#14_1-8

MARCH 1, 2018 ISSUE No. 14 (1146)
Tel.: +38(044) 303-96-19,
fax: +38(044) 303-94-20
е-mail: time@day.kiev.ua;
http://www.day.kiev.ua
PICTURED: ALLA DUBROVYK, EDITOR OF DEN’S ECONOMY SECTION, AT THE PRESS CONFERENCE OF UKRAINE’S PRESIDENT PETRO POROSHENKO. FEBRUARY 28, 2018
“NERVOUS VERBOSITY”
In general, atmosphere in the improvised
press room was constructive.
Yet what shows President Poroshenko’s
Administration’s unpreparedness for a frank
discussion is the fact that, for three years since
this writer, a correspondent of Den, put a ticklish
question the president in his first year in
office: “Are we at war or do we conduct trade,
Mr. President?” the president’s spokesman
Sviatoslav Tseholko has stopped “noticing” our
badge at press conferences. Well, I hope the
head of state’s spokesman will at last settle his
emotions and problems and will not hinder the
president from communicating with one of the
oldest newspapers in Ukraine.
● ON THE ELECTION
“Firstly, I will definitely, with 100 percent
certainty take part in the presidential
election as a voter. I will definitely vote. In
Ukraine. In Kyiv. My polling place is in the
House of Officers. I emphasize that I will live
in Ukraine after the election in whatever capacity
I will be then. I care about Ukraine
very much, I will do everything to prevent a
comeback of the old regime. I do not understand
what plan B you are talking about, I
have not ever lost an election campaign.”
● ON THE MALDIVES
“The information was communicated to
the public and post factum. I stress that my
flight was registered in accordance with the
requirements of the legislation currently in
force. If you do not have access to the database
On the president’s press conference through the eyes of its participant
of the border guards, then this is personal data.
You should not have that access, actually.
But if a competent authority wants to check
on the border guards’ actions, it will get access
very easily. The head of the border service
reported to me about the registration. I do
not know if the Zhuliany private airport is
building something. I stress that everything
was done in accordance with the legislation.
The president gets no vacations, because he
may not delegate his powers to anyone.”
● ON CRIMEA
“We are ready to accept ships from
Crimea, that is for sure. And we are not talking
here about some minor reasons, like repairs
or lack thereof, or absence of some
equipment, no – we are ready to accept ships
only together with Crimea. And I am sure that
this is a shared position of the Verkhovna Rada
and the Ukrainian government and public.
And in order to expedite this process, we
will use all the diplomatic opportunities.”
● ON RELATIONS WITH POLAND
“Our relations are developing very dynamically.
You remember the visit of President
Duda to Kharkiv. I met him in Davos.
I met the Polish prime minister in Munich.
We have set up a commission at the level of
deputy prime ministers tasked with the development
of a roadmap to get out of this situation
which arose after a series of steps. As
for Poland adopting that law... We do not
need anyone to tell us which heroes are to be
honored and which are not. Likewise, we will
not dictate to Poland which heroes they are
to honor or not. I am sure that politicians
should look to the future, and leave the
past to historians. I am confident that when
we will be implementing this concept, we will
achieve good results with Poland.”
● ON SAAKASHVILI
“No major political problems began in
Ukraine. And I didn’t take away his passport.
But I granted him citizenship deliberately.
I was also enchanted with the prospects
Mr. Saakashvili could bring to Ukraine. I
gave him complete freedom. He was the
governor of Odesa oblast… All of us saw no
results. And when I received a report from
the law-enforcement bodies about infractions
during the application for citizenship, I had
nothing to do but revoke his citizenship in
full accordance with the Constitution. Had
there been no check on the citizenship application,
we would still perhaps be nursing
hopes and dreams. But Mikheil dashed them
himself, and I don’t think he is a happy man
now. The question of readmission to Poland –
after he had breached the law while crossing
the border, which was confirmed by a court –
was solved flawlessly from the viewpoint of
the Ukrainian law, international obligations,
and the rule of law.”
● ON HOSTAGES
Poroshenko stresses that he will cooperate
with all who will help liberate Ukrainian
hostages: “I must admit that Medvedchuk
has proved to be most effective of them all,
because Putin makes these decisions personally.”
● ON DE-OLIGARCHIZATION
“De-oligarchization means excluding oligarchs
from political power institutions in
Ukraine. What, has Firtash’s position improved
here? Has he come to Ukraine? Does
Firtash control the parliament, or the cabinet?
Or maybe it is Kolomoiskyi who does
this? Am I right, you, from the 1+1 TV channel?
There are some channels that hit the
president hard. I know this and I am not
afraid of it. You will not get anywhere. As for
Akhmetov and Rotterdam+. What is Rotterdam+?
I am not going to defend it at all.
This is just an exchange indicator.”
Photos by Ruslan KANIUKA, The Day

2
No.14 MARCH 1, 2018
DAY AFTER DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
Political “earthquake”
New names in special counsel Mueller’s
investigation of the Manafort case
By Mykola SIRUK, The Day
Recently FBI Special Counsel
Robert S. Mueller III brought
new charges against Paul
Manafort, Donald Trump’s
former campaign’s manager in
summer 2016 and in summer 2012
secretly paid former leading European
politicians for lobbying of Ukraine’s
Russia-aligned government.
The AP news agency reports that
the charges are based on the testimony
provided by Manafort’s former assistant
Rick Gates. In particular, the
FBI is charging Manafort with using
foreign bank accounts for paying 2 million
to former European politicians for
lobbying of the interests of Ukraine’s
Russia-aligned government.
It is reported that the political
figures known as the Habsburg group
were considered to be independent analysts,
however, their services were ordered
by the lobbyists. According to the
information provided by the mass media,
the hidden lobbying was taking
place in the US. The indictment concludes
that a former European chancellor
was at the head of the group.
Apparently, the top interest of
the investigators are Manafort’s liaisons
with Russian billionaire Oleg
Deripaska, from whom Trump’s advisor
received big sum, amounting, according
to some data, to 100 million
dollars, for the lobbying of Russia’s interests.
In particular, as the manager
of Trump’s election campaign, Manafort
offered to Deripaska to share information,
arranging “private briefings”
on some “interesting questions”
that haven’t been established so far.
It will be reminded that on October
30, 2017 Paul Manafort and
Richard Gates faced charges that consisted
of 12 points and included hindering
the activity of the US governmental
establishments, money laundering,
evading taxes, swindling, and
lobbying the interests of an unregistered
foreign establishment, which is
a crime in the US.
The prosecutors assert that over
75 million dollars were moved through
the offshore accounts that Manafort
controlled. According to the accusations,
with Gates’ help he laundered
over 30 million dollars of income which
he shielded from the US Department of
Treasury and US Department of Justice.
In his turn, Gates hid about three
million of income.
“Manafort and Gates received tens
of millions dollars of income from
their work in Ukraine,” is the summary
of the indictment.
Manafort is the central figure in
the investigation held by Special Counsel
Robert S. Mueller III on the possible
conspiracy between Donald
Trump’s team and Russia, in particular,
through Manafort’s numerous
connections with Russians and his cooperation
with Ukraine’s ex-president
Viktor Yanukovych.
Former advisor in Nixon’s Presidential
Administration John Dean
wrote on his Twitter page that
“Mueller is throwing everything he can
against Manafort, including Gates
who can nail him. Increasingly it appears
Manafort is the link to Russian
collusion. If Gates can testify that
Manafort was acting with Trump’s
blessings, it’s the end of his presidency.
That’s substantial.”
Meanwhile, the website www.dailykos.com
concludes that “Putin wanted
Trump elected to reverse sanctions
and allow him to not only make a fortune
but to further infiltrate the country.
Manafort was only too happy to
sell us out to the Russians and if it can
be proven Trump was as well – if
that’s not a working definition of
treason, what is?”
It should be noted that more and
more names are emerging in special
counsel Mueller’s investigation into
Manafort’s activities. In particular, US
Department of Justice files, emails obtained
by The Financial Times, and interviews
with the people involved in
the investigation show that Romano
Prodi, the former Italian prime minister
and European Commission president,
Alfred Gusenbauer, the former
Austrian chancellor, and Aleksander
Kwasniewski, Poland’s former president
(1995-2005) “took part in meetings
with members of the US Congress
in 2013 on behalf of the European
Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based
group that US prosecutors
allege was at the centre of Mr. Manafort’s
secret lobbying scheme.”
The Day asked the head of the
Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia
Center, former US ambassador to
Ukraine John HERBST to comment on
the most recent charges against Manafort
and tell about their possible consequences
for US President Donald
Trump.
“If Gates testifies against Manafort,
Manafort’s legal vulnerability
grows. Stories about Manafort’s connections
to Deripaska put the Trump
campaign closer to the Kremlin. The
key question is whether there is evidence
of Trump himself in some sense
working with or benefitting knowingly
from Kremlin support. But there
are now stories of possible contacts or
efforts to establish contacts between
Deripaska and Democratic Senator
Warner.”
