Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really my superhero.
That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities,
perspectives, and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history,
we need to bring the people of the world together. And when we hear the voices of women, when
we listen to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our cultures without
differences or stereotypes and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's
what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Kristina Ivancif. Kristi
is an international relations student at the Institute of International Relations, Taras
Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She is also a young European ambassador and a
member of the NGO Foundation of Regional Initiatives in Ukraine.
Kristi, how are you today? Hello, so today I'm perfectly fine and I'm
so happy, so honored to take part in this amazing podcast because we need to share our
experiences across the cultures and broaden our horizons actually every day. And this
is the key to diversity. This is the key to the more friendly world and to a better future
for us. Thank you, Kristi. It's actually my honor
as well and my privilege to know you better. I'm very curious about you as a person. So
I'll begin with this nice first question. If your friends, the people who know you best
could describe your personality, what would they say about you?
Well, actually, my family and friends often describe me as quite a stubborn person, maybe
a bit ambitious. Also, I have a lot of interest in a lot of things. For example, music, for
example, sport, international relations, of course. And so I like to broaden my horizons.
So it's like the threat of my character, I suppose. And I'm fond of a lot of things.
And maybe some other threats can be like friendly and supportive.
Thank you. That's really, really interesting. And I'm curious, we live in a time where too
many people stay in their comfort zone. They don't have the courage to be stubborn when
people criticize them. So in many ways, it could be a good thing.
What makes you different? What about the way you see the world or your mindset that allows
you to be ambitious, to have many interests and to be stubborn even when people judge
and criticize? Because it could be something other girls can learn from to be more powerful
women and more confident in their lives. Actually, I have noticed something in myself
recently that when I view the world, I do not just view it as a thing, as a process
or as a world itself. I view it like the thing that could be changed. So it's not like
the static thing. It can be actually fully changed. It can be improved. And I suppose,
and I dream and I hope and I really want to contribute to the world change one day to
make it better. And I think that this stubbornness kind of is similar with my youth. And I really
wish, I really, I would really enjoy if people who surround me, if people who are my friends
and acquaintances to see the world in a similar way and to help me and to join me in changing
it one day. I love that attitude. That's absolutely positive
and fantastic. And I'm curious, is it because maybe when you were a little girl, you had
a big, big imagination and therefore you wanted and desire to project your imagination onto
reality and change it for the better? Or is it maybe you had some difficult times during
childhood and you thought, no, I refuse to see the world as a bad place? Or are you just
born this way with this mindset? Is it something you develop or is it something that was second
nature to you since the beginning? I would not definitely say that my childhood
was bad. It was thanks to my parents and grandparents really good. However, I did have a big imagination
and I still have, I think. And such dreams of little children can actually develop into
something, something concrete, something that you can implement in the, in your adult life.
So these dreams can, can make you choose the job. They can make you think in certain way
about people, about things. And imagination is actually a big thing. However, apart from
that I lived, I still live in a country that is so just freedom-loving that suffered from
the Russian influence and now is suffering from the Russian full-scale aggression. So
there always was an urge to help my country grow. And I think last year there was an urge
of in, not only in me, but also in a lot of people of Ukraine to help, to save our country
from aggression. And now our only wish is to win, is to win completely and to ensure
the peace for all of us and to ensure a better life.
I agree with you and all I can say is slava ukrainiy.
Taran slava. Thank you. And since we're speaking about
this topic, how was February 24th for you? How did you hear about the full-scale invasion?
Because we know the war started even earlier in 2014. Some people will say it was always
there since hundreds of years, but to you, did you believe the war? How did you feel?
What did you do? Why did you decide to do what you did afterwards? And how did your
life change in this one year? Well, speaking about the 2014, the war did
actually start in that year. However, only a small amount of our people really felt it.
It was like people on the south and east of Ukraine, mostly. However, the 24th of February
did seem really atrocious to all of us, to each of the Ukrainians. As for me, I wasn't
in Kiev that day. I was at my parents' house in the west of the country, and actually I
planned to return to Kiev on February 24th. I had COVID a few days earlier and I cured.
