Judith Gough, the British ambassador to Ukraine since September 2015, won’t be drawn into a discussion about when she is leaving the country or where she is going next — even though there is informed speculation around her imminent departure to another diplomatic station.
“I am not done yet,” she defiantly told the Kyiv Post in an interview at the British Embassy on April 12.
“There is still an awful lot to do,” she said, before making sure that the Kyiv Post’s reporter and photographer had been offered a cup of tea.
Despite the political distractions in both London and Kyiv, Gough and her team are committed, engaged and busily focused on the work at hand, she said.
Committed seems like an apt word for a woman who is widely viewed as one of Ukraine’s most active foreign diplomats and one of its staunchest allies.
The U. K. government currently spends about 35 million pounds, or about $45 million, each year in Ukraine. Gough and her team are implementing, either alone or with partners, at least 70 different projects throughout the country.
British influence, funding and expertise can be found everywhere in Ukraine — in areas ranging from military support, good governance, law enforcement and judicial reform to humanitarian aid, the promotion of education, culture and social inclusion.
“Huge progress”
“What I have seen since I arrived… is a country that has made huge progress,” said Gough.
She recalls that, when the Ukrainian government took power in 2014, it was not expected to last long, let alone achieve much.
“Despite facing down a significant external threat in Russia, and despite having to fight a conflict on its own soil… and having lost a significant amount of its territory, (Ukraine) has managed to reboot its economy and implement a number of key reforms… and actually maintain a stable state of leadership and government,” she said.
Gough, who lives in Kyiv with her civil partner Julia Kleiousi and their two children, has served in the U. K. Foreign Office, or FCO, since 2001.
The 46-year-old diplomat received one of her first official postings to the British embassy in South Korea and later served as ambassador to Georgia between 2010 and 2013. Both Ukraine and Georgia have chosen similar courses and face similar challenges, she said, although the countries are also extraordinarily different.
Lessons and experience from Georgia helped Gough to become the Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the FCO in Westminster. But she did not remain in that post for too long.
After the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution, which forced Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych from power, Gough decided that the work in Whitehall could be entrusted to someone else. She entered into the competitive process to be selected as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Ukraine.
Highly respected by colleagues in both London and Kyiv, Gough comes across as a pragmatic optimist. She is exceptionally professional and diplomatic, to the point of appearing overly formal and a bit guarded — in interviews, at least.
But she also displays a reverential respect for the Ukrainian people, their choices and their stoicism. She is also acutely aware of the challenges and unresolved problems that still lay ahead for the country.
“There are still things that we want Ukraine to do,” she said. “But I think what I have seen is a country that is set on a path towards Europe and NATO — a path which we support — a country that is vigorously engaged and moving in that direction, despite all of the distractions and threats.”
In judicial reform and combatting corruption, where Britain is directly invested, Gough displays some frustration and a longing for real improvement.
Ukraine has not prosecuted or convicted anyone for high-level corruption since its independence as a nation in 1991.
“Trade is growing between the two countries,” Gough said of Ukraine and Britain’s annual bilateral trade turnover, which sits at a decent but not awe-inspiring $2.5 billion. “Across the board, there is opportunity to grow trade and investment with Ukraine,” she added.
“But in order for that potential to be realised, we need to see genuine reform of the judiciary,” the British ambassador said. Foreign companies still “do not necessarily feel that they get free and equal treatment before the law, and it is vital that corruption is meaningfully tackled.”
“We want to see Ukraine’s economy prosper. At the end of the day, a prosperous Ukraine ought to be a more secure Ukraine,” she added.
Facing the Russian threat
Ukrainian lawmakers and military officers have expressed particular gratitude for one British support package: assistance from the British government for military training and defense improvements.
This 17.5-million-pound annual expenditure funds training for the Ukrainian military and support for the country’s defense reform agenda. The U. K. defense ministry implements it.
Gough says that Operation Orbital, a guidance and training program for the Ukrainian armed forces launched in February 2015, has already trained more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
Ukrainian generals and army officers say that those 10,000 trainees have gone on to train even more soldiers and that combat medicine capabilities — which Ukrainian forces largely lacked beforehand — have had a particular life-saving impact.