By Svitlana AHREST-KOROTKOVA
Thanks to indefatigable efforts of the
UKHO producer agency in the field
of contemporary music, the
National Opera staged a premiere of
the opera Luci Mie Traditrici (“My
Betraying Eyes”) by Salvatore Sciarrino.
Local music lovers, as well as many
representatives of the diplomatic corps,
received an unprecedented world-level
gift. It was not only a bit unusual, but also
a beautiful piece of contemporary music
played with careful enthusiasm by UKHO
Ensemble conducted by Luigi Gaggero.
Discover Europe through... fairytales
Teachers and children of various countries drew
a map of the most popular children’s books
By Maria SEMENCHENKO
There is a map of Europe before us.
Every country is marked with a separate
color. But it is not a political
or a geographic map – it is about
books. On close examination, you
will see that it is not just colors but fragments
of the covers of children’s books. In
France it is The Little Price by Antoine de
Saint-Exupery, in Italy – The Adventures
of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, in Britain –
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Photo by Yevhenia PERUTSKA
FRENCH-GERMAN TENOR STEPHANE OLRY, ESTHER LABOURDETTE
(SOPRANO, FRANCE), AND MICHAEL TAYLOR (COUNTERTENOR, CANADA)
PERFORMED THE MAIN PARTS IN THE OPERA LUCI MIE TRADITRICI
World-level estheticism
Participants in the production of Luci Mie
Traditrici shared with The Day’s readers
their impressions of working in Ukraine
by Joanne Rowling, in Sweden – Pippi
Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, in
Finland – a series about Moomins (trolls)
by Tove Jansson, in Germany – The
Neverending Story by Michael Ende, in
Poland – Academy of Mr. Kleks by Jan
Brzechwa, in Denmark – Magic Fairytales
by Hans Christian Andersen. Ukraine is
painted in orange color, and it is easy to
recognize this cover – it is Toreadors from
Vasiukivka by Vsevolod Nestaiko.
This map was made by teachers and
pupils at various schools that are part of
Map from the website READRATE.COM
The four guest soloists – Esther Labourdette
(soprano, France), Rupert Bergmann
(bass-baritone, Austria), Stephane Olry
(tenor, France-Germany), and Michael
Taylor (countertenor, Canada) – possess
not only impeccable vocal and dramatic
skills, but also the uncommon ability to
perform the most sophisticated parts of
modern scores.
Kateryna Libkind (set design), Olha
Listunova (costumes), Svitlana Zmiieva
(lighting) created a very integral and
breathtaking spectacle worthy of the
world’s most respected stages.
eTwinning, an educational project of the
European Commission. Although
Ukrainian schools are not project members,
Ukraine was still included into
this map.
Christina Kasinti, a teacher of the
eTwinning Greek team, writes on the
project’s website: “First and foremost,
to be able to make it, I received much help
from the project’s partners, as I would
never learn about the most popular children’s
books in many countries if you did
not research and tell me. I also received
my eTwinning students’ help at school.
For example, Galini, a member of the
Greek team, who is bilingual as her
mum is Ukrainian, helped me a lot by
conducting a small research among
friends and relatives before telling me
children’s favorite books in Ukraine,
Lithuania, Belarus, and Finland. So did
other students in our school, too, e.g., for
Albania, Serbia, etc.”
Christina also showed on the project’s
website that the map was at first
empty and painted blue. Then it was
gradually filled with favorite children’s
books in various countries. It is interesting
to examine this map: you immediately
wish to read some of the books or
to know more about the ones that are little
known or unknown at all to Ukrainian
readers.
It is no wonder that Ukrainian readers
chose Vsevolod Nestaiko’s Toreadors
from Vasiukivka for the map. More than
one generation grew up on the writer’s
books. They are still actively republished
and sold. Present-day young readers
and their parents know them.
Mr. Nestaiko once said to The Day:
“Children must be taught to be good, humane,
fair, and, of course, to have a sense
of humor. Children should smile more often.”
This is perhaps the secret of why little
readers have liked Nestaiko’s books
for many decades and why Ukraine is
painted orange on this map.
I asked the vocalists, who participated
in this project, to share impressions
of working in Ukraine and of the
opera itself.
Esther LABOURDETTE,
soprano, France:
“I am in Ukraine for the first time.
So, I know only Kyiv and the locations we
lived and worked in. Some aspects in the
city itself and its people remind me of Armenia
which I know a little from my
mother’s stories: a lot of small shops,
where you can buy everything, a mixture
of the old town and modern city, stylish
women. The people I met were incredibly
openhearted, warm, and sociable in spite
of the language barrier, and we often
laughed. On the other hand, there can be
very unpleasant, even hostile, people in
some offices or in the metro – a striking
contrast! It is difficult to get an unequivocal
idea of a city with so different
and intertwining features – pre-Soviet,
Soviet, and post-Soviet Kyiv.
“Luci Mie Traditrici is one of the
most complicated music projects in my
lifetime because this opera is extremely
difficult in its musical score, and we had
very little time to prepare it. Sciarrino’s
musical universe is very subtle, he treats
the orchestra as a character, he expresses
all kinds of emotions – strikes, impulse
acceleration, silence – it does not look like
a traditional opera, where the orchestra
supports the singer and can be relied on.
In spite of this, things went very smoothly,
in a creative atmosphere, where even
a minute was not lost. We were a united
team. A very talented pianist Dina
Pysarenko is the mainstay of this ‘enterprise.’
As our work went on, I was
gradually being accustomed to my part.
Sometimes I felt as if I was a computer –
each scene is a file which I change, and
whenever the picture was getting blurred,
I got back to the score to check the original
image.
Stephane OLRY,
tenor, France-Germany:
“I am greatly pleased with the work
we’ve done in Kyiv. The process was
very interesting, and all the people involved
in the project were very lovely and
professional. All my singer colleagues
coped very well with such difficult but
beautiful music. I don’t know whether
you liked it, but I consider this work a
masterpiece.
“Of course, I know the situation in
Ukraine and I am deeply concerned about
it. But I saw absolutely no manifestations
of these difficult moments in our daily
routine. The Europeans are looking forward
to Ukraine coming back to the European
family. It is not a rapid process. It
demands that the people of Ukraine show
strength and great patience.
“I hope very much that I’ll be able to
come back here with new projects. I’d love
to take part in putting on a contemporary
opera here. I am sure our Ukrainian colleagues
will choose something interesting
for a project like this.”
Michael TAYLOR,
countertenor, Canada:
“My impression of Ukraine was a
little marred because I caught a cold due
to bad weather and was laid up for about
a week. But, in spite of being ill, I noticed
that people all around were just nice. In
February everything seems gray and
cheerless, but people stand out against
this gray backdrop (laughs). Whenever I
get ready to travel abroad, I usually
learn a few conversational phrases. Unfortunately,
I failed to do so in Ukraine
because there was no time left for other
things owing to a complicated material.
And your language sounds surprisingly
melodious.
“This project is wonderful, albeit
complicated, music. It is a rare occurrence
that you can take part in something
so interesting and difficult at
the same time. The orchestra coped
with task excellently.
“I would come back here with
pleasure – especially with something
from contemporary. I heard that
Ukraine hosts a lot of interesting festivals
in this field, and there are very
good oeuvres.”
Read more on our website

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
DAY AFTER DAY No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 3
By Alla DUBROVYK-ROKHOVA, The Day,
photos by the author,
Singapore – Barcelona – Kyiv
By 2030, more than 5 billion
people will live in cities.
According to McKinsey &
Company, the urban
economy will provide up to
80 percent of the world GDP by that
date. And this automatically means
endless traffic jams on roads, acute
resource shortages, and mediocre
ecological situation.
In order for the city infrastructure
not only to carry an enormous
burden in the future, but to be
ready for it as soon as today, new
technologies come to our aid. It is
they that ensure the rapid development
of so-called smart cities.
An ordinary city becomes smart
as soon as its institutions are integrated
in practice into a single network
with large databases. It
should be done so that based on this
data, it becomes possible to collect
information about users, store and
analyze it, remotely manage services
and predict various situations
developing. To participate in this
whole scheme, a resident needs a
smartphone and internet access.
My first encounter with a
smart city took place two years
ago. My husband and I went to Bali
for a long-delayed honeymoon, but
on the way there, we decided to
take a look at what Singapore was
like. Then it was just fashionable
in Ukraine to see the experience of
that island dwarf country as an example
to be followed. I was astounded.
An ordinary public
transport stop (that transport offers
very convenient and dense
coverage of the whole territory of
the city) had a special electronic
board with information about
which bus was going where, with
what speed and number of passengers.
The stop was also equipped
with a Wi-Fi hotspot, an interactive
map, and even electronic
books. Also, cameras, sensors, and
GPS devices that collect information
about everything going on in
the city are everywhere in Singapore.
This is one of the reasons
why there are no traffic jams,
crime and... garbage there. Some
may see it as an example of a “police
state,” but the Singaporeans
themselves, for the sake of whose
safety and comfort all this was
started, do not complain.
