NATO secretary 

general is a request to start negotiations 

on a MAP, which the president 

of Ukraine stumbled on last year, 

when he announced the beginning of 

negotiations with the Alliance’s members 

on this issue at a press conference 

following the meeting of the North Atlantic 

Council in Kyiv. Then both sides, 

that is, NATO and Ukraine, agreed that 

there was no need to digress towards a 

MAP, and the parties needed to focus 

on implementing the set tasks instead, 

and only then make statements about 

their intentions and submit them to 

their allies. 

Therefore, it is unclear whether raising 

the MAP issue at the NATO summit 

in Brussels this July will pay off for 

Ukraine. 

On the one hand, the North Atlantic 

Alliance recognizes Ukraine’s right to 

raise this issue. 

On the other hand, The Day’s sources 

who are familiar with the situation admit 

they do not know what answer Ukraine 

will get from 29 NATO member countries 

that make decisions by consensus. 

At the same time, diplomats emphasize 

that the alpha and omega of any future 

discussions about the possible MAP status 

will be the defense sector reform, including 

passing laws on national security, 

military intelligence, and the Security 

Service of Ukraine (SBU). In particular, it 

should involve appointing a civilian defense 

minister, the introduction of parliamentary 

oversight of the Ministry of Defense 

regarding the defense budget, and 

democratic civilian control over the SBU. 

In addition, the sources friendly admit 

to The Day that some allies still have 

doubts about the strength of Ukraine’s 

commitment to the Euro-Atlantic course. 

And this concerns both the ability to implement 

reforms and the strategic orientation 

of Ukraine. Such doubts are justified 

by the fact that Ukraine abandoned 

its intention to become a NATO member 

twice: during the presidency of Leonid 

Kuchma in 2004 and during the 

Yanukovych presidency in 2010. 

They point to Georgia as a model, 

which has unfailingly followed the NATO 

course since 2002, despite the changes of 

government and Bidzina Ivanishvili’s 

ascent to power. True, this consistency has 

not yet got the Caucasian country into 

NATO. Another example is Montenegro, 

which dissolved its union with Serbia 

and opted for NATO membership in 2006, 

and despite the complexity of relations 

with its former “elder brother,” joined the 

Alliance last year thanks to perseverance 

and consistency. 

Therefore, dispelling doubts among 

some countries regarding the strategic 

orientation of this country remains a 

major task for Ukraine. In the opinion of 

the Ukrainian authorities, this problem 

could be partly eliminated by enshrining 

the course on NATO membership in the 

Constitution as evidence that Ukraine is 

very serious about this objective. 

In general, the North Atlantic Alliance, 

which has gone through more 

than 25 years of enlargement, believes 

that membership prospects depend on 

the country itself, on how quickly it will 

be able to implement reforms and change 

legislation in order to comply with the legislation 

of most NATO member states. 

● CHASING YET ANOTHER 

SYMBOL 

The presidential letter’s third paragraph 

expresses the intention to join the 

Enhanced Opportunities Program. At 

the moment, five countries – Australia, 

Jordan, Georgia, Finland, and 

Sweden – enjoy the status of Enhanced 

Opportunities Partners. The just-mentioned 

countries were chosen according 

to the amount of their contributions to 

military operations, NATO exercises, 

training, and crisis management. As is 

known, this status is not very significant, 

and this partnership offers nothing 

special except for the opportunity 

to meet with the Alliance’s members in 

certain formats. 

The question arises, what for does 

this country need it, given that it has more 

than five NATO cooperation formats, 

including the Annual National Program 

(ANP), the Comprehensive Assistance 

Package, the Special Partnership between 

NATO and Ukraine, and meetings 

of the NATO-Ukraine Commission 

(NUC)? 

The more important task for Ukraine 

at the moment is probably holding a 

meeting of the NUC at the highest level 

possible, in particular during the summit. 

However, it is known that Hungary 

blocked the winter meeting of the NATO- 

Ukraine Commission at the level of defense 

ministers, and thus, organizing a 

meeting in this format is still a dubious 

prospect. As a NATO source told The Day, 

the NUC meeting should take place in the 

near future, perhaps at the ambassadorial 

level, because Ukraine should present 

its ANP for 2018 in this format.

