Today the guest of our regular column “Ukraine through Foreign Eyes” is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain to Ukraine Timothy BARROW. We asked him the same two questions we have been asking all the foreign ambassadors to Ukraine, foreign politicians and experts:
1. What struck you most about Ukraine?
2. Name three reasons to love Ukraine.
1. I first came to Ukraine in the late eighties. I was helping to organise a major UK exhibition — British Days in Kiev — which was designed at that time for the UK to get to know Ukraine better and for Ukraine to get to know the UK better. The idea was that we could start to reach out from the UK to rediscover one of the countries lost to us within the Soviet Union.
I remember quite vividly my first arrival because Kiev was nothing like I expected. I had in my mind that it would be stereotypically Soviet. I imagined a great grey city and lots of massive concrete buildings. Instead, when I arrived, it was in spring, kashtans were out and the buildings really struck me — green, red, yellow, — there were so many different colours. So the first impression was one of surprise. And I have to say pleasant shock is still universally the first impression I hear from visitors as they arrive even today. They see a city which is more attractive, more European and more green than they have expected.
I visited Ukraine often over the next years when I was in our Embassy in Moscow. It was part of my job. My strongest impression of Ukraine at that time was the scale of the country, of the country which we simply didn’t see on the map. It was pretty startling to discover that I knew so little about a vast country full of achievement and history. Seeing Ukraine and the other constituent countries of the Soviet Union break back into freedom and into independence was the highlight of my diplomatic career so far, and I expect it will be regardless of what else I do.
2. I have difficulties choosing only three Е Borsch, one of the truly great dishes of the world, which I think is deeply Ukrainian in its soul: very straightforward and honest, simple and unassuming, but full of infinite variety. I always make sure to serve borsch when I have guests out from the UK.
Secondly, one reason I feel so strongly about Ukraine is because of the Ukrainian people and the great sorrows of this land. A few days ago I was at a meeting and exhibition about the Holodomor and had the honor of meeting a survivor, a great lady full of life and memories. The Holodomor is shocking in itself and it is double— shocking because so few people outside Ukraine know about it. But part of what draws me in is the effect these tragedies have had on the national character. I could well understand if recent history had made Ukraine and its people angry and belligerent. But instead this is a country which has faced political upheaval with an absolute conviction and determination that political differences will be resolved without violence, without a drop of blood being spilt.
And here is also the third reason: what the Ukrainian people are doing right here, right now. They are making history. I’m very fortunate, I meet a lot of remarkable Ukrainians. Not just well-known personalities like political leaders, sports champions or popular singers, but the people I meet when I’m lucky enough to travel around the country and see for example some UK assistance projects. I see many people changing their lives by taking responsibility and doing extraordinary things. Changing their lives, changing their cities, towns or villages, and so changing their country. I respect them greatly because they are working against the grain of the Soviet legacy left to this country and they are doing so individually and in their hundreds. Look at the last elections: what impressed me most was the way in which people turned up to vote in large numbers. As many said to me it was simply their right and duty to vote. This is a country where democratic elections are becoming a habit. From what I saw they didn’t go to vote in fervour, there was no sense of euphoria. And that is a great mark of progress. In democracies, politics are not what you talk about first of all or most of all. You talk about football or rugby, and a lot about weather, in the UK. Politics in Ukraine is becoming less excited and less excitable. And that is a good thing. It took us a long, long time in the UK to develop our democracy. Ukraine is trying to do the work of centuries in a few years and it’s happening here before my very eyes. This is where another chapter in European democracy is being written and I am privileged to be here to see it.
