2nd September 2011
A dozen TV cameras zoom in on a pen and an inch-thick contract. Signatures are completed; contracts swapped; and more signatures added. Eventually the process is complete and there are handshakes and a round of applause. I am at the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy to witness the signing of an important Joint Activity Agreement between […]
30th August 2011
The wire is carefully concealed: stretched through the grass at ankle-height and attached at one end to a grenade. When a soldier’s boot connects with it there is a mighty explosion. Nearby, a military convoy is ambushed by enemy forces and a helicopter is called in to evacuate the wounded. Fortunately, this is a military […]
28th July 2011
It’s always humbling to meet elite athletes. So I am rather in awe when we bring together at the residence to mark the one-year countdown to London 2012 some truly great Olympians from Ukraine. They include Valery Borzov, who I remember winning the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and […]
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21st July 2011
One of the striking things about Kyiv is the mixture of architectural styles across the city. This is true of the Ulitsa Desyatinna, where the British Embassy is a stone’s throw from the golden domes of the (rebuilt) St Michael’s Church and the mighty Soviet-era building that today houses our colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign […]
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20th July 2011
In June 2009 I wrote a blog extolling the virtues of Kyiv’s beaches and noting the challenges Ukraine was then having paying its monthly bills for gas from Russia. I noted the views of the international financial institutions (IFIs) that it would be easier to help Ukraine if the financial arrangements in the gas sector […]
19th July 2011
The red carpet heaves with talent including John Malkovich, Russian filmmaker and actor Nikita Mikhalkov and many legendary Odesa comedy stars including the “Masks” of Chaos Shakespeare fame. Above, gleaming gilt cherubs frolic. I’m at the fabulous Odesa opera house for the opening of this year’s Odesa International Film Festival. With six British films on […]
18th July 2011
Who said the following? – “Ukraine knows that it can count on Britain as its friend in the European Union. We are, and will remain, enthusiastic advocates of Ukraine’s closer integration with the rest of Europe”; and – “It is the responsibility of true friends to speak honestly when they see something which concerns them”. […]
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15th July 2011
The music is infectious. The urgent rhythm sends dancers sweeping around the room, partners gyrating and in some cases being thrown bodily through the air. At the end of the track, entitled “Shout Sister Shout”, everyone stops for a breather and swaps partners. I’m knackered. People often ask what Kyiv is like for a foreign […]
14th July 2011
You don’t get much better people-to-people links than by bringing a group of British and Ukrainian young people together to play football on the beach, explore theatre projects and check out urban regeneration and diversity. Those were some of the results of a recent visit organised by the British Council with the Churches’ Regional Commission […]
13th July 2011
Four British medals are laid out on a Union Flag. The family stand proudly as the Defence Attache says a few words, citing a moving text from the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy which holds the graves over 1,000 Poles who died storming the abbey there in May 1944. Then we present […]