6 

No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 

CLOSE UP 


“Here all life becomes art” 

By Maria PROKOPENKO, photos 

by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day 

ANNA DEMIANOVA SITS NEXT TO HER DRAWINGS, 

“PORTRAITS OF PHRASES” FROM ST. JOHN’S GOSPEL. THE 

ARTIST HAD MULLED OVER THIS PROJECT FOR A LONG TIME 

BUT MANAGED TO IMPLEMENT IT ONLY IN PUSHCHA- 

VODYTSIA, WHERE SHE HAD TO CARE ABOUT EVERYDAY 

THINGS AND CLEARLY PLAN HER DAYS 

Pushcha-Vodytsia is commonly 

associated with mansions of 

Ukrainian officials and Soviet-era 

sanatoria. It is also a picturesque 

location for filmmaking and for 

walks, which can be easily reached from 

Kyiv, thanks to minibuses and a romantic 

tram that starts its journey from 

Kontraktova Square. 

The wintry start of spring is not the 

best time to have some rest in Pushcha, but 

myself and our photographer did not go 

there for it. The Creative House has existed 

in Kvitky Tsisyk Street (formerly known 

as Pushkinska, Stalinhradska, and 

Hamarnyka) already for six months. One 

day, designer Oleksandr Haidai felt the 

need to work in a natural environment. He 

got so enthusiastic about the idea that he 

wanted to allow others to partake in it as 

well. Haidai told and showed The Day 

what came out of it. 

● EVOLUTION WITH AN AXE 

“These flags appeared here three 

weeks ago,” he said pointing at colorful 

flags hanging on a branchy tree next to 

a small house. “I sing with the band Yedino 

Vsyo, we had a concert then, there 

were guests. It occurred to us to write 

down various wishes and mantras and 

hang them on a tree, as they do in Nepal. 

So we did it.” 

There was a motley-colored cabin in 

the courtyard. Haidai laughed and called 

it the first art object of the Creative 

House. “There was no outhouse here at 

first, and I told the owner of the house 

that I would come and live here only after 

one appears. He built a shell, while I 

and my friends painted it,” the lad explained. 

An axe was visible near the stairs. In 

winter, Haidai and Anna Demianova, 

who are joint masters in this project (that 

is, the people who care for the house daily), 

have to walk to the forest to get some 

fuelwood twice or thrice a week. “One of 

my goals was to get through the winter 

on my own fuelwood. I was also generally 

wondering how I was going to winter in 

a not-so-comfortable house,” the lad 

admitted. “I had to deal with heating issues, 

combat air drafts. Everything was 

being constantly improved. At first, we 

had a blunt axe, then we sharpened it, 

and later still bought a new one.” 

● AN IDEA IMPLEMENTATION 

SPACE 

We entered a two-room house, where 

residents were going to talk about their 

achievements. It smelled of chocolate, as 

Haidai was making brownie dessert in a 

multicooker. The walls were decorated 

with colorful ornaments in the form of 

stairs made of painted sprigs, since Demianova, 

who is an artist, likes to make such 

things. The stock of fuelwood laid on the 

cabinet, the stove was turned off, but still 

warm. We sat down in a room decorated 

with 21 paintings, all belonging to a series 

inspired by the Gospel of John and created 

by Demianova. 

“I recently reviewed my diary entries 

from 2003 or 2004 and was surprised by myself 

writing there that I wanted to create 

something like the Creative House. Over 

time, I forgot about it,” Haidai said. “For 

me, this house is a space where people can 

implement their ideas or projects, ranging 

from small to global, for example, ones aiming 

to change the education system.” 

● THE FIRST TRY 

The idea of such a space was implemented 

for the first time about a year and 

a half ago. Before that, Haidai rented an 

apartment in Kyiv, and after the plan had 

taken shape, he began to gather those 

willing to come together at a house in 

Pushcha-Vodytsia. People from across 

Ukraine responded: a lad from Zaporizhia, 

a girl from Zolochiv, and a girl 

from Lanivtsi. Together with the designer, 

they rented a house in 14th Linia and 

lived there for four months. 

In the first version of the Creative 

House, people lived together and held various 

meetings, where they discussed, for 

example, the features of graphic design or 

how to write a resume. They interacted 

with the local community as well. But, unlike 

the current Creative House, it was not 

obligatory to have a specific project and a 

plan for its implementation. 

