Vsevolod Chentsov does triple duty for Ukraine in The Hague, the city of 500,000 people on the western coast of the Netherlands.
Besides serving as the nation’s ambassador to the Netherlands since 2017, Chentsov is also the country’s representative to the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, which is headquartered in The Hague. He also looks out for Ukraine’s interests in the International Court of Justice, also based in the city.
As he wraps up his duties and gets ready for the next assignment in his 25-year career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it’s fair to say that he has had one of the busiest and most consequential assignments among Ukraine’s envoys abroad.
Even before taking the post four years ago, Chentsov said he was involved in the ongoing MH17 investigation, the Malaysian Airlines flight shot down July 17, 2014, by Russian-backed forces with a Russian Buk missile, killing all 298 people aboard.
The trial of four defendants — three Russians and one Ukrainian — all believed to be hiding in Russia — is under way in a Dutch courtroom. Chentsov previously served the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as director of the European Department from 2011–2017.
The Netherlands has raised questions about why Ukraine did not close the airspace where the MH17 was shot down. Chentsov said that the independent Flight Safety Foundation reviewed how other nations have acted amid similar conflicts and found that most did not close their airspace. He said Ukraine did not know of the presence of the Russian Buk missile, capable of hitting targets 5,000 meters above the ground. If it had, he said, the government would have acted differently and “could have taken additional measures.” He said Ukraine “acted responsibly” after the MH17 shootdown and that the Dutch parliament, in February, concluded that Ukraine “did nothing wrong.”
Chemical weapons
During his tenure in the Netherlands, the importance of the organization trying to stop the use of banned chemical weapons globally has risen.
Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose main backer is Russia, has used banned chemical weapons several times against his own citizens in trying to crush a 10-year rebellion against his rule. At least 500,000 Syrians have been killed and millions more have fled the Middle Eastern country. The OPCW even won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 “for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons.”
Russia, more recently, has come under scrutiny by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. It is accused of using the banned Novichok nerve agent against Russian citizens Sergei and Yulia Skrypal in the United Kingdom in 2018 and against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.
All three survived their poisonings, but a UK woman who came into contact with the deadly chemical died. Russia denies any involvement and has refused to cooperate in the investigations.
Russian terrorism claim
Russia has tried to evade responsibility and obstruct the various legal proceedings under way against it, but Chentsov thinks the Kremlin’s behavior has damaged its reputation globally, as well as in the Netherlands. He said that Dutch-Russian trade has dropped due to sanctions and investors from the Netherlands are reluctant to do business with Moscow.
At the International Court of Justice, Ukraine on Jan. 16, 2017, filed a claim against Russia, accusing the Kremlin of many international law violations, including the financing of terrorism, particularly in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, where Russia’s war is in its eighth year and 14,000 Ukrainians have been killed.
Ukraine won a major victory on Nov. 8, 2019, when the justices rejected Russia’s claim that the court did not have jurisdiction. Ukraine also alleges in the pending litigation that Russia “maintains a policy of racial discrimination and cultural erasure directed against the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian communities” on the Crimean peninsula that it illegally annexed in 2014 following a military invasion.
“A hearing on the merits is far away,” Chentsov said. “The court is working in a slow but sure manner.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Vsevolod Chentsov at the International Court of Justice in the Hague on Nov. 8, 2019.
Bilateral ties
Chentsov said Ukraine’s relationship with the Netherlands has gotten closer in recent years. It survived a big scare in 2016, when Dutch referendum voters opposed an association agreement between the European Union, of which the Netherlands is a member, and Ukraine. But the government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte overruled voters and the EU-Ukraine political and economic agreement, enacted in 2016, remains in effect.
“We managed to find a solution to get out of this real problem,” the ambassador said. “But it took some time to stabilize the situation to get back to business as usual. The agreement is working.”
Bilateral trade with the Netherlands hit $2.5 billion in 2020, with Ukraine running a surplus of more than $1 million. Ukrainian exports to the Netherlands amounted to $1.8 billion, while Ukraine imported $741 million, according to the embassy. Notably, the Netherlands is the third-largest importer of Ukrainian agricultural products, and ranks first among the 27 EU nations.
The ambassador said that “the focus is shifting from commodity trade to technology exchange and innovation in agriculture, transportation and logistics, medicine, cybersecurity, space exploration, sustainable technologies, and a low-carbon economy.”
In particular, the ambassador said Ukraine has been trying to encourage Dutch investors and farmers to grow and process food in Ukraine, but concerns over rule of law and the court system are barriers. Farming in the Netherlands is “very intensive” because of lack of land, something Ukraine offers in abundance.
“We are getting stronger and stronger in agritech,” he said. “With Dutch experience, Dutch technology and Ukrainian land and IT, we can feed the world together.”
Farewells & lessons
Chentsov said that he comes away from his experience in the Netherlands with a respect for its freedom — “you feel it in every step” — and willingness to achieve solutions.
“What I like here and what is lacking in Ukraine is the spirit of consultations — looking for commonly accepted solutions in economic and social affairs, involving as many stakeholders as necessary, discussing issues until you find a solution and then sticking to it and honoring the agreement,” the ambassador said.
Ukraine, given its challenges of Russia’s war and “the inertia of Soviet mismanagement” could learn a lot from the Netherlands’ success in setting aside differences and uniting. “This is what I would like our people to learn,” he said.
He hopes for more progress, in the Netherlands and in the West generally, in becoming more “engaged in Ukraine” and considering Ukraine as an asset and “not as a problem they have to deal with.” He said
Ukraine needs support but will solve its problems on its own. He thinks the nation deserves trust from its Western partners “and I would like to have more of it in our relations.”
About Vsevolod Chentsov
