Editor’s Note: As Ukraine’s 30th Independence Day approaches on Aug. 24, the Kyiv Post is asking Ukrainians who live abroad to send in their picture with answers to the following questions for publication. Send your responses to Kyiv Post’s lifestyle editor Toma Istomina at [email protected]. The published replies can be found here: Ukrainian Voices From Abroad
Kyiv Post: Where are you from in Ukraine and where do you live now?
Lev Zinchenko: From Kyiv, Ukraine. I currently live in Montreal, Canada, and am a student at McGill University. I previously lived in Virginia, the United States, for five years.
KP: What do you think is Ukraine’s biggest achievement in 30 years of independence?
LZ: Ukraine’s biggest achievement is the revival of its national identity. In fact, it is rather the sustainability of the Ukrainian identity that is transcending onto the global scene. In large part, this sustainability would not be possible without the engagement of the Ukrainian diplomatic corps and the Ukrainian diaspora. In spite of being engaged in a war with a country that propagates imperialist beliefs and ideas, Ukraine has showed its resilience to the world in terms of showing a readiness to defend itself.
If we look at domestic achievements, it is perhaps the ripeness of civil society to counter injustices within the nation. Civil society has gained its voice in the past years to an extent that it is ready to bluntly criticize the authorities, no matter if it concerns the president, the parliament or the cabinet. The Ukrainian intelligentsia and civil society were persecuted and oppressed during the Soviet era and even after, during the times of independence. However, after 30 long years, Ukraine’s civil society and the Ukrainian intelligentsia are being revived domestically and across the globe, and it could not help but seed hope in the future of the Ukrainian state and of the nation.
KP: What do you hope Ukraine will achieve in the next 30 years?
LZ: I hope that Ukraine will acquire competent and progressive leaders who will lead Ukraine to great achievements. It is definitely what Ukraine needs the most. And the need for these leaders can be confirmed not just by the past history, but by the present situation that Ukraine finds itself in. Lack of competency in certain high-ranking positions, lack of respect for the laws, institutions, human rights and liberties – those are the existing problems that require a considerable amount of work to be resolved in the future. And I would not pay attention to the people who would say that this viewpoint is too maximalist and critical. Having low standards is the recipe for backsliding to the times that we clearly want to escape as a nation.
I also hope that Ukraine will get rid of its naiveté that echoes from the soviet times (to which I always refer as imperial times). This naiveté will disappear with a greater input of critical thinking that we are only now getting a chance to taste, as we advance into the direction of new values and understanding of the world. If you’re wondering why I didn’t put the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the de-occupation of the Ukrainian lands by Russia, joining of the European Union and NATO as achievements that I hope for, it’s because these are the predisposed and inevitable achievements that I believe will materialize quicker than in a span of 30 years.
