Yevhen Slavyanov,
journalist and musician
“There should be more expatriates and tourists if we consider Ukraine a European country and Kyiv a European city. The more foreigners come, the more it will induce us to develop ourselves, to study languages, to learn new cultures, to watch how people behave. It is important to integrate with Europe not only economically and politically, but also mentally. If the number of foreigners grows, it will eliminate our post-Soviet heritage, our post-Soviet mentality. We’ll become thinking more broadly.”
Denys Pinhvinov,
photographer
“I think foreigners do not influence local life. They just live here. Even Ukrainian citizens have no impact here, because we have s very bad country with bad infrastructure and a weak economic sphere. When foreigners come to us they start living the same as we live.”
Roman Ivanov,
student
“In Kyiv, there are more foreigners than in any other city of Ukraine. I wish there will be more of them. They have a positive impact. They bring something new. They share their experience.”
Dmytro Shcherba,
civil servant
“It is an exclusively positive experience for us when foreigners come. Usually, they have a very polite attitude, they respect our culture. In general, multinational globalization is the future..”
Natalia Kovtun,
employee of insurance company
“Now in Kyiv there are much more foreigners than in Soviet times. I am an optimist and I don’t think that foreigners bring us something bad. It’s an exchange of experience, exchange of students. I am very positive about this.”