Haidai showed a picture of a garbage 

dump. “This is not us,” he laughed. “We 

saw that dump in a street. People came 

there and dumped everything they could. 

There are a lot of activists in Pushcha, so 

we cooperated with them to remove 

garbage. We did it for a month. We went 

there weekly and removed it little by little. 

We found syringes, a huge number of diapers 

and much more else there. On the last 

day of cleaning, we took away two truckloads 

of stuff. Also, we put a multicolored 

fence there. The owners of the site removed 

it afterwards. But now it is clean, we have 

fulfilled our task.” 

Besides, the residents of the first Creative 

House decorated an abandoned building 

in 3rd Linia in collaboration with local 

activists. They held an art picnic at a lake 

where artists and amateurs painted. Then 

five pictures were inserted into frames of 

the empty house. Now it adds color to the 

landscape of Pushcha. 

The project has changed the lives of 

some of its participants. One lad decided to 

change his profession and become a psychologist, 

so he and his girlfriend went to 

the Polish city of Wroclaw, where he is 

studying now. Meanwhile, the girl studied 

design from scratch with Haidai and is now 

working in this area. The designer himself 

received an invitation to visit Canada and 

went there for several months. And when 

he returned, he decided to repeat the creative 

project in Pushcha-Vodytsia. 

Residents of a “creative house” in Pushcha- 

Vodytsia know how to combine harvesting 

fuelwood and information technology 

“IT IS SOMETIMES DIFFICULT TO CARRY OUT A PLAN – YOU LACK FAITH, 

ENERGY, ETC. SO WE HELP PEOPLE IMPLEMENT THEIR IDEAS,” OLEKSANDR 

HAIDAI SAYS ABOUT THE “CREATIVE HOUSE” HE SET UP 

● “THIS IS NOT A HOSTEL” 

“I came to live in this house alone last 

summer and lived so for a few months,” 

Haidai recalled. “At first it was difficult, 

but everything was developing. Many 

friends came to visit me, I was teaching design. 

One of the first projects to happen 

here was the development of the website, 

which involved five designers. As a result, 

we changed our mind and abandoned the 

website project before it was to be 

launched, but we did develop the design, 

and my students improved their skills 

working on that project.” 

Andrii Pyvovar was among early participants 

of the second Creative House. 

“Pyvovar had been working in a bank, sitting 

there in a cubicle. He grew fed up with 

it, went on a journey, and when he returned, 

he decided to switch to design,” 

Demianova said. 

He studied design from scratch under 

Haidai for three months, starting in Kyiv 

before the second Creative House appeared, 

and subsequently moving to 

Pushcha. “Pyvovar aimed to practice the 

art until he hit the junior level and then 

find a job,” Haidai said. “I shared my experience 

with him for three months, we 

jointly created several projects for which 

he received money and added works to his 

portfolio. In early January, Pyvovar 

found a job with a design studio. This is 

my personal achievement as a teacher 

and one of the projects that have been implemented 

here.” 

To get to join the Creative House, one 

generally needs to have a specific project 

and a plan for its implementation, including 

specific deadlines. It should be described 

in a Google form, and if its author 

and the founders of the project find each 

other acceptable, one may come and join. 

One has to pay for bed and board in the Creative 

House, but most importantly, one has 

to implement one’s plan. “If a person comes 

to just live here, it turns into a hostel, and 

that is not how it should be,” Haidai added. 

“But we do not press people. One participant 

of the project was not doing what he had 

been going to. We spoke to him about this, 

and he calmly went away.” 

Once a week, all Creative House participants 

discuss everyday life and their 

projects together. As many as four people 

lived there for a time, while three are 

enough for comfortable living. However, 

a lot of people went through the small house 

during these six months: some stayed for 

several months, others came to attend 

meetings devoted to design and painting. 

● DEMIANOVA’S LEGEND 

Just before our arrival, Demianova 

completed a painting class. She has conducted 

them regularly here for some 

time. The artist learned about the Creative 

House from a friend, came here to 

a concert on an occasion and realized: this 

was what she dreamed about. 

