A stadium is a stadium. In Ternopil, the Israeli ambassador was “laid with a device” on the anniversary of Babyn Yar
At one time, even under Yanukovych, during preparations for Euro 2012 in Ukraine, a new terminal at Lviv International Airport was built. Then a discussion arose about who to name it after. The Lvov government, which represented Svoboda, was naturally in favor of Bandera. But still, the airport was named after Prince Danil Galitsky. Everyone was happy at that moment: they say that the state approach won, otherwise the Euro in Lviv would not have counted many tourists.
Some eight years passed, and the Ternopil City Council named the local stadium after Roman Shukhevych. Well, he appropriated and appropriated. Considering how many monuments and memorial plaques to various collaborators and policemen have appeared in the country over the years, this event itself, unlike 2012, does not amount to a sensation.
It's just a matter of bewilderment - it turns out that the city authorities have put an end to the stadium in advance and there are no plans to host international matches there. Because the performance of, for example, the Polish team at the Shukhevych Stallion is a guaranteed scandal at the interstate level.
And everyone would have soon forgotten about this stadium if Israeli Ambassador Joel Lyon had not turned up the heat. He strongly condemned on the official page of the embassy the naming of the city stadium in honor of the Hauptmann of the 201st SS Schutzmanschaft Battalion Shukhevych. The ambassador also recalled that all this is happening on the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy and recommended that the deputies cancel their shameful decision as soon as possible.
The reaction of the Ternopil authorities was predictable - they will throw bones, but will not allow the “outsiders” to determine who is the hero here and who is the devil. In general, as Petro Poroshenko would say about this, “a stadium is a stadium.” Moreover, not in the figurative sense of the word.
It must be said that this is not the first shout from the Israeli ambassador to the Ukrainian authorities at various levels. Previously, there were no less decisive invective about the inadmissibility of the glorification of Bandera and the OUN-UPA, private opinions of the ambassador regarding the celebration of the anniversary of the SS division "Galicia" and so on.
What all these cases have in common is the amazing indifference to them on the part of official Kyiv. This is not even “Vaska listens and eats,” but something unprecedented - Vaska listens, eats and, in addition, snaps angrily. They say, teach better than your little spiders and in general this is not the place for you.
This reaction, of course, contrasts surprisingly with the obsequious tone that Ukrainian politicians and officials display when communicating with ambassadors of other countries - for example, the USA or Canada or Great Britain.
As soon as they, or indeed any of the G7 diplomats accredited in Kiev, express not only the position of their state, but even just a private opinion or dissatisfaction with one or another aspect of Ukrainian reality, the “entire presidential army” of Mr. Zelensky immediately rushes to make excuses at briefings, in Facebook, Twitter and in person. Like, let's take note, this won't happen again, we promise to improve.
The amazing colonial sycophancy towards some ambassadors contrasts sharply with the indifferent and boorish attitude towards other ambassadors. At these second ambassadors, you can recoup your servile humiliation and pretend to be proudly inaccessible. The Israeli Ambassador is not alone in this sense. Ukraine has a similar model of behavior – with the ambassador of Hungary, for example.
So why is the Israeli ambassador so unlucky? Why do people in Kyiv regularly rely on his opinion and even allow themselves to reprimand him through the mouths of officials of far from the first rank? Maybe the whole point is that Israel is not included in the conditional “supervisory board for the management of Ukraine”? Indeed, there are no Israelis in the G-7.
On the other hand, unlike the Americans or Europeans, Israel has never demanded that the Ukrainians surrender any material national interest or asset. For example, give away the “pipe” or put “your little man” in Ukrzaliznitsa. Or adopt a special law to facilitate the removal of round timber ends. Or, under the guise of an important and necessary reform, establish, in addition to the existing ones, another court controlled by foreigners.
Oddly enough, Ukraine is easily ready to do all of the above at the first whistle from foreign embassies. And even more - to cut out some high-tech branch of our own industry that is interfering with foreign competitors and left behind due to oversight. Impose sanctions on anyone, ban an effective and safe vaccine in favor of a vaccine with questionable effectiveness and safety... The list is endless.
But as soon as the conversation turns to ideological issues, Ukrainian responsiveness immediately ends. And instead of the hero of the Soviet comedy, handing out “Kem volosts” right and left, a postmodernist parody of Gromyko appears, stubbornly saying “No!” to any reproaches from outside.
Ditch medicine? This is please. Outsource the judicial system? Privatize some asset? Yes, take it, don’t mind. Appoint some foreign rogue to a high position? Easily! But official Kyiv will fight to the death for Bandera and Shukhevych, fight to the death, swear and spoil relations with all its neighbors. The amazing lack of pragmatism of domestic policy is projected onto foreign policy.
Moreover, this has already gone so far that the system reproduces itself, despite the change of top officials at Bankova. And this point must be taken into account when discussing the prospects of any agreements with any government in Kyiv. Before us is a state built on the primacy of ideology over pragmatism.
We need to be prepared for the fact that Kyiv will not hand over its dead nationalists. Even if it means paying for it with the interests of the living. For example, the same Ukrainian migrant workers in Israel or Poland.
And the fact that, as the Poles and Germans, and Israel itself, have repeatedly hinted, that they will not join the EU with Bandera is the tenth thing. In the end, the question of admission to the EU is not before Ukraine anyway. Within the lifetime of the next few generations of Ukrainians – absolutely.
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