I was healthy and I planned to return. I bought a ticket on the train to get to Kiev. And
I remember clearly that at 5.30, my father, who is a military, he got the news about the
war starting, and I clearly remember the whispers of my mom and dad talking to each other that
Putin has started a war, that Kharkiv, that Madrid would create, are being bombed. And
it was so shocking with me. I immediately started to text my friends in Kiev, how were
they? Are they still alive? And I didn't even remember the first few days of the war. I
only checked the news, texted, and slept probably two hours because I was worried. I was worried
from my family and friends, and somehow I managed to overcome the worry, and after that
I felt I think the emptiness in myself, but still I carried a hope that we will win, actually.
For the next weeks, I didn't stop my volunteer activities. I joined the work that the Foundation
of the Regional Initiatives did. I tried to be active. We launched a project about informing
the foreign people, foreign partners about the war. We wrote the news, we distributed
the news. After a few weeks, my university studies also started, so I was able to somehow
but focus on my projects, on my tasks, but still we all tried to be positive and we all
tried to volunteer, at least on the information field, and we tried first to make a clear
impression in the foreign people about the war, that the war is aggressive, that the
war is atrocious, barbarous, and second, to win the war in the information, so just back
of the Russians in telegram channels, in some other social medias, so we won the information
war and I'm happy that I could at least a bit contribute to it, to the information.
Thank you, that's very, very interesting. Some people might not know the power of the
information war as you called it. They think, oh, maybe you're just sharing information
to feel better because it's not the same, but when you're in the army, you're fighting
with the guns and the tanks and the bombs, that's really the war. Everything else is
a distraction, but in reality, I believe that one of the most powerful things that Ukraine
did was that information war, that ability to raise awareness and get its support, but
imagine, there are people in the world who doesn't understand the importance of that.
Can you explain how it's important, why it's important, and how does it benefit Ukraine
in its struggle and war? So actually, the Russian propaganda since
2014 has made a lot of damage to people, to western people's minds. How did it work? Russia
wrote the narrative that it actually liberates Ukraine from fascism, from nascism, and some
other bad things, as they called, but it was actually, and it is an aggressive war, and
a lot of people, and even a lot of politicians, so people who are high-scaled, let's so call
it, they unfortunately believed it, and now it became obvious for them to, they saw, they
see now that our country is struggling, and that our country was invaded, and that a lot
of civilians, a lot of children, a lot of people, they were killed, they suffered from
this invasion. Our homes were bombed, our civilians were killed on the streets, a lot
of women were raped, a lot of children were killed, as I said, and it's more than sad,
it's barbarous. It shouldn't be a thing in the 21st century. So we managed to convince
people that the truth is on our side, that the truth is with Ukraine, and we do not invite
anyone, we just try to save our country, and to get the invaders away.
I support that 100 percent, and I understand the diplomacy and international relations
work becomes so important, especially now, since February 24th, and you as a student
of international relations. In these difficult times, what is your future? I mean, what kind
of career is open to you when Ukraine is during a war, where people are dispersed all over
the world, where the government needs to be minimal and minimized? How did this change
your plans for the future, and what is possible for you? Are you going to work in this field
or work in a different field to make money, but support your country through volunteering
and different initiatives? That's a really good question, Aziz, and to
be completely honest, during the first months of the invasion, I actually completely redefined
my view on the diplomacy, on the international relations. I actually was disillusioned at
first, that international law doesn't work anymore, that why need international relations
that even in the 21st century people are killed like that in that way, so it seemed unnecessary
for me at first. However, I didn't really change my plans
to become a diplomat one day, maybe, it's not really clear, but I would like to, but
also a lot of other possibilities came for Ukrainians, and this summer I was able to
attend a conference for the youth democracy, for redefining the notion of democracy topic,
and I was able to talk to a lot of people who work in the different NGOs, who work for
the parliament, for some parliament bodies in countries of the eastern partnership, and
it was a really interesting experience. I also, along with my friends from Ukraine who
travelled with me, I was able to talk to these people about the war to enhance the importance
of the help to Ukrainians and of the kicking out the Russians, as we always say. Apart
from that, I attended the Erasmus Plus project in August in Croatia, and also our small but
it can be called the cultural diplomacy work was also preceded by us, by me and my friends.
