“You must believe in yourselves”

A delegation of Ukrainian Canadians who take an active pro-Ukrainian stand and play an important role in Canada’s politics visited Den’s editorial office recently. It consisted of Yuri SHYMKO, President of the International Council in Support of Ukraine, who was twice elected to Canada’s parliament and is the author of the extensive Memorandum on the Decolonization of the USSR which he submitted to the UN General Assembly President and delegates in 1978 on behalf of the Baltic, Belarusian, and Ukrainian World Congresses; Lisa SHYMKO, President of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, Chair of the Guardian Angels Ukraine project, Production Supervisor/Director of Forum TV; and Anton SESTRITSYN, National Coordinator of the League of Ukrainian Canadians, who was born in Crimea as part of independent Ukraine. They arrived in Ukraine to take part in the 6th World Forum of Ukrainians and Independence Day celebrations.

The Day requested them to assess Ukraine’s performance in the past 25 years and give their opinion about how this country can withdraw from the political “pocket” in which it found itself after the Russian annexation of Crimea and aggression in the Donbas.

“IT IS NOW A DIFFERENT UKRAINE, A DIFFERENT SOCIETY”

Yuri SHYMKO: “In spite of economic troubles, rampant corruption, and slow pace of reforms, this country has made considerable progress in 25 years. It is now a different Ukraine, a different society. To tell the truth, it is not exactly the one we expected it to be, but progress is great. Here, next to me, is Anton, a 24-year-old young man from Simferopol, who has grown in an independent Ukraine, while I will turn 76 in a month. Despite the age gap, our views are the same. Our diaspora is physically merged with the new generation. Anton speaks English, Turkish, French, Ukrainian, and Russian.

“To withdraw from the political ‘pocket,’ you must first of all believe in yourselves and rely on your own strength. Nobody will sacrifice their life for the sake of another nation. The nation itself must be prepared to make this sacrifice. We have an ample intellectual capacity – we have mastered information technologies and are the world’s third best in this aspect. We have a great potential. In addition to having capacities, our people show readiness to work. What we lack is a good manager.

“The problem is that you have the same politicians – they only get mixed. Since the very first day of independence, we have seen people who constantly change one faction or party for another.

“At the same time, there is a younger generation in the Verkhovna Rada, whose percentage is going to rise. You need to be passionate and patient, believe in your own strength, you should not give in to Russian disinformation or rouse the still deep-seated inferiority complex.

“Yes, I do believe Ukraine has a potential. And we, diaspora, will help as much as we can. Thanks to our efforts, three large cargo planes have delivered 900-million-dollars worth aid from Canada. Add to this volunteer groups and nongovernmental organizations, such as the Guardian Angels Ukraine project under the auspices of the International Council in Support of Ukraine and the Friends of Ukraine Defense Forces Fund which helps supply non-lethal weapons to Ukrainian soldiers.”

ON THORNY ISSUES AND UNSETTLED SCANDALS

Lisa SHYMKO: “I am looking at the 25th anniversary of Ukrainian independence from the perspective of an impatient Ukrainian Canadian woman. It is a very painful fact for me that there still remain so many unsettled problems and scandals now, 25 years on.

“I first arrived in Ukraine in 1998 to bring into action the Canadian-Ukrainian Parliamentary Center established at the National Parliamentary Library on Hrushevskoho Street.

“We launched this project as the first step to boost the reform of Ukrainian lawmaking. We thought that the Canadian legislative system might be a model for drawing up laws in Ukraine.

“The year 2000 saw the murder of Georgy Gongadze, and, much to my regret, this case has not yet been solved. We, Canadians, are appealing to Ukrainian journalists: let us help you, let us further publicize this problem. So it pains me deeply that evil has not been punished and very strong figures, entangled in this very shady net, are still feeling free and untouchable. In my view, it is national shame for us.

“There is a mountain of dead bodies in the Gongadze case: from Kravchenko, Dahaiev, and Fere to Sheremet. It is a domino effect. We know how this domino tumbled, and now, after the murder of Sheremet, it is a major challenge.

“The newspaper Den is one of the very few that broach these thorny issues openly. Incidentally, the murder of Sheremet is again associated with Ukrainska Pravda, the publication Gongadze founded. Come to your senses and bring this case to trial!