“Five years ago or so, I spoke to my 

painting teacher. She said that it was cool 

to come up with a legend for one’s life. The 

only thing that would persist and remain 

in the memory of people for a long time,” 

Demianova recalled. “The teacher asked: 

‘Do you have something like that? What 

can be the best thing to happen in your 

life?’ When I thought about it, I imagined 

a great house where there were many different 

workshops, people of different professions 

working there, making something, 

sharing experiences. I told my 

teacher about it. She did not take it seriously, 

said that it was something banal. 

Still, the opportunity to give someone 

space for creativity always seemed to me a 

precious resource. And when I found myself 

here, I saw that this small house with 

Spartan conditions could grow into something 

like that.” 

The idea of an artistic project which 

she implemented in the Creative House had 

been present in Demianova’s mind for a 

long time. She has studied for seven years 

at a school where they teach the method of 

painting which was developed by the Swiss 

artist Gerard Wagner and builds on the 

properties of color. The artist calls her technique 

“the painting combined with a sense 

of the word.” The Gospel of John is the basis 

of two of her series. “I held my first 

Gospel-themed exhibition a year ago. It also 

included 21 works, but they were not 

portraits, unlike my current project. I 

read a certain verse from every chapter of 

this gospel and tried to feel what gesture 

or movement was inside of it. I then conveyed 

this movement through certain colors. 

Essentially, I painted portraits of 

phrases,” Demianova said. 

The need to carefully plan the timing 

of her project became the main challenge 

of the Creative House for the artist. However, 

it turned out that such a demanding 

planning style stimulates creativity better 

than a free schedule. 

“At first it seemed that I would not 

manage to do anything at all, as housework 

took all the time. But when I got more responsibilities, 

it added strength for my own 

project,” Demianova asserted. “When you 

find yourself in such conditions, all life becomes 

art. I looked at scattered fuelwood 

one day, and suddenly realized that it was 

an interesting material. The idea of creating 

decorated useful things from them occurred 

to me, because I love to paint on 

wood. I have also generally realized that it 

is cool to find beauty in some very ordinary 

things. Then the environment itself teaches 

you what the design and composition is. 

And this is something real. It is born from 

life itself, from necessity. After all, you do 

not have time to do something that is not 

necessary.” 

● COMMUNICATING WITH THE 

WORLD OUT OF THE MIDDLE 

OF A FOREST 

Why have they chosen Pushcha-Vodytsia? 

“Locals say it is a place of power,” 

Haidai said. “There is a very positive energy 

field, clean air, and water here. When 

I arrived in Pushcha after a day’s work before, 

I fully recovered in just an hour. So 

I was really interested in finding out how 

it would be to live here.” 

Currently, one of the goals of the 

Creative House’s founder is to find a 

third master who will also care about the 

house. Then they will be able to find a larger 

building, with separate rooms for organizers 

and participants. So far, residents 

of the Creative House pay for its upkeep 

out of their own wallets. Haidai observed: 

“I think that in the future, it will be possible 

to create our own products and sell 

them. These can be both material things 

and classes. We want to institute donations 

as well.” 

In addition to design, Haidai has been 

working on a musical project for four 

months already, which is scheduled to be 

displayed in May. He is not disclosing any 

details so far. He also made a comic book 

about the liberation of Mariupol. “My 

work is modern in nature, I create projects 

for different countries. On the other hand, 

I live a rural life. When a client is calling, 

I say that I will be ready to meet him in half 

an hour, and then go out with an axe to cut 

some fuelwood,” the lad smiled. “The 

essence of the Creative House is to do 

something, to create specific things. In my 

opinion, the world is full of twaddle nowadays, 

and it would be desirable to see people’s 

actions matching their words.”


CULT URE No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 7 

By Olesia AVRAMENKO 

Photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day 

Ipersonally met the artist and saw 

not only a dozen of huge pictures 

he has painted in the past few 

years, but also about 20 books 

written by and about him. 

Besides, I had an opportunity to 

informally communicate with this 

handsome and elegant gentleman and 

his journalist wife Sibel. 

● PAINTING, CINEMA, 

THEATER, AND 

MANAGEMENT 

The life of this uncommon artist is 

worthy of an optimistic adventure 

novel. The upbringing and work of 

Bedri Baykam show the way of a free 

individual active in many arts. 