Another example, which I
learned about after returning from
Singapore when attending the annual
Smart City Expo conference in
Barcelona, was a system for helping
special needs residents of the
city. Singapore, like most currently
highly developed countries, has
a lot of elderly people who need care
and support. Therefore, local authorities
have launched a special
monitoring system called the Elderly
Monitoring System. It works
like this: special sensors are installed
on the doors and inside the
living quarters. As soon as such a
sensor records a suspicious lack of
activity or vice versa, captures an
incident, it alerts relatives,
guardians or relevant services.
Another ambitious project,
worth 73 million dollars, is called
Virtual Singapore. This is a virtual
3D model of the island with superprecise
detailing. The virtual map
Cities in which intellect wins
How technology ensures that municipalities win
in the global struggle for human capital and investment
allows the user to enter every room
and receive information about it in
real time. In addition to the fact
that it lets the city to monitor in
the most efficient way traffic, the
population density of territories or
even the quality of air, it is possible
to create various forecasts and
models based on the information
obtained. For example, one can try
to determine how a contagious disease
will spread, how the air currents
will change if a new skyscraper
is built in a particular
place, etc.
As aptly noted by Foreign Minister
of Singapore Vivian Balakrishnan:
“If you visit Singapore, you
will say: I saw the future – and it already
exists.”
In a sense, Singapore is really
ahead of everyone else. But it is not
alone in employing smart technologies.
The Smart City Expo World
Congress is held every fall in
Barcelona.
Hundreds of companies, NGOs
and municipalities from all over
the world bring to Spain their
works in the smart city field. Over
three days, the participants discuss
the latest trends in urbanism and
can look in practice how this or that
technological solution to a specific
urban problem looks like, for example,
on specially equipped stands.
tance of Huawei Ukraine, I would
need at least a couple of dozen
newspaper pages. I will, therefore,
limit myself to the main impressions
and conclusions.
Firstly, the cities themselves.
The three most powerful, in my
opinion, city stands came from New
York, Tokyo, and Tel Aviv. At first
I was surprised to see municipalities
spend money (quite sizeable
amounts, in fact) to participate in
such exhibitions. After all, they are
not companies which need it to look
for customers. Was it a publicity
stunt? It was of dubious benefit,
then. Then it dawned on me that
they were selling their experience,
which was a unique product. So far,
the smart city technology is just
In order to describe everything
I saw at the Smart City Expo 2017,
which I took part in due to assisemerging,
so knowledge and skills
of pioneers who have already tested
it and know what works, and what
needs to be fixed in one or another
technology – these knowledge and
skills are a major advantage.
Out of all the company stands, I
was most impressed by the expospace
of the Smart City Expo
2017’s general sponsor Huawei.
And this is not surprising, because
the company has already tested
more than 40 technological solutions
in more than 100 countries
around the world. More than
400 million people already use the
company’s latest designs, and they
brought 10 most trendy ones to
Barcelona for a display. They can be
divided into three groups: those
who solve the problem of economical
use of resources (such as the
smart home, smart sewer, etc. systems),
those responsible for safety
(the smart traffic lights, street
video surveillance systems, etc.),
and those aimed at improving the
quality of life in the city (telemedicine,
smart public transport, distance
education, etc.).
Each of these elements is not
just an expensive tuning project
for the city, it is a real investment,
a tool with which the city government
is joining a global struggle for
attracting money, people, and technology
to one’s city. For example,
when the Olympic Committee
chooses a host city for the Games,
safety is a prerequisite included in
the rider. This is a complex component
that, according to The Economist,
includes four criteria: public
security (how many administrative
offenses are committed per inhabitant
and how many of them are investigated),
the second is the safety
of human life (how many hospitals
and doctors are in the city), the
third is infrastructure safety (how
many people are killed or injured in
accidents, fires, etc.), and the
fourth – and very relevant today –
is cyber security: large crowds attract
greedy hackers who see easy
pickings.
Ukraine is only at the beginning
of the path. In fact, there is
not yet a single city in this country
to have built a sufficiently large
number of smart city elements.
Unfortunately, most cities lack
even basic infrastructure. For example,
to launch one of Huawei’s
coolest designs, the real-time city
management center, which allows
the mayor to have on one display
graphic information about absolutely
all the networks of the city
infrastructure and spheres of its
life so that they can react promptly,
our cities need to digitize all
these networks first.
Until recently, the municipalities
just lacked the money. The
mayors barely made ends meet, so
some expensive technological “tuning”
was clearly out of question.
But everything changed three years
ago due to the magic word “decentralization.”
During last year’s Cities
Changemakers Congress, which
was organized by the United Efforts
Agency NGO, two cities,
Nizhyn and Chernivtsi, signed a
memorandum of cooperation with
the Ukrainian representative office
of the world leader in technological
solutions for smart cities, the Chinese
company Huawei.

4
No.14 MARCH 1, 2018
TOPIC OF THE DAY
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Maria PROKOPENKO, photos
by Artem SLIPACHUK, The Day
my friend, Doctor of
Sciences (Biology) Serhii
Utievskyi, who fought at the
Luhansk front in an adjacent
“Iand
section to mine in 2014, like
to joke that no matter what problems
we are facing right now, it was still
harder near Luhansk,” Yevhen Dykyi
optimistically started our
conversation. He is a marine biologist
by training, commanded a company of
the Aidar Battalion in 2014, while on
February 7 this year, he became acting
director of the National Antarctic
Scientific Center (NASC), which was
unexpected even for Dykyi himself.
Let us recall that the NASC is the national
operator of Ukraine in Antarctica,
where we own the Academician Vernadsky
Station, formerly the British
Faraday Station, sold for a symbolic
one pound in 1996. Dykyi describes the
work done there as follows: “As of the
20th century, they worked quite well,
but then stopped for some reason.”
Over his first two weeks in office, the
head of the NASC has managed to do a
lot. For instance, Ukrainian scientists
can now take part in the projects of the
French Polar Institute, and soon the Academician
Vernadsky Station will have
permanent access to the Internet (for
now, electronic messages can be sent
from here once a week). Antarctica will
also become open for women again.
“Women worked at the Vernadsky Station
for two first winters. Then the
leadership of the Antarctic center
changed, and they began to follow the
same logic which guides people who
force the Muslim women to wear
chadors. They alleged that when women
were wintering, men were quarreling
over them, and they decided that it
would be better to solve the problem not
by educating men to do better, but by
banning women from the station. However,
why no Western station faces such
problems?” Dykyi mused.
Some bad traditions are hard to
break. As we held our conversation,
which took place on February 21, the scientist
was still hoping to be able to hold
a tender for supplying the station this
season through the ProZorro system.
The tender was at risk due to strange
complaints from one of the participants.
The next day, the head of the NASC posted
on Facebook that the Antimonopoly
Committee delayed deciding whether
to accept the complaint as long as possible,
and then accepted it. The appeal
was scheduled for the latest date available,
March 7. The NASC cannot wait so
long, because the new shift of polar explorers
should get in place by April, until
the ice blocks seaways. Therefore, the
head of the Antarctic center will have to
negotiate with companies that can supply
polar explorers. However, he was
ready for such a turn of events anyway,
and told The Day what he would do in
this situation. Also, through our conversation
with Dykyi, we learned how
Antarctica was like a pulse, outer space
and even Crimea, and how Ukraine
could develop polar explorations despite
limited resources.
● “NOBODY EVER ASKED
WHAT THE ANTARCTIC
STATION’S RETURN ON
INVESTMENT WAS”
What were your first steps in office?
How much did your mental picture
of the state of the center differ from the
reality?
“In general, I understood what I
was getting into. I think that it is worth
it, because the Antarctic center is a national
treasure, all its ‘bugs’ which I am
now trying to ‘fix’ notwithstanding.
This is to a certain extent our ticket to
the civilized world. Space and polar exploration,
ocean research is what distinguishes
members of the ‘golden billion’
from Third World countries. If a
country can afford such projects, and not
only ones serving its daily needs, then it
belongs to that part of civilization where
we see Elon Musk.
Ukraine in Antarctica:
a new era
How biologist Yevhen Dykyi will expand our polar studies
“Given the terrible decline of
Ukrainian science over the last 20 years,
the fact that we have kept the Antarctic
station and the polar direction of research
alive is one of the claws with
which we are clinging to the ‘golden billion.’
For me, it is a matter of honor to
make sure that we look properly there.
This is not so right now.
“The main achievement of my predecessors,
and for this they should be honored
and praised, is preserving the station
despite the war and financial crises.
The station has never stopped working
even for one day, it is in normal condition,
it is regularly repaired. In our
conditions, this is a great achievement.
It is another matter that since the NASC
was not managed by scientists, nobody
ever asked what the Antarctic station’s
return on investment was.
“My center’s budget for this year is
2 million euros, or 72 million hryvnias.
For our Western colleagues, it is nothing.
For example, the similar French institution
has an annual budget of
280 million euros. However, all Ukrainian
science got 200 million euros in
2018, that is, we received 1 percent of
this amount. We need to show something
for this money. All this is measurable.