“Another thorny question is about oligarchs. We cannot deport them all to America – we need to find an effective mechanism to close the subject. Yes, I am prepared to defend Kolomoisky in this case. He may not be the cleanest business figure, but he has proposed a mechanism to solve this acute problem. I would like politicians from various factions to consider again his formula of solving the problem of corruption. He said: let us gather and pay what we have not paid in order to make our atonement.”

“WE HAVE PASSED THE POINT OF NO RETURN TO RUSSIA”

Anton SESTRITSYN: “My story may be radically different from the first two, for I was born in different realities – in independent Ukraine. I did not see the Soviet era because I was born in Crimea as part of Ukraine. I am proud to be a Simferopol-born Crimean in my father’s line. So, for me, the annexation of Crimea in 2014 is the war I am still waging today, although I became aware of my Ukrainian identity well before that. This only gave me an impetus to continue studying this matter. And I’ve been interested in the history of Ukraine and the rest of the world since I was a child. I graduated from a school in Ukraine and from a university in Canada. In other words, my awareness of being Ukrainian was forming partly in Ukraine and partly in Canada. Although I am not a 100-percent ethic Ukrainian, I am aware of where I was born and of the fact that it is my history and my land. Of course, in the realities of my adolescence – the 1990s – Kyiv pursued no policy of patriotic education in Crimea. We had the only Ukrainian newspaper, Krymska svitlytsia, to which I also contributed. Almost all the schools used Russian as medium of instruction. There was no strong Ukrainian community in Crimea, but I don’t think this can be used as a reason not to love Ukraine.

“Ukraine has achieved a lot in 25 years since the point of departure – 1991. The year 2014 brought along radical changes – we have passed the point of no return to Russia. Nothing will ever force Ukraine to move eastwards. The only direction we have is west. The EU and NATO [membership] is a matter of time. The only question is to what extent we will speed it up, to what extent the government will be interested in and Ukrainian society will be prepared for this. We have a war now. We must be paying the price we didn’t pay in the 1990s, when we peacefully withdrew from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was decolonized in a rather peaceful way. Now it is, for some reason, only Ukraine that is paying for those sins, and this price of decolonization is high. What we are saying in the West – that the Ukrainian military are defending Europe and Western values in eastern Ukraine – is not just empty words. Our military are defending today the world from the Moscow horde whose values run counter to Western values and whose sentiments run counter to those of Europe and North America.”

THE LEAGUE OF UKRAINIAN CANADIAN WOMEN

L.Sh.: “There are three priorities for the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women. The first, and the main, direction is humanitarian projects. The war has proved that Ukraine needs urgent help – above all, in the defense sector. We are forbidden to fund the purchase of lethal weapons. Yet in May of 2014, the League of Ukrainian Canadians and League of Ukrainian Canadian Women launched a project. We have mostly been raising funds to purchase medical equipment, infrared cameras, bulletproof jackets, and all kinds of vehicles.

In December of 2014, as a result of the urgent need to provide medical treatment for Ukraine's injured military personnel, the League of Ukrainian Women created the "Guardian Angels Ukraine"  project focusing on rehabilitation medicine. For example, we brought to Ukraine the first virtual reality interactive rehabilitation system known as IREX. For example, if a soldier has had his hands wounded, he puts on special gloves that have electronic sensors and help him do virtual exercises. This has a very positive psychological effect on the patient, and, at the same time, doctors collect all information about muscular capacity. Then they work out, on the basis of this information, a specific procedure for this patient. We gifted this system to a military hospital in Irpin and are going to hand over another IREX system for the Khmilnyk military clinic.

THE DELEGATION OF UKRAINIAN CANADIANS WAS ASTONISHED BY DEN’S PRODUCT WHICH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LARYSA IVSHYNA SHOWED THEM. LISA SHYMKO POINTED OUT THAT THESE BOOKS ARE A TREASURE AND A POSITIVE PUBLICITY FOR UKRAINE, WHILE YURI SHYMKO SAID, LOOKING OVER THE GLOSSY ROUTE No.1 THEMATICALLY TITLED “A WISE JOURNEY WITH DEN,” THAT THIS IDEA CAN ALSO BE USED FOR DIASPORA YOUTH AS A RATIONAL JOURNEY ACROSS UKRAINE / Photo by Mykola TYMCHENKO, The Day

In April of 2014, we helped finance the establishment of the first centre for physical and psychological rehabilitation at the Irpin Military Hospital near Kyiv. In addition, we are working with Ukrainian and Canadian universities to establish a Master's-level program in Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy in Ukraine. We are honoured that Canada's Queen's University, together with the Kyiv Polytechnic University and the Ukrainian Military Medical Academy have become our partners in the important endeavor.