The boy was lucky that his talent 

was not only noticed by his parents, but 

also brought to the attention of the surrounding 

world. Bedri was only six 

when his first solo exhibit was held in 

his native city of Ankara. The first 

critical article appeared in a Turkish 

newspaper in 1963 and the next ones in 

the newspapers and magazines of other 

countries. His exhibit traveled across 

Europe (Bern, Geneva, Paris, Rome) 

and reached America. The Paris newspaper 

Le Figaro called him “the Mozart 

of painting,” and The Washington Post 

also paid attention to the exhibit of a 

talented child. The unhealthy ballyhoo 

about cashing in on the young genius’ 

works caused his parents to refuse to 

sell their son’s pictures. 

In his teens, Baykam showed enthusiasm 

for cinema, theater, acting, 

and the secrets of film industry and 

theater management. After the triumph 

of his solo exhibits in Europe and 

America, parents sent the talented boy 

to a school in Switzerland to acquire 

the much-needed discipline and learn 

the most useful European languages – 

so it is no wonder that the young Bedri 

went to Paris for studies in 1975. The 

parents’ wealth and his own talent allowed 

the young artist to enter the Sorbonne 

and obtain an MBA in management 

and theater and film production. 

Does this mean that the wonder child 

betrayed himself and graduated to be a 

middle-level executive? Was it the diktat 

of his parents or a sober choice of 

Bedri himself? But, whatever the reason, 

the aspiration to secure a stable 

future did not prevent the youth from 

receiving specialized artistic education. 

The young artist concurrently enters 

another educational institution, 

L’Actorat, also in Paris, to study drama. 

He worked hard here, as always. 

This time, he mostly drew street 

scenes, landscapes, and nudes on paper 

with charcoal or Chinese ink. 

The time spent in France gave the 

youth broad experience, but he still felt 

a longing for visual and figurative 

arts. So, he decided to acquire systematized 

knowledge and skills and went to 

the US to enter the California College 

of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, where 

he studied painting and filmmaking. 

The artist considerably expanded 

the range of his instruments – he 

switched from doing watercolors and 

drawings to printmaking, began to 

paint in oil and, in the course of years, 

transformed pastose painting into 

transparent and acrylic. Little by little, 

graffiti and spray paint on plywood 

is added, oil paint fades away 

and acrylic takes the lead, which 

makes it possible to work faster and 

more actively. The bold synthesis of 

techniques and instruments, which 

now forms the basis of Baykam’s 

work, was born right here, in the US. 

● “NEW EXPRESSIONISM” AND 

“THE BOX OF DEMOCRACY” 

“The Mozart of painting” and… 

adventure novel 

The Ukrainian National Academy 

of Arts hall displays works 

of the noted Turkish master 

Bedri Baykam for the first time 

cy.” It is in the shape of 

a telephone booth 

which the author says 

“is a square meter of 

freedom. There are... 

couples who have entered 

and have made 

love. [It’s a] free space 

where you can do what 

you want.” This object 

is positioned as “a piece 

of Turkish democracy.” 

● “A 10-YEAR SELECTION” 

Now the uncommon artist brought 

a solo exhibit at the invitation of the 

Ukrainian National Academy of Arts. 

He called it simply: “Bedri Baykam: a 

10-Year Selection.” 

A huge silver-golden frame with 

writings, “The Hard Job of Living,” is 

installed in the middle of the hall. 

Looking through it, as if it were a 

viewfinder, you can focus on what 

opens up to you personally – the whole 

exposition or a certain picture, the 

spectators or the artist himself. Bedri 

has a series of such “hollow” frames. 

They are of various colors and textures 

– silver, golden, black, red… 

Newlyweds used to go through the red 

one at the Venice Biennale 2015, making 

wishes for a happy future. Each 

installation carries a message from 

the author and, at the same time, 

gives space to the thoughts and associations 

of every spectator who can 

concentrate on and take part in the 

game the author, every new situation, 

theme, and angle of view dictate. 

After examining closely the exposition, 

I suddenly realized that I had 

spent a lot of time, fascinated, in the 

hall and my colleagues had also seen 

the pictures. I was pleased to hear ex- 

After 12 years of studying abroad 

and going places, Baykam came back 

to Turkey in 1987 and settled in Istanbul. 

The artist has a multifaceted talent. 