One can calculate the index of citation of
scientific works for a country or an institution
according to databases, for
example, Scopus. We did it. The result
left us a little sad. We cannot compete
with the US or Britain, as funding
amounts are just so much higher there.
But according to economic indicators, we
should be at the same level with Poland
and ahead of, say, the Czech Republic,
which came to Antarctica 10 years ago.
We have worked there for 22 years, if the
Soviet period is excluded. And still, we
are about 50th in the world on Antarctic
research. There are about 30 countries
that have polar stations. That is, we
have been overtaken by a number of
countries that do not have their own
Antarctic stations, but only occasionally
visit there, but they do it competently.
“We are now on a par with Turkey.
It, of course, is not the least important
country in the world, but it entered
Antarctica only two years ago.
“If you come to visit me a year later,
I will not be able to show you numbers
that will be strikingly different. This
cannot be corrected in such a short time.
But we need to use this year to establish
a system in which everything will gradually
increase.”
● “THERE WILL BE PROPER
INTERNET ACCESS IN THE
VERNADSKY STATION
STARTING WITH THIS
SHIFT”
That is, we were essentially mere
caretakers at the Academician Vernadsky
Station?
“Exactly. The center adequately fulfilled
the functions of caretaking and logistics.
But at the same time, they forgot
what this logistics was for. To a certain
extent, it turned into scientific
tourism.
“My key complaint against my predecessors
is that the center has always
been a very closed structure. Those
who had a good relationship with the
center got to travel to Antarctica, regardless
of whether they obtained any
results. Those unable to establish a
working relationship with the center
were just out of luck. I was in the latter
category. I was on the blacklist here for
a time. I was trying to get to Antarctica
through the center for more than ten
years. If someone told me earlier that I
would get into the director’s office
first, and only then to Antarctica, I
would have laughed a lot.
“The selection of participants for
every polar expedition was quite a random
process. No, not just charlatans got
in. Some really excellent experts got in
along with riff-raff. However, the main
criterion was reaching an agreement
with the management of the center.
“We will change it fundamentally.
In particular, we are changing the composition
of the Antarctic Science and
Technology Council (STC), which is responsible
for the whole program of scientific
research in the Antarctic. And
I am prepared to have no pliant science
and technology council. We conducted
a scientific metric analysis and selected
Ukrainian scientists with the highest
Hirsch indexes on polar subjects. All
of them are now invited to the Antarctic
STC.”
What else do you plan to change in
the near future?
“Some things just terrified me on
getting here. One can go to the websites
of Antarctic institutions from various
countries, and there one will see, for example,
video blogs of polar explorers who
are blogging from stations themselves.
The websites of the French Dumont
d’Urville Station or the American Mc-
Murdo Station offer webcam video feeds,
allowing one to see what is happening at
the station right now.
“By the way of comparison: the
Academician Vernadsky Station has, in
2018, text messages being sent by e-
mail to the station once a week on
Wednesdays, and from the station once
a week on Fridays. There is a satellite Internet
connection, which was installed
back in the 1990s when it cost 7.5 dollars
per megabyte. It turns out that nobody
was looking for alternatives afterwards.
I just did a regular Google
search and it turned out that the
Antarctic had changed a little over the
years, there are currently about
20 satellite providers operating there,
and prices are competitive. I think
there will be proper internet access
there starting with this shift, and after
a couple of months, you will be able to
get in touch in writing at least with each
of the polar explorers, to see their
blogs. It may seem to be a small detail,
but that is what distinguishes the 20th
century from the 21st.”
● “IN THE ANTARCTIC LIKE IN
CRIMEA, THE YEAR IS SPLIT
INTO HIGH SEASON AND
THE REST”
You have also told reporters that
you want to extend the shift overlap period
in Antarctica. Why is this important?
“If possible, this shift overlap period
should last not three days, but at least
a decade. Then it will be worth taking
there a few more people who will have
time to take samples for their research.
“Work in the Antarctic is divided into
two parts: the wintering period and
the high season. The wintering period is
when 12 people spend there all year
round, and then they are replaced by another
shift. In the season, a random
number of people arrive, over 30 at the
peak, and 10 to 12 more commonly,
they spend there a month or two, this is
done in summer.
“Life in the Antarctic resembles
that in Crimea. Year is clearly split into
high season and the rest. In those three
ice-free months of the Antarctic summer,
there are a lot of people there with
tourist liners coming in. For instance,
the Academician Vernadsky Station has
up to 4,000 visitors every season, since
it is one of the oldest in Antarctica, having
been built in 1947. This is really like
in Crimea. And for the remaining nine
months, again, like in Crimea, there is
no activity there, because they are cut off
by ice and have no access. Our 12 winterers
do not see anyone except each other
at this time, and this, I think, is the
pinnacle of heroism – to spend nine
months in complete isolation.
“Wintering is important, but not so
much from a scientific point of view, as
it is primarily needed to maintain the
station. It cannot be abandoned for
nine months, because everything will
freeze and perish then. Six people out
of the dozen are technical staff members
who support the activities of the station.
The rest are scientists. But little
research can be done in the dead of polar
night. First of all, scheduled observations
are conducted, those that began
in 1947, in the 1960s. They may not be
interrupted. These are climate observations
and monitoring of the ozone layer.
By the way, Ukraine has added a bit
to these observations. We have biologists
wintering there as well, so now we
see penguins not only in the summer
when it is warm and nice, we can observe
them surviving throughout the
year as well.
“The high season is different. During
it, a lot of people can come and everyone
follows their own program. Geologists,
magnetometrists, biologists. This
is a very important period. Our season
has almost disappeared recently due to
problems with logistics. People come to
the shift overlap period, winterers get
replaced in five days, and one would do
well to take samples over that time. But
this is not how things should be done.
And it affects the wintering period as
well. One cannot teach a novice in five
days. Thus, we have seen mostly people
who have already wintered in Antarctica
going there in recent years. There are
about 180 old winterers in Ukraine,
and we just reshuffle them. So, one of
my tasks is to renew the so-called long
season.”
If I understand you correctly, it is
hampered by logistics now, isn’t it? After
all, if it is so complicated, it is difficult
to talk about the extension of the
shift overlap period.
“It has turned out that in the Ukrainian
conditions, 45 million hryvnias is a
lot of money. Most of this amount will
have to be spent on food, 140 tons of fuel,
and hiring a ship to get people and
goods to the station. The firm will be able
to earn somewhere around 300,000 euros.
Still, we have seen people competing
for this tender with tooth and claw, including
by non-conventional methods as
well. Last year, they stopped ProZorro
procurement procedures three times,
and then the deal was done using the absolutely
non-transparent negotiation
procedure. This year, they are making
every effort to force me to do the same.

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
TOPIC OF THE DAY No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 5
“However our tender battles end, the
ice will form in April. Water will freeze
there. And the ProZorro system which
I respect is still poorly protected against
unfair complaints. Then the Antimonopoly
Committee rejects these complaints,
but they do delay the process.
“There are three bidders in this
competition. All of them have some
troubles with documentation, but all
three really exist and have experience of
doing such logistics. One of them did it
in a non-transparent manner, but they
still fulfilled the contract last year. For
some reason, people believe that if I enter
the negotiation procedure, then the
contract will go precisely to the same
company that won it last year. I do not
really want to enter the negotiation
procedure, but if that happens, people’s
fears will not come true. The three
companies that bid via the ProZorro
system will be invited to negotiate, and
the negotiations will be held in the presence
of journalists.
“I am already feeling some pressure,
but I am calm about it. We live in
a country where corruption has not yet
been overcome, but everyone must do
everything to overcome it where they
stand.”
How much time is left to complete
the transaction?
“We must set off no later than the
last days of March, but one cannot set off
on the day of signing the agreement. I
have about two weeks to complete it. We
will manage. I will try to complete the negotiations
in a week.”
“We cannot afford to build a research
fleet now. Technologically, incidentally,
we are still capable of it. The entire
polar program of the People’s Republic
of China – and it is a very ambitious
one, they already have three stations
in the Antarctic and will soon
have the fourth, and one station in the
Arctic – has its logistics provided by one
icebreaker Xuelong (Snow Dragon). This
Snow Dragon was built in Kherson and
sold by Ukraine for pennies in 1993. But
in fact, it is fortunate that she was sold
to the Chinese for pennies because she is
still alive and working for science.
“But let us go back to our fleet.
From time to time, rich countries replace
old ships with new ones. And their old
ships, from our point of view, are still
very good, they would still serve for
20 years. In particular, two ships of the
British Antarctic Service will be retired
in 2019. And since this structure has a
good history of relations with us, there
is a chance to successfully beg for one of
these ships. If that fails, Australia will
replace one icebreaker with a more modern
one in 2020. We must look for other
possibilities.
“Acquiring an Antarctic-capable
ship will fundamentally change many
things, for example, logistics. We will no
longer depend on who wins the tender
and will charter a ship. And the main
thing, it will increase our scientific capabilities.
Now we are tied to Galindez
Island, where our station is located,
and the nearest stretch of the coast. In
for international cooperation. On the
other hand, this limits our opportunities,
because some things can be studied only
in much colder latitudes or deep inside
the continent.
