A year on from Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko says his trenches are in Australia as he rallies support for his country’s defence.
Russian missiles rained down on Kyiv
Since arriving in Canberra last April as Ukraine’s first ambassador to Australia, Myroshnychenko, 41, has not shut up. And, as I learn over the course of lunch, upsetting Russians runs in the family. “I’m trying to lose weight. All my suits I brought from Ukraine are small. I’ve gained weight because of stress, I don’t sleep,” Myroshnychenko says.. People die every day. You have friends who die, you have relatives who die. You read it every day, different stories of rape or killing, torture.”
“I was always an activist in my life, going back to university. I was a bit restless. Apart from studying at university I always wanted to do something else,” he says.When the “Revolution of Dignity” occurred in 2014 – an uprising against Ukraine’s then pro-Russian government – Myroshnychenko was in demand from international media such as CNN to provide eyewitness accounts.
University was important in another way. Myroshnychenko met his wife, Liana, while they were both students. They just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary. Their daughter Yaroslava, 19, is studying chemistry in London and son Yuriy, 6, lives with them in Canberra.Our food starts to arrive. The tuna comes in small chunks with crumbled feta on the plate, accompanied by a fresh orange, ginger and tamarind sauce.
”I asked my grandfather what was happening and he couldn’t really explain. He hated the communists, he hated everything related to communism,” Myroshnychenko says. Our waitress starts to put our hot dishes down. The popcorn shrimp comes with a subtle chilli mayo. I’m surprised to see the scallops are chopped up rather than served whole, sitting in a creamy wasabi mayo on the shell, but it works.Growing up in western Ukraine, communism’s collapse left a void that consumerism filled.“In my days growing up, the most fashionable things you could have was Nike leather shoes,” Myroshnychenko says.“The most clear memory of the early 1990s was advertising.
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