George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, are sworn in during a House Intelligence Committee public hearing in the impeachment inquiry against US President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Erin Scott/File Photo
At first glance, the entire
Trump impeachment probe looks like terrible news for Ukraine. With Russian
forces still firmly entrenched in the Donbas and Russian President Vladimir
Putin eager to exploit the inexperience of the country’s new president, the
last thing Ukraine needs now is a crisis in relations with its most important
ally.
While the potential security
implications of impeachment are ominous enough in their own right, the optics
of the scandal are arguably even worse. As US coverage has intensified, Ukraine
has become a byword for graft and political sleaze, with Trump’s defenders
frequently dismissing the nation as “one of the most corrupt countries in the
world.” This is not a winning message, by any stretch of the imagination.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that in the space of a few short months, the
impeachment story has garnered Ukraine far more international attention than
the country has enjoyed in the previous twenty-eight years of its independent existence.
The question Ukrainians should now be asking themselves is whether there really
is no such thing as bad publicity.
The true significance of the
current global spotlight only becomes apparent when viewed in the context of
Ukraine’s historic problems with international anonymity. This low profile is
no accident. It is the product of longstanding and remarkably successful
Russian efforts to suppress Ukrainian identity and prevent the emergence of a
separate Ukrainian polity. Russia’s motives are not hard to grasp. After all,
Ukraine’s perceived closeness to Russia involves issues of security, geography,
ethnicity, and religion stretching back to a common foundation myth that sees
both modern nations trace their roots from the early medieval Kyiv Rus state.
This makes possession of Ukraine, along with Kyiv as the “mother of all Russian
cities,” central to Russia’s own sense of self. Indeed, when viewed through the
Russian prism, the real separatists in today’s Ukraine are the Ukrainians
themselves.
Since the seventeenth century,
such thinking has led to everything from language bans and rigorous
russification policies to mass deportations, population transfers, and forced
famines. The drive to absorb Ukraine reached a tragic crescendo in the 1930s,
when the Soviet authorities deliberately starved millions of Ukrainians to
death while systematically executing the moral and intellectual leadership of
the Ukrainian nation. Incredibly, Ukraine survived. However, evidence of this
grim inheritance remains all too easy to identify. It is apparent in the
complex political divisions of the diverse Ukrainian state that emerged from
the ruins of the Soviet Union and lies behind the continued dominance of
traditional Russian historical narratives among outside audiences trying to
make sense of the country.
The press frenzy surrounding
the Trump impeachment inquiry presents Ukraine with an unparalleled
international stage upon which to share its side of the story. There is
certainly much to tell. Ukraine’s long journey toward statehood is an epic in
its own right with the capacity to shock and awe even the most seasoned of
observers. In the more recent past, the country’s volunteer miracle of 2014 appears
tailor-made for Hollywood. The success of HBO’s spring 2019 Emmy award-winning television
miniseries “Chernobyl” proves that there is an international audience for
Ukrainian dramas. The challenge now is for Ukrainians themselves to take on the
role of storytellers. This is not just a task for filmmakers and TV producers.
On the contrary, everyone can get involved in the storytelling process, from
journalists and academics to students and activists.
UkraineAlert sources analysis and commentary from a wide-array of thought-leaders, politicians, experts, and activists from Ukraine and the global community.
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Beyond the banner headlines of
Ukraine’s traumatic and triumphant national story, the country also has an
abundance of contemporary hipster narratives that would instantly appeal to the
Instagram generation. Indeed, representatives of Ukraine’s vibrant music,
fashion, and tech scenes may never have a better chance to grab the global
limelight. In doing so, they will also be helping to demonstrate that there is
much more to Ukraine than lazy stereotypes of corruption and war.
Even if Ukraine fails to capitalize on the present bout of impeachment mania, the exposure the country is receiving could still prove to be a turning point. In the short period since the scandal first erupted, leading international media outlets including the BBC, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times have all officially adopted the Ukrainian-language “Kyiv” spelling when referring to the nation’s capital. This small but symbolically significant gesture offers a hint of the broader shifts in outside perceptions that are already taking place.
Eventually, the 24-hour news
cycle will move on to the next big scandal and the details of Ukraine’s
involvement in the whole impeachment affair will begin to fade. However, the
boost to Ukraine’s brand recognition will linger on. Countries regularly invest
millions of dollars in PR campaigns in the hope of securing a fraction of the
attention Ukraine is currently enjoying. For a nation that has spent centuries
struggling to emerge from the shadows of Russian imperialism, such
international exposure is quite literally priceless.
Peter
Dickinson is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and publisher of
Business Ukraine and Lviv Today magazines. He tweets @Biz_Ukraine_Mag.
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