“We need to move forward. We will
not afford this ourselves, it is just too expensive,
but the age of bi-, tri- and multi-lateral
stations has come to Antarctica.
The most striking example is Concordia,
an Italian-French station. I see
our path to higher latitudes in this. I see
us preserving the Vernadsky Station
and building, say, two stations in cooperation
with two or three other countries
as a realistic option. It can be done in the
next 10 to 15 years.”
● “I AND MY COLLEAGUES
ORGANIZED THE FIRST
UKRAINIAN ARCTIC
EXPEDITION ON OUR OWN”
Do you have any ideas with whom
such cooperation could be established?
“Yes, I have some preliminary ideas.
A Lithuanian Antarctic expedition will
come to us for the first time next season.
And just as the Lithuanian-Polish-
Ukrainian peacekeeping brigade is currently
a remarkable example of international
cooperation, a Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian
Antarctic station could do
just as well as an example of cooperation.
“In general, I want to rename the
NASC to the Center for Polar Research.
Few countries can afford to split Arctic
and the second at a Norwegian facility in
the Svalbard Archipelago, which we
know better as Spitsbergen. I and my colleagues
organized the first Ukrainian
Arctic expedition on our own in 2009. It
worked at the Polish Hornsund Station
in the Svalbard Archipelago.
“There is one more way for us to enter
the Arctic. My first working day in
the office of the head of the NASC ended
with a Skype conference with the
Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Andrii
Shevchenko. Canada has a dozen Arctic
stations, but they do not have one in the
Antarctic. Our situation is the opposite.
That is why cooperation seems to be
promising. I think that we will sign an
agreement with the Canadians this summer.
To begin with, it will deal with exchanges
so that our scientists will be able
to work at Canadian Arctic stations and
vice versa. It can develop further afterwards.”
● ABOUT TENSIONS NEAR
THE POLES
Let us return to the Antarctic. In
one of your earlier comments, you mentioned
that keeping presence there was
also important because access to its
fossil resources would eventually be
opened.
“The present system of agreements
on the Antarctic will remain in force till
2048. It is not known if it will be extended.
If I had to bet on it, I think I
would bet two to one that it will be ex-
Kingdom of Denmark, has not one Arctic
base which would be purely scientific
in purpose, as they are all officially
naval ones.
“The Antarctic is protected so far by
a system of international treaties, and it
is like space, a common domain of humanity
for now. But as soon as this system
of treaties expires, a struggle will begin
to determine who and how will extract
something there. Incidentally, if
this were to happen today, no Ukrainian
company would be able to compete with
Western companies for extracting anything
there. However, Ukraine had
enormous geological exploration experience,
particularly on the sea shelf, so
potentially we are one of the players.
“We fish a little in the Antarctic
these days. Incidentally, the Ukrainian
Soviet Socialist Republic, if listed separately
from the Soviet Union, was
among the Top 10 fishing nations in the
world. Today we are not even in the
Top 50, but in the Antarctic, our positions
have been preserved a bit. There is
krill trawler More Spivdruzhnosti working
there. Previously, she was registered
in Sevastopol, but after the occupation
of Crimea she re-registered in Kyiv. By
size, she is the second-largest krill
trawler in the world. She was built back
in the Soviet time, when they loved big
things. There are also three small Chinese-built
longline vessels that catch
tasty and scarce toothfish.
“Nobody prevents us from increasing
catches. Any Ukrainian businessman
● “THE ENTIRE POLAR
PROGRAM OF CHINA RELIES
ON AN ICEBREAKER WHICH
WAS BUILT IN KHERSON”
You have said that the NASC received
about the two million euros
this year. How far will you get with
this money?
“This year, they have allocated money
for capital spending for the first
time in many years, and this is not my
achievement. That is, it will not go to
fund current repairs, but capital ones.
There is a bit of money for the purchase
of scientific equipment as well.
“Looking two steps forward, when
we have overcome the current problems,
then, firstly, we will need a ship.
The history of our station is closely
connected with the history of the research
fleet of Ukraine. The British
sold their station for one pound, that is,
they gave it away. There were many nations
willing to accept that gift. But
Ukraine demonstrated that on gaining
independence, we got 36 ships from the
Soviet research fleet. That is, we were
able to provide both the logistics of the
station and the research in the polar seas
with our fleet. It was on this basis that
we were chosen as winners.
“Over these 22 years, we have preserved
the station, but the fate of the
fleet...”
Only one ship out of those 36 is now
in repairable condition.
“Yes. I hope that Ostap Semerak
[Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources.
– Author] will be as good as his
word. He promised to allocate money for
the repair of this ship this year. But it is
still unsuitable for the Antarctic, it can
only do research in the Black Sea. It has
one engine, while one needs a ship with
two main engines to go to the Antarctic.
“We have no Antarctic-capable ships
left. The last one was Ernst Krenkel,
which got scrapped in 2006.”
How did it happen that the scientific
fleet was essentially destroyed? Did
they not allocate funds for its maintenance?
“Exactly. And when a ship does not
sail and gets no repairs, she starts to
rust. After a while, it makes no sense to
invest in her, so it is easier to sell her as
scrap.
“Some ships of our fleet have been
stolen. They were hired out to dubious
companies, and then arrested in thirdparty
ports over debts of these companies
that were charterers, not owners, and
sold at auction.
KYIV, NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF UKRAINE, FEBRUARY 2016. A BOY EXAMINES THE “ACADEMICIAN VERNADSKY” MOCKUP. YEVHEN DYKYI
ASSERTS: “THE LOCATION OF OUR STATION IS SOMEWHAT UNIQUE AND VALUABLE. WE ARE ON THE VERY FRONTLINE OF CLIMATIC CHANGES”
general, we are tied to land, because we
work at sea only near the coast, with
scubas or from small motor boats. We do
not work in the ocean. If we get a ship,
we will have another direction added as
we will start to work on the Southern
Ocean.”
Until we have a research fleet, how
can research be expanded?
“Ukraine benefits from the location
of our station. It is somewhat unique
and valuable. We are not located in the
high Antarctic. Sixty-five degrees south
is above the Antarctic Circle, we are on
the very frontline of climatic changes. In
our station’s neighborhood, glaciers are
melting very fast, we are on the edge of
the ozone hole, as its edges are pulsating,
and we are below it for some years, and
then below protected atmosphere for
others. This provides great opportunities
and Antarctic research. We do no research
in the Arctic. It is wrong.
“Why do we need to do polar research
at all? When a physician examines
a patient, first of all they take the pulse.
And this can be done on the arm and
neck. The polar regions are two pulse areas
of our planet. There, a number of
processes that affect the entire planet,
including Ukraine, can be measured
much faster, more precisely and even
cheaper. These include changes of climate,
the magnetosphere, the upper
layers of the atmosphere and the near
space.
“Comparative studies in the Arctic
and the Antarctic are very productive.
Some Ukrainian scientists are determined
to do so even now. Kharkiv radio
astronomers have one antenna installed
at the Academician Vernadsky Station,
tended for another 50 years. We will see
how it will turn out. According to the
Antarctic Treaty presently in force, only
fishing and krill harvesting are allowed,
while extraction of mineral resources
is prohibited. If the treaty does
not get extended, a great fight for the
Antarctic will begin, like that we are already
seeing starting in the Arctic.
“Yes, the Arctic is becoming one of
the internationally tense regions. Russia
tries to reserve a considerable part of
the region for itself and makes stupid
symbolic gestures, such as placing a
Russian flag on the seafloor on the
North Pole. Other Arctic countries are
increasing their military presence as
well. Canada, for example, is concerned
about Russia’s actions and has begun a
serious program for the defense of the
Arctic. Greenland, which belongs to the
has the right to buy a ship and extract
living resources in the Antarctic within
the overall quota set by the Scientific
Committee for the Conservation of
Antarctic Living Resources.”
Do you already know when you
will be able to get to Antarctica?
“Hopefully, it will happen in the end
of March or early April. I will formally
go there as director of the Antarctic Center
to take possession of the property. In
particular, I have to make an inventory
of the station. But I am a biologist, after
all. All scientists are crazy, so now I
am already designing a short microbiology
program for myself. I hope to
grab some microbiological samples there
and process them in Ukraine.
“Overall, this center is the most serious
commission I have received from
the nation to date.”

6
No.14 MARCH 1, 2018
CULT URE
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
By Vasyl ILNYTSKYI, Uzhhorod
Talented Ukrainian artist, architect,
graphic artist, and painter, corresponding
member of the National
Academy of Arts of Ukraine, People’s
Artist of Ukraine, Associate Professor
of the Transcarpathian Academy of Arts,
head of the Transcarpathian branch of the
National Union of Artists (NUA) of Ukraine,
laureate of the Bokshai-Erdeli Regional Art
Prize, participant of all-Ukrainian and
international art exhibitions Borys KUZMA
celebrated his 60th anniversary on
February 22. I talked with this highly
talented artist about architecture, painting,
and life in an artistic family.
