Andrii Olefirov: Ukraine in Between EU and Russia
The Ukrainian Ambassador in Helsinki and former Deputy Minister in the Foreign Affairs Ministry was invited to a luncheon seminar organized by Centrum Balticum and the City of Turku on March 16th 2017. After the luncheon seminar Ambassador Olefirov gave a presentation at a public lecture organized by the Pan European Institute at the Turku School of Economics.
In early 2014 the discontent of the Ukrainian public grew into a protest against the government seen as pro-Russian. Protest took a violent turn resulting in over a hundred casualties. After the resulting revolution, Russia decided to invade Crimea and organized a referendum the result of which it saw as justification to continue its actions. The conflict has since cooled down but it continues, as Ambassador Olefirov puts it, “as a hybrid war” for many years to come. The resolution to the conflict must be found in the negotiation table between Russia, Ukraine and the western countries.
Olefirov sees many similarities in the Ukrainian situation now with the situation of Finland in different points of history. Ukraine became independent after the Russian revolution of 1917 and has since been in close relations with its former motherland. Russia has been for decades the single largest trade partner for Ukraine and Ukraine was for a long period completely dependent of Russian gas and oil. According to Olefirov Ukrainian relationship with Russia, before the Crimean invasion, was much the same as Finland's with Russia before the Russian invasion in the Winter War. However, Olefirov points out that Russia did not have nuclear weapons in 1939.
Nuclear weapons are an issue which bring Olefirov to the important question of trust. According to him Russia has broken the trust of Ukraine and the international community. Ukraine and Russia had a long history of cooperation and Russia was even co-signing the treaty in which Ukraine was promised inviolability when it relinquished its nuclear weapons. The nuclear weapons of which 80% were transported to Russia. Russia betrayed the trust of Ukraine when Ukraine started showing willingness to develop itself as a civilized western country.
Europe has represented itself to Ukraine as freedom and after the crisis in Crimea the sole trustworthy option for partnership. For the citizens of Ukraine, Olefirov says, the most important thing in cooperation with the EU is visa freedom, which would be the first step for Ukrainians to really become Europeans. The Ambassador is ever more hopeful for the visa freedom agreement and even eventually Ukraine´s membership in the EU, now that populism lost in the Netherlands. The opponents of the visa freedom for Ukraine claim that people from a poorer nation which is in war would run in mass to elsewhere in Europe. Olefirov denies this would happen as he thinks Ukrainians have proved they still believe in their country and do not wish to leave it. Only 1 % of the people escaping from Crimea have left Ukraine and most people who do leave Ukraine are skilled workers who eventually would return to Ukraine.
Olefirov strongly believes in the future of Ukraine as a civilized western country. This belief is backed up by many reforms in Ukraine for example in combatting corruption and the growing trust in the Ukrainian military forces. He admits that there is still a lot of work to be done, but Ukrainians do wish to become European and with the support of the EU and other western countries they will succeed.