He has written several scripts, a 

lot of articles and speeches, and even 

the action-packed novel The Bone published 

in Turkish in 2000 and in English 

in 2005. It is in his homeland that 

the artist seems to begin to realize 

himself at full capacity. 

Baykam continues to do and exhibit 

his artworks. Besides, he is an 

active citizen who defends the right of 

man to free development and democracy. 

He is not only the leader of the 

New Expressionism artistic movement 

but also a member of the 

Ataturkist Thought Association, one 

of the founders of the International 

Association of Art’s Turkish National 

Committee, and leads the Patriotic 

Movement. In October 2003 Baykam 

ran for the presidency of the Republican 

People’s Party. 

In 2006 Baykam formed the 

“Pyramid” center of contemporary art 

in Istanbul, where he organizes exhibits, 

publishes books and albums. 

“Pyramid” is one of the most active 

and independent centers of contemporary 

art in Turkey. 

In 2011, during his visit to the 

city of Kars, Turkish Prime Minister 

Recep Erdogan described the “Statue 

of Humanism,” which symbolizes Armenian-Turkish 

reconciliation, as a 

“freak” and called for demolishing it. 

This call immediately began to be fulfilled. 

Baykam was the first to stand 

up for the monument, saying that an 

Armenian-Turkish dialog is extremely 

important to his people and the 

Kars monument was the only major 

symbol of it. On the contrary, Erdogan 

showed an openly hostile attitude 

to Armenia. During a protest rally organized 

by Baykam, the artist and his 

female assistant were stabbed and 

wounded. Nobody doubted that the attack 

was connected with the artist’s 

active citizenship. But even this turn 

of events did not stop Baykam in his 

artistic and sociopolitical activities. 

At the International Istanbul Biennial 

2017, held under the motto “A 

Good Neighbor,” which raised ticklish 

questions about the political situation 

and crisis in Turkey, Baykam showed 

his work called “The Box of Democraacting 

and fault-finding professionals 

make surprisingly well-wishing comments 

and find the works very interesting. 

The pictures are sensual and gripping. 

The canvases are full of interesting 

stories and symbols which it is 

a delight to read. To keep the spectator 

interested, Baykam, as an experienced 

stage director, picks certain visual 

techniques from the artistic domain 

of the “magic lantern” and adds 

some elements of cinema language and 

theatrical mise-en-scenes, carefully 

forming the dramaturgy of each work. 

To implement such ideas, the artist 

easily combines traditional techniques 

and cutting-edge technologies. 

He is one of the first, if not the 

first, to dare apply the lenticular effect 

to pictures. It will be recalled that 

lenticular printing is a technology in 

which lenticular lenses (a technology 

that is also used for 3D displays) are 

used to produce printed images with 

an illusion of depth. Mass-scale production 

of this kind of items was 

launched in the 1970s in Japan. It is 

the stereo imaging we know from cute 

childhood-time “wiggle pictures,” 

where, for example, a beauty in the 

foreground raises a glass of wine and 

gives you a wink and, viewed from a 

different angle, opens the eye and 

drinks the wine, or Santa Clause takes 

gifts out of his bag near the Christmas 

tree, etc. 

Baykam is proud of his pictures 

with this kind of augmented reality, 

calling them 4D, and says it is a special 

Turkish magic or something like a 

magic carpet for everybody. For, depending 

on the angle of view, we can 

see different images. Add to this the 

illusion of a very deep multidimensional 

space. This literally causes us to 

get immersed in the depths of reflections 

and feelings. 

Bedri Baykam is a perfectionist by 

nature – he actively evades doing 

what everybody else does and, moreover, 

does not like repeating himself. 

He rapturously accepts and modifies 

the global art heritage, looking for his 

own ways in its labyrinth. Besides, he 

can see clearly and shows that his own 

artistic history grows out of the global 

one. 

The theme of harem, its place in 

the Ottoman Empire, in the imagination 

and interpretations of Europeans 

and himself, runs through all the exhibited 

works. He shows his own admiration 

of women in general and the 

woman as an archetype, a passionate 

desire to possess this beautiful feminine 

world, self-irony and subtle 

mockery of his own admirations and 

wishes and the stereotypes that have 

formed in the minds of generations. 