● “EVERY FIRST-YEAR
STUDENT WAS
‘ALLOCATED’ A BUILDING
IN RYNOK SQUARE”
Mr. Kuzma, when did you realize that
out of thousands of career paths, it was fine
arts alone that was yours?
“I was born to a teachers’ family, as both
my father and my mother worked for almost
all of their lives at the eight-year school of the
village of Verkhnii Koropets in the
Mukacheve raion. My father was a teacher of
the Ukrainian language, and my mother
taught biology. When I was still at school, I
did not envision becoming an artist yet, although
I had an interest in painting.
“When attending grades 7-8, I really
loved the works of Fenimore Cooper, his Indian
characters, whom I enthusiastically
copied with pencil. I did it preserving the scale
and true ratios. My parents noticed that and
brought me to the night art school in
Mukacheve. I came to attend it twice a week.
I also took music lessons at the time. I had a
very good music teacher, but he fell victim of
political repression at some point in 1967 or
1968...
“In high school, I was fascinated by architecture:
I read the magazine Ogonyok, from
which I drew information on contemporary architectural
projects being built in Moscow,
New York, and other major cities of the
world. Under this influence, I began to draw
houses and other structures myself. My parents
asked: ‘Do you want to be an architect,
maybe?’ In order to get acquainted with that
profession, they brought me to Uzhhorod, to
the DIPROMISTO design organization’s office.
There I saw huge drawings, was very impressed
by them, and was fired up with a desire
to study and become an architect. The
family began to discuss where I should go to
“Vasyl Slipak Park is sure to be!”
An action
group
of actors and
some Kyiv city
councilors are
convinced of
it. But what is
standing in
the way?
Between the easel and the... drawing board
study, because there were less than two
months left until the admissions process was
to start...
“Lviv Polytechnic Institute was the most
promising destination, but one needed solid
knowledge to get there, so they started looking
for a tutor. Our relative, my mother’s
cousin, artist Mykhailo Mytryk volunteered
to act as one. He literally led me by hand to the
Uzhhorod Palace of Pioneers, where we took
two plaster heads... He showed me the basics
of drawing, told about the light and shadow,
the tones and halftones, the composition, the
perspective and ordered me to work... My efforts
were not in vain, as I entered Lviv
Polytechnic on the first attempt, although the
competition for places was quite high in
1975.
“I studied under renowned professors
who had seen the world’s architectural masterpieces
firsthand, such as Professor Roman
Lypka who lectured on the history of architecture
and Professor Viktor Kravtsov who
taught architectural design. In practice, it was
the latter teacher who made me into an architect.
“The Institute had an actively working
student design bureau. There, students did
drawings, revised some of them, tried their
hands at the craft and... earned their first
money. The friendly atmosphere that prevailed
there, the spirit of creativity, communication
with colleagues – all that became
a great professional school. There I began to
paint in parallel, because many architects
were painting, as it was felt to be stylish.”
What impression was the architecture
of Lviv, its artistic life making on you?
By Mykola HRYTSENKO
The Day has more than once written
about Vasyl Slipak, Hero of Ukraine, soloist
at the Paris National Opera, volunteer, participant
in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine
(nom de guerre “Myth”), who was killed in action
near Luhanske.
A year ago Ukrainian volunteer musicians,
members of the NGO “Music Battalion,”
suggested laying out Vasyl Slipak Culture
and Art Park in Kyiv. This park is to be
a place of cultural and artistic recreation for
Kyivites and numerous guests of our capital,
where Ukrainian musicians will perform
their best numbers.
Everybody, including the Kyiv authorities,
seemed to favor this idea. But now, a few
months on, the initiators begin to come
across obstacles, which clearly reflects the
commercial interest of some unknown
builders, – the small area on Andriivskyi
Uzviz proved to be a very tasty morsel. And
although the Kyiv City Council’s land commission
has supported the initiative to assign
land for laying out the park, its ecological
commission has shelved the idea.
Borys Kuzma discusses his path to art
and the Transcarpathian school
A MARKET IN FLORENCE
so came from the work of senior year student,
now renowned artist Ihor Panchyshyn from
the Ivano-Frankivsk region. We came together
and felt the spirit of freedom as we
were discussing films of Andrei Tarkovsky,
which it was semi-legal to watch at the time,
Serhii VASYLIUK, front man
of the band “Tin’ Sontsia”:
“Vasyl Slipak showed by his example an
incredible will of Ukrainians to defend
their native land. As a volunteer fighter, he
demonstrated an example of patriotism and
self-sacrifice to many, particularly our
young people. The Vasyl Slipak Art Park in
Kyiv can become a rallying center for
Ukrainian artists.”
Viktor KRYVENKO, member
of the Ukrainian Parliament:
“It is not a political initiative. So it was
easy for me to collect signatures of 123 MPs
from different factions of the Verkhovna Rada
of Ukraine in its support. Still more were
ready to sign, but it is more than enough to
show mass-scale support from the parliamentary
corps. Some are asking: why did they
decide to lay out Vasyl Slipak Park in precisely
this place? Because the art community made
this decision! It is by far the best and most colorful
place the personality of a prominent
opera singer deserves. Moreover, Ukrainian
songs and music will sound more harmoniously
in the cozy atmosphere of Andriivskyi
Uzviz. This is the function the art park is supposed
to perform.”
Yurii SYROTIUK, member
of the Kyiv City Council:
“Unfortunately, land questions are too
much associated with corruption. Yet as far
back as last October, leaders of all the Kyiv
Council factions promised to support this initiative.
It was decided that the public utility
organization Kyivzelenbud would draw up
and submit a decision for a discussion. But it
drew up no documents at all about Vasyl Slipak
Park. As a councilor, I had to move a draft
decision by myself and put it through all the
commissions.
“Every first-year student was ‘allocated’
a building in Rynok Square and studied it:
measured it, did research on its state of preservation,
and drew ratio models. Then we had watercolor
practice lessons. They took us to the
suburbs of Briukhovychi and Vynnyky, we
painted the historic quarters of Lviv, and did
geodetic practice lessons in the Ternopil oblast.
Studying was very interesting!
“It was in Lviv that I first visited artistic
exhibitions. An exhibition of Akop Akopian
made a great impression on me; he was a
famous artist whose work I was fascinated
with. It featured a graphic painting style, a
restrained color scheme, and very elegant
works. Many of my first paintings were
made under his influence. Some influence aland
taking a lively part in creative discussions.
All this left an indelible mark on our
minds and souls. I came to Uzhhorod with this
stock of knowledge.”
How about your job?
“I transferred to the Koopproect firm of
the Transcarpathian Oblast Consumer Union
in 1982. We designed restaurants, cafes,
shops. Then Vasyl Hisem, who led the PMK-
96 firm, poached me to his advertising center.
Vasyl Svaliavchyk, Vasyl Hanhur, Taras
Danylych, and other current celebrities were
already working there when I came. I and
Sasha Pazukhanych started making designs
for each individual object, there were interesting
ideas, original ads. I then made my first
ad on the glass. Subsequently, I joined Dany-
lych and Yurii Dykun in the Donetsk oblast
where we decorated a large object in Transcarpathian
style in the village of Kabania near
the oblast center: we made signage, hammering
work, and monumental paintings
there. All this has left vivid memories.”
“The ecological commission did not approve
this project because the Land Resources
Department had raised some objections.
Accordingly, the ecological commission
shelved the draft decision – it
was not discussed. But when I went to the
land commission, it unanimously supported
the project, albeit tentatively, under
pressure. For I said that Slipak Park
was sure to be set up, and any attempts to
resist will only tarnish the reputation of
those who will be doing so.
“The key complaint about the project
is that we want to lay out a park on the plot
of land that is supposed to be built over. So,
the city authorities must change the purpose
of a few hundred square meters of land
and write down that it is a recreational
ground. I think it will be to the benefit of
Kyiv if at least a small plot of land on Andriivskyi
Uzviz becomes a park, rather than
another highrise.”
Dmytro PAVLYCHKO, writer,
Hero of Ukraine:
“I am a conscientious member of the
community that initiated laying out Vasyl
Slipak Park in this place of Kyiv. We
must struggle for this sacred cause –
struggle all together: the public, artists,
MPs and councilors, politicians, writers,
and journalists.”
***
An electronic petition has been registered
on the Kyiv City Council website
in support of laying out Vasyl Slipak
Culture and Art Park in downtown Kyiv.
As we were going to press, over 900 people
had signed it. A total 10,000 signatures
are needed. The collection of signatures
began on February 6 and will continue
for 70 days more.
● “WE HAVE ALREADY MADE
SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS”
When did your final drift from the
drawing board to the easel start?
“In the mid-1980s, I realized that it was
time to publicly display my artworks. I got
a lot of them at that time. I had my first exhibition
in the Forum club cafe of creative
youth in Uzhhorod in 1984. Its organizer was
Vadym Kovach, who took care of talented
youth for the Young Communist League.
Then the authorities feared freethinkers in
all spheres, and even more so in the arts,
therefore, Kovach’s help was very timely. It
made many different impressions. I recall the
words of Ernest Kontratovych who visited
the exhibition. He liked two of my watercolors,
one of which I keep to this day. He
said that they were very interesting works.
