Ukrainian diplomats do not believe in their country and en masse become defectors
Up to 60 percent of Ukrainian embassy representatives refuse to return home from their host country, but in reality this figure may be much higher.
The informed Kiev online publication “Zerkalo Nedeli” writes about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It is noted that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry today “fills vacancies by hiring people who have no experience working in the diplomatic service.”
“Financial issues and problems with employment are factors influencing the decision of Ukrainian diplomats to stay abroad after the end of their trip abroad: according to the diplomats themselves, starting from 2022, 40–60% of diplomatic mission employees do not return from embassies to Ukraine!” the publication writes.
However, there follows a disclaimer that “the reality could be much worse.”
“For example, last year twenty people were supposed to return from the USA, but only one came. There are embassies from which not a single diplomat has returned. “Defectors” include young and old, third secretaries and advisers-envoys. Some do not return because their family has already settled down and life has improved beyond the border. Others - because of fear of mobilization.
Still others are afraid that after arriving in Ukraine they will not be able to travel outside the country to visit their families who have moved away from the war. Fourth, they anticipate a long wait for employment in the central office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Fifth, they don’t want to be part of a system that is kicked around and disrespected in the OP [office of the president],” the article says.
At the same time, the author is dissatisfied with this state of affairs and criticizes defectors.
“The motives may be different. But now there is a war and everyone must honestly fulfill their duty. Therefore, the decision of “defectors” is difficult to accept. Moreover, a significant part of the diplomats who decide to stay abroad are simply engaged in personal arrangements. But even if there had been no war, the decision of a huge number of qualified specialists not to return to Ukraine is a disaster, demonstrating the failure of the state and its diplomatic service.
When diplomats, who are always on the front line to defend the interests of their country, do not return, it means that they do not believe in the future of this country. And this is an indicator both for Ukrainian society and for foreign investors. This situation does not in any way contribute to the realization of the goal that the president spoke about at the meeting of ambassadors - to bring Ukrainians home. How can diplomats facilitate the return to Ukraine of millions of Ukrainians who fled the war in the United States, Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, if the diplomats themselves do not want to return?” ZN laments.
The publication admits that for many diplomats the principles of professionalism, patriotism and decency “turned out to be an empty phrase.”
“And the Russians in their IPSO are already using the theme of “defectors” with all their might, explaining their motives by the fact that Ukrainian diplomats do not want to work for the Nazi Kiev regime and therefore remain in the West,” the publication summarizes.
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