Pavlo Klimkin: We cannot scatter Ukrainians around the world, because there will not be enough of us for the existence of the nation and the country

The state needs to study Ukrainians abroad, explore Ukrainian identity, and create a vision for the future of Ukraine. This must be done before developing a strategy to unite Ukrainians abroad and engage them in helping the state, says former Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.

«Otherwise, the state programmes of the Ministry of Ukrainian Unity will not work, and we will lose the competition with European countries for Ukrainians. What challenges will the government face? Where are political parties abroad already hunting for Ukrainians, and when will a Ukrainian become President of the United States?

Pavlo Klimkin answers these and other questions in the Bridges of Ukraine project of the «Golka» civil initiative.

How can Ukrainians abroad become ambassadors of Ukraine?  How can women who have moved to a European country with their children because of Russian aggression, who have already met their basic needs and have an hour a day and a desire to be useful to Ukraine, help?

Pavlo Klimkin and Margarita Sytnyk

There are different options. Anyone who wants to prove themselves always has the opportunity to interact with embassies and communities. What does it mean to be an ambassador? Not everyone can be an ambassador. And why should we? We have to be Ukrainians.

If the percentage of active Ukrainians reaches 3% instead of 1%, then we will not just shake hands but thank them and celebrate them so that they feel proud that they have a Ukrainian identity, that they are doing something and are beginning to have an impact in these countries, including political influence.

We are rapidly moving towards a reality where there will be more Ukrainians abroad than we have here. There are such examples in the world: the Irish and the Armenians. President Biden is a typical example of the descendants of the Irish who have understood their path and their place in the United States.

Among Ukrainians abroad, there are people who care about Ukraine and who live with Ukraine in their hearts. And there are those who are almost indifferent. We will not be able to live as we used to with the understanding that there are Ukrainians, there is some kind of incomprehensible diaspora and those whom we call refugees. This is not the way to unite the Ukrainian mentality! That is why we need to research what Ukrainian identity is.

I am all for creating a state structure to build a system and a network of connections. Such structures exist in different countries. They have different ideas and different goals. In some countries, the diaspora determines the results of elections, including in neighbouring countries such as Romania or Moldova. At least in our country, before the war, the money transferred by Ukrainians, who are treated with some contempt by some, kept the entire economy going.

Pavlo Klimkin

You can’t scatter Ukrainians around the world and say: «You are the right Ukrainian, and you are the wrong Ukrainian». If we start throwing ourselves at each other, throwing one out, another, another, another, maybe we will look at ourselves in the mirror and find that we are no longer enough to be a nation and a country.

We have to help activists realise themselves abroad. This cannot be done only by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which lacks human resources. We can create something with better coordination and better human communication. It’s not about money, meaning, or the opportunity to learn what you can do. It is about the possibility of political communication at the same time so that Ukrainians are perceived abroad. This is a problem in some countries. Ukrainians need to become something that is immediately identifiable, like the Italians or the French.

We already have Ukrainians in various parliaments, both national and regional. Some political parties consciously include Ukrainians: Ukrainians who are no longer just Ukrainians. There are political parties that systematically work with associations of Ukrainians because these people have passports.

I see some German parties doing this systematically, for example, in the recent elections in the eastern federal states. I know that some Italian and Czech parties are working.

Moreover, in some countries of Southeast Asia, there are Ukrainians who are starting to enter the civil service, who are respected, and who know the local languages. In these countries, Ukrainians may someday have completely different political or business opportunities or prove themselves in civil society.

Margarita Sytnyk – Communications manager, Co-founder of the Civic Initiative «Holka»

Translated by Iryna Kovalenko, specially for Glavcom.ua

This text is in Ukrainian