My first plein airs started then as well. I traveled
to Synevyr with Kontratovych, Ivan
Ilko, and Semen Malchytskyi. At the same
time, a few young artists began to form into
a group: Taras Usyk, Volodymyr Bazan,
Volodymyr Pavlyshyn. We began to gather
more frequently in the open air, discussed
creative ideas, and shaped our visions.
“In 1989, the chief architect of Uzhhorod
Mykhailo Tomchanii invited me to serve as his
deputy, I agreed and somewhat disengaged
from painting. There were many orders for
private structures. I was fascinated by this
work, participated in the development of
detailed planning for the historic central
quarter of Uzhhorod.
“I joined the Transcarpathian branch of
the NUA of Ukraine, which was then headed
by Volodymyr Mykyta, and was elected
chairman of the regional branch of that
union in 1999. The first three years were difficult:
constant inspections, salary arrears,
and a lack of orders... The most important
objective was to preserve the team and traditions,
because we, in fact, are rich because
we perceive each artist as a creative individual...
“Our team is strong and powerful. We
have already made significant progress, there
have been achievements. Constant participation
in exhibitions, trips abroad, extensive
experience of our masters which we have inherited...
But there are many mercantile
things related to everyday life. This generates
a lot of problems, and I see that people have
started to communicate less over the last two
or three years, there is no openness. It is good
that the youth association of artists works at
the union. Creative communication with
young people supplies us with energy, ideas,
and designs. Today, the world is completely
different, and art must reflect the realities of
the present.”
What are the prospects of the Transcarpathian
school of painting when taking
into account modern trends?
“I believe that any school cannot but notice
what is happening next to it. We live in
the real world and must respond to challenges.
Moreover, the changes take place
very quickly. We change our way of life, its
conditions, and sometimes its meaning. For
me, the Transcarpathian school of painting
is the source that should be constantly full.
Each pebble is a fragment of the general picture.
The school is formed through contests,
exhibitions, plein airs, and communication.”
● “A PERMANENT SEARCH
FOR THE IDEAL MAKES
FOR DISCUSSIONS AND
DISPUTES”
Your wife Viktoria is also an artist.
How are creative personalities getting along
under a shared roof? Is your son Borys fond
of drawing?
“It is not that easy to share a home environment
with a talented person who seeks
to improve themselves and move towards a
specific purpose. A permanent search for the
ideal makes for discussions and disputes.
Each of us has their own vision of the role
of art in human life. Sometimes this leads to
misunderstandings, but in the end, common
sense always prevails. In spite of everything,
I value my wife’s independence and her
right to hold opinions of her own, because
the art is only interesting when it is unique
and personal. Her presence by my side in the
studio always inspires me to look for new discoveries
and finds. Our son Borys is always
present in this creative space, and, undoubtedly,
he is becoming filled with art. He
is also an active, inquisitive child who often
imitates his parents. We hold a great hope
that he will grow into a good person, a true
man who will never be indifferent to art.”

WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
CULT URE No.14 MARCH 1, 2018 7
By Dmytro DESIATERYK, The Day,
Berlin – Kyiv
Created with the support of the
Ukrainian State Film Agency
and with the participation of
Poland and Macedonia, the
feature-length debut film by
Marysia Nikitiuk was entered in the
festival’s Panorama competition
program. The premiere was held at
the Cinemaxx cinema.
The story of the five-year-old rebel
Vitka, her teenaged cousin Larysa and
the latter’s lover, a young hoodlum
called Scar, unfolds in the Ukrainian
sticks. After the death of her father,
Larysa faces the need to urgently do
something about her future; she wants
to escape from the provincial swamp,
but Scar has different ideas about it...
Marysia Nikitiuk (born in Kyiv in
1986) is a Ukrainian scriptwriter and
director. She graduated from
Shevchenko National University of
Kyiv’s Institute of Journalism in 2007.
Nikitiuk went on to receive a master’s
degree in theater studies at Karpenko-
Kary National University of Theater,
Cinema, and Television in Kyiv, with
her graduation work dealing with traditional
and contemporary Japanese
theater. She worked as a journalist, essayist,
theater critic, authored a series
of stories published in the literary almanac
Sviaty Volodymyr, as well as
plays Dachas, Bears for Masha and
Girlie Joys, which were presented via
public readings within the framework
of the Laboratory of Modern Drama
project and during the Week of the Actual
Play festival in Kyiv, which she cofounded.
Bears for Masha placed first
at the Drama.ua contest in Lviv in
2010. She also penned short stories Die:
A Story of Love; Kawasaki Ninja; Libraries
of Unwritten Books; Myth;
Bitches, as well as founded the theatrical
portal Teatre.com.ua, where
she wrote about the Ukrainian and international
theater from 2007-12. Nikitiuk
participated in the film project
Ukraine, Goodbye! Films that she made
scripts for were entered in international
festivals in Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand.
When the Trees Fall became the
first Ukrainian feature film in the
Panorama contest in many years. We
met the director the day after the
Berlin premiere.
What did the work on the film begin
with?
“My childhood memories. One situation
became the proximate cause. At
some point in 2012, I was going home
from the Odesa Film Festival with a
friend of mine. I was telling him a story
from my childhood and I accidentally
started adding items that had not been
there. And at the end of the trip, it was
already a narrative sitting on the border
of truth and fabrication.
On returning, I
realized that now I
could write it down.
But the first impetus
was to explain my own
traumatic reactions to
this world through the
story of my young
self.”
How did you come
to filmmaking in general?
“Indirectly... I
have had no proper
training as a director,
and I have not had
teachers in the classical
sense either, as they
have been rather mentors;
for example, I
met them in Vlad
Troitskyi’s theater and
drama milieu called the
Laboratory of Modern
Drama; then we joined
Volodymyr Tykhyi in
writing scripts for the
project Ukraine, Goodbye!
I became friends
with Volodymyr
Voitenko there. He motivated
me to start
Marysia NIKITIUK:
“I want to say something about
humanity with every story I tell”
The world
premiere of the
Ukrainian film
When the Trees
Fall was held at
the 68th Berlin
International
Film Festival
making films because I was always
saying that other films were not done
as I would have liked them to be, so he
told me: ‘It will always be like that, so
you better go and make it yourself.’ He
provided me with films and books. I
went to scriptwriting and directorial
workshops.
“And in the aesthetic sense, I am
very close to Lars von Trier, I have
fallen in love with the films of Bela
Tarr [a leading Hungarian director. –
Author], Roy Andersson [a well-known
Swedish director. – Author], and
Hayao Miyazaki [an illustrious Japanese
animator. – Author]. I watched
their works through and through to
try and get ‘how is it done.’ So they are
also my teachers.”
What impression did the invitation
to Berlin make on you?
“I was astounded. I really wanted to
go to Berlin. I applied to the festival’s
talent campus for four consecutive
years, and they finally accepted me this
year, and then suddenly accepted my
entry for the Panorama program as
well. Out of all the festivals I visited
two years ago, Berlin impressed me the
most. There are many strange films
here, a lot of different activities revolving
around the film art. We got the
message on Christmas Day, and I took
it as a gift for the holiday.”
What makes for a good script?
“First of all, you need a certain
stock of emotional ups and downs. I am
an emotional person myself, and it affects
me most... A character can reveal
themselves both negatively and positively;
here he is a scumbag, and suddenly
he performs a powerful humanist
act. When I hear or read such stories,
I immediately think how they
can be developed. Also, it is very important
for me to tell something about
humanity in the plot. That is, on the
one hand, it is about emotions, and on
the other, about scientific interest.”
Why is scientific?
“I read a lot of works on astrophysics,
neurobiology, and anthropol-
ogy. Unfortunately, I cannot do any of
it professionally, but I am very interested
in it. One way or another, all the
sciences tell about people. Just now, I
am reading an anthropological treatise
and discovering for myself why people
behave like they do, who we are, what
we do with the planet, with ourselves.
This intersection of my hobby and emotionality
leads to the fact that I want to
tell something new about a character,
something that I learned from experience
or from books. I have even ideas
for sci-fi movies. If only I had the
funding...”
The first people you meet on the set
are the actors. How do you work with
them?
“I am not really dictatorial, but
when something goes wrong, I can
switch to the fury mode. I allow them
to improvise, I had very lively remarks
because I worked in a documentary
theater, staged a play with Natalka
Vorozhbyt. On the other hand, I was
fearful when I had to deal with so
many performers, so we rehearsed a lot
and went through the text again and
again, and the theatrical director
helped in this as well on his own. Another
challenge is to bring actors of different
generations to one level of existence,
since, for example, every old
artist has their own theater, where
they have played for 25 years, while the
young ones had different teachers,
and this also leaves its mark. I said on
the set: ‘You can move words about, or
add new ones, as long as the message
stays intact.’ Sincerity has been preserved.”
Now that you have finally looked
at the final version, what is your picture
about?