You will find some familiar heroes 

of pictures and films in the exhibited 

canvases. In “The Kiss: Homage to 

Munch Series” (4D, 185x120, 2010), 

figures from Edvard Munch’s canvases, 

which have frozen in a passionate 

kiss, go into a perspective on different 

levels and planes. Each of them mirrors 

a fraction of the author’s life and 

the experience of spectators. In the 

picture “How to Explain History to a 

Live Snail and Dead Hare” (4D, 

180 240, 2009), the cocktail of composition 

and sense consists of bright ingredients, 

such as fragments of a Renaissance-era 

religious composition 

with an enormous green snail and the 

notoriously maddened Mona Lisa, airplanes 

that soar like seagulls in the 

sky and a seagull that hovers like an 

airplane – and all this corresponds 

with the characters of early- 20th-century 

adverts and a horror film hero 

with a dead hare in hand. 

Bedri Baykam’s pictures of the 

given decade vividly show the movement 

of trends in world art in general 

and the Turkish artist in particular – 

from neoexpressionism and postmodernism 

to the so-called metamodernism. 

■ The exhibit “Bedri Baykam: a 

10-Year Selection” will remain open 

until April 7. 

Olesia Avramenko is an art critic

8 

No.18 MARCH 22, 2018 

TIMEO U T 


Myths about 

idyllic life 

Sofia Andrukhovych’s 

novel Felix Austria 

nominated for Jean 

Monnet Prize 

A POSTER OF THE HISTORICAL DRAMA FELIX AUSTRIA 

It will be recalled that Polish film 

director Piotr Domalewski is going 

to make a historical drama, Felix 

Austria, based on the bestseller of 

the same name by Ukrainian writer 

Sofia Andrukhovych. The novel has 

been nominated for the Jean Monnet 

Prize, a French literary award. This 

prestigious prize has been awarded to 

European authors since 1995 for the 

best book written in or translated into 

the French language. The winners will 

be announced on June 13, Film.ua 

group’s press service reports 

Also on the shortlist are such European 

writers as Chantal Thomas 

(France), the author of the novel 

Farewell, My Queen, filmed in 2012 by 

Benoit Jacquot; Sebastian Barry (Ireland), 

the author of The Secret Scripture, 

filmed in 2016; Alan Hollinghurst 

(UK), the winner of the Booker Prize 

2004; Jose Carlos Llop (Spain); Jon 

Kalman Stefansson (Iceland), and Kjell 

Anders Westo (Sweden). 

Andrukhovych’s novel Felix Austria 

was published in French translation 

by Noir sur Blanc. The book is also expected 

to come out in Slovakia and the 

US this year. 

The novel is set in Stanislau (now 

Ivano-Frankivsk) in the late 19th-early 

20th centuries. It is a city on the periphery 

of “happy Austria,” in which 

people live, suffer, fall in love, are 

keen on science and fraudulent shows 

of illusionists, entertain at balls, and 

hide secrets in carved-wood chests-ofdrawers. 

Against the background of the 

epoch, which is going to create more 

and more myths for descendants, we 

can watch the destinies of two women 

that have intertwined as closely as 

tree branches – this inseparable tie 

does not allow them to live, breathe, or 

go. The protagonists are Stefania, a 

Ukrainian, on behalf of whom the story 

is told, and the noble lady Adel 

Anger, half a Pole and half a German. 

“Telling a private story of my characters, 

whose chimerical cohabitation 

seemed to be a sweet fairytale, I was trying 

to hint that the floridly ornamented 

facade hides a fragile structure that 

can go to pieces at the slightest touch 

of external forces,” vikna.ua quotes Andrukhovych 

as saying. “The life of two 

women who belong to different social 

strata, come from different ethnic and 

cultural contexts, and share a common 

space, very impressive to look at, is one 

of the possible metaphors of the coexistence 

of the subjects of the Austro- 

Hungarian Empire. 

“Felix Austria is the name of a boy 

who suddenly emerges in the process of 

narration. He appears from nowhere, 

has no history and voice. He symbolizes 

irrational and inexplicable forces that 

are impossible to foresee and assess in 

an analytical way but are very often a 

decisive factor which changes the 

course of history – be it the history of 

an individual or of a state.” 

