The first issue of the English version of Den was published on February 10, 1998. Whereas today the English-language version of a Ukrainian publication is rather an exclusion from a rule, at that time such an innovation was a real breakthrough. Following the idea of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Den/The Day Larysa Ivshyna, The Day had to present a Ukrainian view on events in English. In such a way the voice of Ukraine got a chance to be heard in the world. Today The Day can be subscribed or bought at a newsstand: the newspaper is published twice a week. In Europe the publication is available in PressReader and PressPoint. It will be reminded that for a year The Day has been published in a new convenient format, with a dynamic colored layout.
“The newspaper Den and its related publications are not only important tools of nation building, they are also effective instruments of public relations for Ukraine,” Lesia SHYMKO, Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Centre, President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, Master of Political Sciences, said in an interview to The Day. “This relates to my first memory of promoting the newspaper to a non-Ukrainian. It was May of 1999. I and my father, Yuri Shymko, a former Canadian Member of Parliament, were staying at the Natsionalny hotel in Kyiv. During our visit, we had the opportunity to meet Jose Carreras, one of Europe’s most famous tenors, who, was staying at the same hotel. Carreras had just arrived in Ukraine and, despite suffering from the flu, was to give a concert the next day at the National Palace of Arts ‘Ukraina.’ Except for his concert promoter, Carreras had few acquaintances in Kyiv, so when he asked what he could read in English to better understand the country he was visiting, we immediately brought him a copy of Den’s weekly English digest, The Day, which was readily available in the hotel lobby. Seeing the world-famous tenor carrying his copy of The Day to read as he nursed his sore throat with a cup of green tea was a historic sight. The next day, we went to hear Carreras perform together with the fabulous Ukrainian soprano, Olha Mykytenko. I still have the photographs of myself with Carreras, and almost 17 years later, I fondly recall that when a European celebrity visited Ukraine, there was a quality newspaper called ‘The Day’ in existence for him to read.”
