Another featured guest of our regular column “Our Country through the Eyes of Foreigners” is Urban Rusnak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic to Ukraine. The Day asked him too to answer the same two questions:
1. What kind of Ukraine have you discovered? What are your most memorable impressions?
2. List three reasons to love Ukraine.
I was amazed by the high degree of unforeseeable events in Ukraine. Ukraine didn’t take me completely by surprise because the Slovak Republic is your close neighbor. I have worked in Russia and other countries. In principle, I can’t say that your country was a new discovery for me. Ukraine is a friendly country that is close to us and similar in character. All I can say is that I have enriched my knowledge of Ukraine; now I know how close Slovaks and Ukrainians really are. There is a deep-reaching practical and cultural affinity between our peoples. We have never had any historical problems or battles. Take our languages or religious beliefs: there is a smooth transition from Slovakia to Ukraine. There is no sharply outlined border where we can say: “Slovakia ends here and Ukraine begins there.”
As an ambassador, I was amazed by the highly unpredictable course that events in your country can take. I must admit that certain shifts in Ukrainian politics took me aback. I didn’t think that some of your politicians could return to big-time political life. Yet they are demonstrating this ability year in and year out. I am witness to the return of high-ranking politicians.
Your country is also amazing. When you drive by car through your country, you realize that its territory is huge. I was interested to learn the huge difference between certain regions of Ukraine in terms of mentality and perception. I would even say that Ukraine is more diversified than certain Eastern European countries like Poland, Slovakia, or Hungary. Despite the fact that people speak different languages in these countries, the mentality and similarity of these nations are sometimes closer than in Ukraine. There is a rather noticeable difference between the residents of Halychyna, the Crimea, and Luhansk oblast.
In regard to the second question, people can fall in love with Ukraine for its diversity, for the way it really is. Here you find people who are kind- hearted and close to our character. There is also such internal dynamism in your country. Despite all the hardships that your country doesn’t seem to be able to overcome, its movement does not stop. So I think you have to be a very wise politician to direct this movement in the necessary direction. At the moment, this movement is not being channeled in the right direction, hence the lack of desired results. This direction should be aimed at Europe, of course. There is simply no alternative.







