Reinhard SCHAEFERS: “I am especially pleased with the younger generation of Ukrainians”

Reinhard Schaefers, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine, is the featured guest of our column “Our Country through the Eyes of Foreigners.” We asked all the foreign ambassadors accredited in Ukraine as well as foreign politicians and experts to answer the following two questions:

1. What impressed you most about Ukraine?

2. Can you list three reasons to love Ukraine?

1. “I have been closely associated with this country since the day Ukraine’s independence was proclaimed: I was one of the few foreign diplomats to attend the 1991 independence celebrations in Kyiv. Since then I have been monitoring events in this country with great interest. In more than a year of my tenure as German ambassador, I have familiarized myself with Ukraine, which is a typical transition- period country, a country full of dynamics and changes. This applies, above all, to the economic and public spheres.

“I am especially pleased with the younger generation of Ukrainians. They are open, well-educated, and Europe-oriented. For example, the young people of Kyiv resemble in many respects the youth of Berlin, Warsaw, or Brussels.

2. “The friendliness, magnanimity, and equilibrium of people in their everyday lives are what catch my eye above all. Second, when I stroll down the streets as an ordinary resident of Kyiv, I always marvel at how beautiful the city I live in has become. The third reason to love Ukraine is mushroom soup and pancakes because the path of love, as you know, goes through the stomach.”