At any one time, about 120 British soldiers are moving around various encampments in Ukraine undertaking training for the country’s soldiers.
Gough said the mission is designed to have a strong practical effect, while also showing solidarity with a country that is under attack by Russia.
The United Kingdom, the ambassador suggested, will be unrelenting in its position on Russia and the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.
“Let’s be clear — until such a time as Russia changes her behaviour towards Ukraine, there are important points of principle that we cannot concede on,” the ambassador affirmed. She stressed that the U.K. was at the forefront of imposing sanctions on Moscow within the European Union.
“We (also) pushed very hard and delivered the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission — (and) we are still the second largest contributor to that mission,” she said.
“I think that Ukraine, more than most nations in Europe, understands the value of the rules-based international system and the post-Second World War settlement. This is the only country that has had its borders changed by force since the Second World War.”
However, the Ukrainian military would like to see more material support — weapons and equipment — from Britain.
While the U.S. has supplied Javelin missiles, armoured vehicles and patrol boats to Ukraine, the British government has so far provided little more than uniforms and medical kits.
“If we are asked — we will consider it,” the ambassador said of more material support to Ukrainian soldiers.
NATO and Europe
Despite strong British support for Ukraine, there is still anxiety in Kyiv about Brexit — especially among lawmakers who believe the country depends on London’s consistent and reliable voice in Brussels, where not everyone is a stoic friend of Ukraine.
Gough says that the United Kingdom will remain one of Ukraine’s most reliable partners. She is also hopeful for a new free trade agreement. Ukraine is a post-Brexit trade priority, she says.
“We are not turning our back on being engaged and standing up for our principles, our values and being a force for good on the global stage,” she said.
“But there will be some changes,” the ambassador clarifies.
Currently, the United Kingdom is a party to the association agreement and Ukraine’s deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU. However, once it leaves the bloc, Britain will need to negotiate a new trade agreement.
“Whilst a member of the EU we cannot have formal negotiations, but we have already had a number of rounds of talks with the Ukrainians on what a future trade agreement might look like,” Gough said.
And despite leaving the EU, the U.K. will continue to support and advocate for Ukraine elsewhere, she says.
“If you look at where the United Kingdom is engaged, we may be stepping back from one multilateral organization but we are still the second largest contributor to NATO and we still have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council,” Gough said. “We are vigorously present in other multilateral organizations.”
Gough reaffirms that the U.K. is supportive of Ukraine’s desire for membership in NATO, but stresses that the country’s NATO path is not just about the end result.
“It is not just membership itself which is useful, but the whole process of reforms in getting there,” she said. These steps make countries like Ukraine “stronger and better able to defend themselves and more resilient… the journey is worth it, even if the path sometimes seems long.”
Currently, Ukraine still has a lot more it must accomplish.
“Civilian oversight of the military, command and control, eradicating some areas that provide opportunity for corruption…” she listed off. “But the journey has been started, and we’ve seen some good progress and willingness to make even more progress.”
The future
Gough monitored the first round of Ukraine’s current presidential election. She says the vote “looked good” and reflects a country moving forward.
But she declined, diplomatically, to discuss the election’s possible outcome.
“That (president) will be Ukraine’s choice — but it is clearly important to Ukraine’s partners that the election is carried out cleanly and fairly and reflects the genuine will of the Ukrainian people,” she said.
“I don’t want to prejudge the outcome of an election that has not happened yet — but my sense is that the Ukrainian people have chosen a course,” the ambassador said.
Asked to summarize the impressions and memories of her encounters with everyday Ukrainians while travelling around the country, Gough did sound like she was preparing herself to say farewell.
“I see extraordinary resilience in the Ukrainian people… a determination to forge a sovereign future for Ukraine, and a real demand from people to satisfy the demands of the (EuroMaidan Revolution), in terms of taking the country forwards, tackling corruption and improving prosperity,” she said.
“I also see an awful lot of everyday struggles. This is a country where GDP per capita is still very low, wages are low and pensions are low,” she continued. “This is a country that should be very prosperous and so I think that there is a demand across the board for greater fairness in society.”