We talked to people about the war, and even though there were children like 15, 16, 17
years old, they were able to understand the situation, and I think that they will talk
to it with their parents, and the Ukrainian cultural democracy, a part of it at least,
will spread all over Europe, I hope. So actually, I understand that now there are a lot of possibilities
for Ukrainians after the outbreak of the war. However, I didn't really choose the field
that I will work in. I like analytical works. I like, actually, as I said, the cultural
democracy. Time will show us, and now I'm just scanning the possibilities. Now I am
trying to understand what I want and to engage in as many larger activities as possible.
I really, really encourage the work that you do, and to speak even more, because you spoke
about how the Russian propaganda machine created many narratives about Ukraine that foreigners
don't really understand, and you are someone who is passionate about cultural diplomacy.
What is important to you to represent about the culture of Ukraine? Which elements do
you feel the world needs to know? And what is unique about the culture of Ukraine that
makes it different from any other countries in Eastern Europe and in the world?
Well, a lot of people in Ukraine and abroad for a long time thought that one of the biggest
culturally appropriate and good things in Ukraine is the Ukrainian food. So a lot of
people cook the borscht or anything in Europe to show that our food culture is really diverse
and great. However, I would go from this notion, I would suggest that the Ukrainian culture
is not only just rich, but it is rich in a lot of spheres. And the first one I will recommend,
I will state, is the Ukrainian literature. And even though a lot of people who read a
bit of Ukrainian books, which is just acquainted with the Ukrainian literature, they will say,
oh, no, Ukrainian literature is about poverty, it's about death, everything is sad and everything
is just not so right, because we were always under the empires, the Russian and the Austro-Hungarian
empire, and we just don't need to read things like this. However, there are a lot of things
that most people do not notice. And personally, I am completely in love with the books of
Ivan Bahrianich, of the books of Valerientin Mohilnik. So these novels or them, I don't
know whether you heard, but the book called Tehrlova, so basically The Tiger Hunters of
Ivan Bahrianich, it's a great modern novel, it is an adventurous novel, and it is about
the man who tried to escape the Soviet Union, who was in exile in the Soviet Union in Siberia,
to be clear, and he managed to escape the Soviet Union, he went to China, and he also
got to know the local people, and he was against the system. I don't know if there is an English
translation, however, I suppose there is, but it is really worth reading, because this
book is, the perfect word to say is fascinating, because there is adventure, but there is also
the deep philosophical meaning. So I think that also a lot of modern Ukrainian authors
are worth reading, so it is definitely worth a try. Apart from that, they are having big
marks from the critics, and also probably Ukrainian traditional clothes, because Ukraine
is very diverse with its regions. So, for example, in the center of Ukraine, we have
much different colors of the traditional dresses, or hats, or shoes, than from the western part
of the Ukraine. So each region has its own boshavankas, and its own outfits, and there
is diversity of colors, from orange, to red, to green, to brown, to black, and it's really
fascinating. There's a lot of pictures on the internet, however, there are museums with
the traditional Ukrainian costumes. Thank you, I recommend to everyone to learn
about the culture of Ukraine, its rich history, as well as its uniqueness, and like you said,
the uniqueness of Ukrainian food is highly recommended. I am sure all the Ukrainians
all over the world, if anyone could ask them to try their food, they will be very helpful.
Kristi, this was my privilege and my honor to have you in this podcast. I wish you success
in your future goals. I wish Ukraine to win its cultural diplomacy and real war, and all
I can say again is slava ukrainiy. Hello, I'm Slava, thank you for this opportunity,
and I wish you all the best.