“In addition to humanitarian work, we have two other important missions to perform – lobbying (‘advocacy’ in Canadian usage) and active participation in the information warfare. It is about possible involvement in the events with participation of the ministers of defense or foreign affairs, in which support for Ukraine is a top-priority issue.

“We also draw up foreign-policy briefings for the Canadian parliament’s committees. We not only submit our position papers, but are also invited as witnesses.

“Besides, we contribute to the Canadian press. I am very proud that we managed last year to properly honor two major statesmen – Yevhen Marchuk and General Wesley Clark – in an event organized by the International Council in Support of Ukraine.

“Taking into account that the Western press begins to be tired of the war [in Ukraine], bringing the Syria war and other problems into focus, we deemed it necessary that the two strong different and, at the same time, like-minded figures should express their impressions and opinions about US and European policies and raise again the questions of NATO membership and supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons.

“We were pleased that an influential newspaper, The National Post, accepted the invitation of the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women to simultaneously interview these two strong figures. They also visited the Canadian Forces College, where Mr. Marchuk gave a meaningful, laconic, and super-informative lecture based on his own rich experience for would-be generals from NATO and allied countries. We can hear positive comments on that lecture even today.

“In conclusion, I’d like to say that the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, the League of Ukrainian Canadians, and the International Council in Support of Ukraine as a whole, are worried about the future course of Canada’s foreign policy. There are serious indications that Canada may dramatically change its priorities. We are working hard to persuade the Canadian government, firstly, to resume furnishing satellite-gathered data to Ukraine and, secondly, not to ‘bury’ the Magnitsky Law. All the three main Canadian parties unanimously vowed on the eve of the latest parliamentary elections to support the adoption of the Magnitsky Law. The third priority is to put Ukraine on the list of the countries to which we can sell arms. Before the elections, the previous prime minister had already brought into play the process of putting Ukraine on this list. But, much to our regret, the new prime minister and his minister of foreign affairs seem to have brought this to a halt.”

$900-MILLION-WORTH CANADIAN AID AND UNIQUE EXPERIENCE OF UKRAINE

A.S.: “As for the Canadian 900-million-dollar-worth aid, I can name some of the fields where it was to be channeled. For example, there was a target-oriented fund (comparable with NATO trusts) for the judicial reform. Canada granted almost 200 million dollars to teach European laws to our judges – the latter were also supposed to learn what the European Court of Human Rights and the Hague court are like, improve their English, etc. The other funds were used to meet the needs of our army which Yanukovych had in fact ruined by 2014. This included infrared cameras, bulletproof jackets, and many other things which the Canadian army had but the Ukrainian one lacked.

“Canada took an inventory of its armed forces and saw what it could supply to Ukraine. Incidentally, it also included winter uniform which Ukraine did not have at the time – and it is very important for the military to fight in comfortable conditions. Funds were also to be made available for NGO development programs. In other words, this aid was aimed at raising the level of democracy in Ukraine.

“I must mention here the participation of Canadian servicemen in Yavoriv proving ground trainings. It was the initiative of the previous leadership. Unfortunately, the project, which expires in 2017, was not extended in March. I hope the new government will understand the value of this, for it is not a one-side game. The Canadian military are also gaining unique experience of fighting in a hybrid war which no other country has ever waged. They bring this experience to Canada, and NATO is studying it. Both fortunately and unfortunately, we have this experience and can teach NATO to resist a powerful enemy that is waging an asymmetric war. Yes, it is not only a battlefield, but also an informational and political space, it is lobbying, Manafort, – in other words, there are many components here.”

“WE ARE HAPPY TO PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE PROPORTIONALLY TO THE POPULATION OF CANADA”

Mykola SIRUK: “Is the worldwide Ukrainian community mature enough to play the role of subject and influence politics in a country with a sizable Ukrainian diaspora?”

