UWC President: Cooperation between Ukrainian global community and authorities is critical

Global Ukrainian community and the authorities of Ukraine must speak as one powerful voice against the background of the information war waged by Russia.

Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian World Congress, made a corresponding statement at the teleconference held by the UWC leadership with First Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar on August 12.

“The collaboration of the global Ukrainian community and Ukraine is critical to building support for the state of Ukraine worldwide. As Russia wages information wars, twists history and attempts to whitewash the crimes of the past, we must act together and speak as one powerful voice,” Grod said. 

The discussion focused on the priorities for cooperation between the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as on potential joint public diplomacy initiatives in support of Ukraine. 

Paul Grod emphasized the importance of continued collaboration and outlined the areas for future joint projects. Mariia Kupriianova, UWC Executive Director, highlighted some of the recent successful public diplomacy events hosted in June and July this year jointly with the Mission of Ukraine to the EU: Crimea – the path towards de-occupation and an online panel discussion on the Minsk process. 

First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzheppar emphasized: “It is impossible to overestimate the work of UWC in countering Russian aggression, building a strong European Ukraine and preserving Ukrainian identity worldwide”. 

Serhiy Kasyanchuk, Director of the UWC Mission to Ukraine, addressed the issues of external labour migration and labour migrant rights protection. He spoke about the suggestion to establish an interdepartmental advisory body recently submitted by the UWC to Prime Minister Shmyhal. Emine Dzhaparova and Larysa Dir, Head of the Department for Worldwide Ukrainians and Humanitarian Cooperation at the MFA Ukraine, highlighted the significance of this initiative. 

Stefan Romaniw, UWC First Vice-President, spoke about the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide, as well as recognition of the deportation of Crimean Tatars in  1944 as genocide. UWC organizations and Ukrainian communities globally have already held a number of successful information campaigns. In particular, just last month over  10 000 people signed a petition to include the term Holodomor into English language dictionaries. 

ol