By Alisa ANTONENKO 

Photo from the website FILM.UA GROUP 

True gold of true athletes 

By Olena KURENKOVA 

Photos by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day 

Hundreds of people welcomed in Boryspil 

on March 20 the Ukrainian national team 

that had triumphantly performed at the 

Paralympic Winter Games in South Korea 

Flowers, Ukrainian flags, posters 

and warm embrace – all these 

created the emotional and joyful 

welcome offered Ukrainian athletes 

as they came home. To honor 

the team on its return, a meeting with the 

medalists was held in the hall of the 

F terminal at the Boryspil Airport, 

during which they were greeted not only 

by their relatives, but also by high 

officials, including Prime Minister of 

Ukraine Volodymyr Hroisman, Minister 

of Youth and Sports of Ukraine Ihor 

Zhdanov, and chairman of the Verkhovna 

Rada Committee on Family, Youth 

Policy, Sports, and Tourism Artur Palatny. 

However, it was the athletes, patiently 

awaited by several hundred people, 

who were in the focus of the event. 

This year, Ukraine performed very 

well in Pyeongchang, winning seven 

gold medals (this is the record number of 

such awards for Ukraine over the past 

12 years), seven silver, and eight bronze 

ones, and coming to rank sixth among 

the medal-winning countries in the overall 

ranking. “It is a very significant 

victory for us precisely now. I guess it is 

because the war continues in this country, 

and people are already tired of it, so 

we feel everything especially keenly. 

And victories of our Paralympians offer 

an extra reason to be proud of this country,” 

said Svitlana Tryfonova, Honored 

Master of Sports of Ukraine, seventime 

medalist of the Paralympics. 

The hall of the terminal was crowded, 

mostly with professional athletes, 

veterans of Olympics and Paralympics, 

relatives of this year’s medalists, journalists, 

and regular supportive citizens 

(the latter were numerous as well). The 

official program did not take a long 

time. The organizers of the event kept 

people entertained until the arrival of the 

athletes by screening excerpts of video 

records of the Ukrainian team’s preparation 

for the Games and its performance 

in Pyeongchang. The plane arrived on 

time. A solemn and exciting moment of 

the welcome, a performance of the anthem, 

followed by a short official program. 

Hroisman spoke, announcing positive 

news: the amount of award payments 

to Paralympic athletes had been 

raised to match that of Olympic medalists; 

Zhdanov offered specific figures: 

the national budget had 91 million hryvnias 

allocated for the medalists, of which 

125,000 hryvnias were to be received by 

every gold medalist, 85,000 by every silver 

one, and 55,000 by every bronze one. 

And then, the heroes were greeted 

by their closest family and engaged in informal 

communication: at last, we had 

an opportunity to find out about their 

impressions firsthand. This year’s Paralympic 

team, led by Valerii Sushkevych, 

included very young medalists along 

with well-known Paralympic athletes 

who had won on numerous occasions before. 

The 18-year-old Taras Rad, who 

won gold and became the flag-bearer at 

the closing ceremony, told us: “I have returned 

with great impressions, and I am 

especially pleased with the fact that although 

I entered the Paralympics for the 

first time, I won such a high award. 

Thus, I now want to do better every 

time.” Oksana Shyshkova, who is one of 

the most experienced team members, 

brought home six awards, including 

two golds, three silvers, and a bronze. 

She said she dedicated her victories to 

soldiers of the anti-terrorist operation. 

Vitalii Lukianenko, who is no less experienced 

and won two golds at these 

Games, remarked that during the competition, 

he was strongly impressed by 

events such as performances of the 

Ukrainian anthem and raisings of our 

flag. He said he was pleased with the result 

while admitting he could have done 

better. Meanwhile, Liudmyla Liashenko, 

who won a gold and three bronze medals, 

tirelessly motivated others with her example: 

“I would like to wish that everyone 

stay strong and do the work they 

like, so that one could say in one’s old 

age: I have lived such a happy life, full 

of events and diverse competitions! Most 

importantly, one should never give up.” 

Also, the athletes said they had felt 

strong support coming from the homeland. 

In particular, it manifested this 

year in the setting up, for the first time 

ever, of a Paralympic fan zone in the 

“Pencil” TV building. The organizers 

noted that they would repeat it in the future 

as well. 

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