Yu.Sh.: “We are celebrating the 125th anniversary of the settlement of Ukrainians in Canada. There are up to 1.2 million Ukrainians in Canada. There have been five waves of emigration. The first, in the late 19th century, was caused by internment of the Ukrainians who were citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and fought against Britain and Canada. The second wave occurred in the 1920s. It included more experienced people who took part in the 1917-20 political struggle. The third wave represented people, such as my parents, after World War Two. This group was greatly politicized because the OUN-UPA was waging the last armed struggle against that system on the Soviet Union’s territory. The fourth wave began in the 1990s, when Ukraine proclaimed independence. And the fifth one is still going on. At first, it mostly consisted of job-seekers, and now young people (like, for example, Anton) with a certain professional background are coming for studies, etc.

“We are happy to play a demographically important role proportionally to the population of Canada. There must be the same, or even a little greater, number of Ukrainians in the US, but they do not wield the same clout. You will find almost no Ukrainians in the US Congress. Even if there are some, they belong to the generation which is even unaware of their Ukrainian identity. But lobbying is very important.

“We lobby with congressmen and senators. My deputy Borys Potapenko is doing extremely important work with Democratic senators in Detroit. Another deputy works with the Republicans. The ongoing US presidential campaign is awfully polarized. They have in fact beaten the Republican Party. Many politicians and senators will vote for the opposite party’s candidate. Donald Trump’s election campaign is totally infiltrated by the FSB owing to the Russian special service’s operations. This is not only the question of Paul Manafort, in which Ukraine is already playing a role. There are some other respectable people there – Carter Page, who has a stake in Gazprom, and General Michael Flynn, who regularly appears on Russia Today.

“The International Council in Support of Ukraine organizes a conference in the spring somewhere in Europe, and we hope to get in touch with our nongovernmental organizations – above all, in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Belgium, etc. The community is playing its role in lobbying the governments of these countries. This is no paid-for lobbying, although it is regulated by law. This includes volunteer civic organizations which are trying to influence the political sector of a given country.”

A.S.: “It is also important to know the following thing in American politics: for the Americans, Hillary Clinton represents the establishment and is tied up to Wall Street. Everybody looks on her as a ‘girl who has money and donors and will be defending the business interests of herself and her donors.’

“Meanwhile, the popularity of Trump in the US can be explained as follows: the protest-minded voter looks on him as a man who does not belong to Wall Street. He ‘sells’ himself accordingly: ‘I have enough money, I don’t need Wall Street, while the Clinton family needs to look for donors, so she will be defending the interests of those people.’”

Yu.Sh.: “But even if Trump won, the vast majority of the Republican Party, which now controls the House of Representatives and the Senate, would totally support Ukraine. Secondly, the Democrats are also totally supporting Ukraine. Should he impose a veto, a two-thirds majority can override it. Even if Trump wins, this won’t be much of a tragedy. The same applies to Brexit. The younger generation supported the European Union. A half-a-billion-strong population is a big economic and political power, but this structure needs to be reformed. It is wrong to deprive the constituent countries of sovereignty. They are striking a certain balance of their sovereignty and should not give everything away and build the United States of Europe, which is the concept of a pyramidal structure. Brexit will result in the reformation of this structure. And we should not make a great tragedy out of this. Britain will remain an active NATO member.”

“THE FAMILY LINK WITH IVAN FRANKO HAS AN EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT ON ME”

Olha KHARCHENKO: “Mr. Shymko, you said at the beginning of this conversation about your family links with Ivan Franko. This year we mark the 160th anniversary of Ivan Franko’s birth. Do you maintain a living connection with family memory or perhaps with Ukrainian institutions? You visited the Lviv Ivan Franko National Literary and Memorial Museum on August 18. What is your vision of a living Franko?”

Yu.Sh.: “I don’t know about my genes, but the very awareness of the fact that I am linked with Ivan Franko in family terms has a strong emotional and psychological impact on me. When I was seven, we stayed at a Mittenwald camp in Bavaria. My uncle Vasyl Franko was a carpenter by trade. He made a rifle and a Cossack saber for me and said: ‘You are a Cossack! This is for you to defend Ukraine with.’ I still keep a photo with this saber at home. When our family – Zenon Franko, Neonola, and Myroslava – were children, we used to run away, cross those borders, and put up at refugee camps in Germany. Vasyl Franko was present at my wedding party. We stay closely in touch.

“I was born in Cosel, Germany. The Auschwitz concentration camp was not far from Cosel. My father and Uncle Vasyl saved three Jews. Father was always silent about this. I came to know this last October at the funeral of Myroslava. I was then told the details of how father and Vasyl Franko risked their lives, hiding and helping three Jews in the house where I was born. History evolves very interestingly.”