“Still, it is about the need to be true
to oneself. To be oneself. It is a little banal,
but I was making the film about it.
And about freedom, of course.”
Honestly, have you succeeded in
everything with it?
“Of course not. I have failed in a lot
of ways, but I am resigned to this, I
have decided to stop nagging myself,
and will correct my mistakes already in
the next project.”
What do you expect from participation
in the Panorama program?
“All that I expected I have already
received. I dreamed of getting to a
good festival and bringing to the premiere
as many of my actors and team
members as possible. For most of them,
this is their first visit abroad, their first
flight. So, my expectations have been
met. We may win a prize or not, but living
in hopes for one would not be very
reasonable.”
What is missing in the Ukrainian
cinema now?
“Most of my friends who are young
and middle-aged directors lack realization
opportunities. Many have scripts
for feature-length films ready. I am
sure their next films will all be better
than the previous ones, and from an aesthetic
point of view, everything is fine
with us. We just need practice, and to
avoid the transient festival fads. Also,
it seems to me that we do not have to appeal
to the masses at any cost, because
if we do not specialize the audience,
then, just like the TV is already doing,
we will bring it down to the lowest level.
Some poorly made productions may
do better in the box office than higherquality
movies, but it is precisely higher-quality
movies that have longerterm
prospects. People need to reduce
their appetites a little and build a diverse
and high-quality film industry.”
What will you do next?
“I will make Serafima, a film
adaptation of the namesake story by
Oles Ulianenko. We won the 10th
pitching contest of the State Film
Agency, and are currently negotiating
with French producers. The girl Sonia,
who played in When the Trees Fall,
will play in the new film as well. If
everything keeps going as it does
now, we will start principal photography
in the spring of 2019, and then
we will see. I hope this movie will be
better than the previous one.”

8
No.14 MARCH 1, 2018
TIMEO U T
WWW.DAY.KIEV.UA
Viktor Zaretsky’s “scales of fate”
THE LEGENDARY PAIR OF SIXTIER ARTISTS – VIKTOR
ZARETSKY AND ALLA HORSKA
By Tetiana POLISHCHUK,
photo illustrations by Ruslan KANIUKA,
The Day
Let us recall that the exhibition
“50 Shades of Viktor Zaretsky” is
displayed at the Museum of the
Kyiv History till March 1.
According to art critic Olesia
Avramenko, she wrote her monographic
study of the work of Zaretsky (1925-90)
following a thorough analysis of the
master’s work and recalling her personal
encounters with the artist from 1987-90,
and it also discusses archival finds and
interviews with colleagues and friends of
the artist... The fate of this extraordinary
master was dramatic, although it was
impossible to predict in the beginning.
Throughout his creative life, Zaretsky
worked boldly searching for new ways
and changing his approaches in the realm
of painting. He studied at Kyiv Art
Institute in 1947-53, initially as a Repin
scholarship holder, and later a Stalin one.
He painted his graduate work under the
guidance of Serhii Hryhoriev and received
excellent marks. After graduating from the
institute, he experienced a creative crisis.
Why did it happen? Even Zaretsky himself
could not tell for sure...
Photo from the Zaretskys’ archive
Art critic Olesia
Avramenko told
The Day about
the outstanding
artist; she
authored two
books about him
Thanks to his talent, perseverance,
and insane efficiency, Zaretsky mastered
perfectly the craft of realistic painting, but
found it hard to create paintings reflecting
so-called “social” orders of the time. He
could not and did not want to write portraits
of “helmsmen” and “guides.” Therefore, he
began to look for a topic that would be close
to his mind and in tune with the time. This
was how he chose first the “miner” topic,
and then the “peasant” one.
In the 1960s, Zaretsky and his wife,
artist and human rights activist Alla Horska,
found themselves riding the crest of a
wave of artistic life, communication, and
recognition. They were members of the
Suchasnyk Club of Creative Youth. “The
time was very beautiful, and it ended very
tragically. It was like a veritable detective
story,” the artist said afterwards... Zaretsky
did monumental art as well. As he himself
put it: “I went to buy a box of matches,
but ended up stuck for 18 years.” At
first, he worked in the field with his wife,
since Horska was a monumental artist. It
was a wonderful artistic union. Both were
strong, lively, and talented, both had
countless creative ideas for the future.
They collaborated with other artists to create
mosaics from smalt and ceramics, such
as Prometheus, Earth, Fire, and others in
High School No. 47 of Donetsk, or Tree of
Life and Dreambird in Ukraina Restaurant
in Mariupol.
The sudden and mysterious deaths of
his wife and father abruptly changed the
life of the artist, dragged him into depression,
and made him increasingly reclusive.
However, he continued to work tirelessly
from morning till evening, immersed
himself in painting and did not allow
himself to stop, since painting had become
his life... Zaretsky’s works, although
accepted for exhibitions, were displayed
with caution in the times that came after
the “thaw,” in the 1970s and 1980s.
● “HIS BRIGHT EYES, BROAD
NOSE, AND SHORT ‘KHE-
KHE’ LAUGHTER BROUGHT
TO MY MIND THE PAGAN
GOD PAN”
“When visiting art exhibitions in the
mid-1980s, I repeatedly came across dazzlingly
beautiful and reliant on unexpected
artistic language landscapes, genre compositions,
portraits by somebody called Viktor
Zaretsky. They impressed me, awoke the
imagination, and made me scared,” Avramenko
recalled. “His female portraits were
especially attractive. The artist depicted his
models as princesses from childhood dreams
or as Egyptian queens in the paintings of the
New Kingdom era, or like women in the portraits
by Diego Velazquez, as well as in the
mysticalpaintingsofPre-Raphaelitesorpictures
by Gustav Klimt. Their clothes and accessories
were brightly decorative. They
werepicturedagainstthebackgroundofmosaic-like
scattered gems or whimsical patterns
of flowers and ornamental motifs. All
this was absolutely atypical for the thendominantartofsocialistrealism!Thecreator
of pictures which had so impressed my
imagination was Zaretsky. When I asked
about it, I hit a wall of misunderstanding:
‘You do not know Zaretsky?! That is good.
Why do you need to know him? He was Alla
Horska’s husband. What? Why are you
unconcerned? She was killed in 1970. It was
a terrible and still unclear story. They say
thathekilled herhimself. Healso headedthe
Club of Creative Youth, where nationalists
gathered in the 1960s. Now he is married to
Maia, the daughter of his teacher, Serhii
Hryhoriev. He has done well out of it... He
livesinKoncha-Ozerna,almostlikeahermit.
Zaretsky is a strange man, and he paints terrible
pictures. He is not worth your attention.
Leave him alone...’ In this way, all the
life of the man who was not yet known to me
then was outlined in a few harsh sentences.
But the warnings of my wise friends went
unheeded...
“I was astonished after my first faceto-face
meeting with the artist. The man
who depicted in his paintings the precious
beauty of herbs, flowers, heavens, and
portrayed the unreal beauties with the
names of real women – that man looked
simple and ungroomed, wearing a shabbylooking
cotton-wool jacket and an old worn
knitted hat. His bright eyes, broad nose,
and short ‘khe-khe’ laughter brought to my
mind the pagan god Pan.
“Zaretsky spoke emotionally, excitedly,
with incomplete sentences. The language
was similar to bits of some text violently
pulled out of context: with ellipses
in front, at the end and, repeatedly, in the
middle of a sentence. Only after hours of
conversations I learned to bring together
and link into logical phrases these torn-out
pieces of meanings that literally bled, to
add them to the general canvas of the
artist’s life, which at that time was, invisibly
for us, coming to its end.
“These omissions were concentrated
clots of emotional torment and unanswered
questions. Zaretsky’s soul was
hurting all the time since the end of 1970
due to fear, resentment, and unbelievable
injury, which he could not completely
overcome till the very end of his days. That
was why he burned out prematurely...”
● “IT WAS AS IF HE HAD MET
A TWIN BROTHER, WHO
HE WAS SEPARATED FROM
IN TIME AND SPACE”
“Ordinary spectators often call Zaretsky
the ‘Ukrainian Gustav Klimt’ (an Austrian
artist of the Secession age). You
know, when I began to study deeper the
work of Zaretsky, I saw that the artistic language
of the Secession was really extremely
congenial to his nature,” Avramenko emphasized.
“The refinement of composition
choices, eroticism, and philosophical approach,
which were the basis of the concept
of the Secession style in general and the
work of Klimt in particular captivated
Zaretsky for some time. The close affinity
of his own views and worldview with the
work of Klimt was very impressive. The
artist had the feeling that he had found a
long lost thing, it was as if he had met a twin
brother, who he was separated from in
time and space. Everything seemed to be not
accidental to him. Zaretsky saw Klimt not
as a guru, but as a fellow fighter and colleague
who came to similar conclusions and
achievements in his work, only with other
accents emphasized and other nuances revealed,
as determined by his age and social
system. Zaretsky saw in Klimt his own alter
ego, found in him something that he had
no chance to experience, namely freedom of
creativity without ideological limitations...
“The artist often turned to female
images. In portraits by Zaretsky, the
woman appears to be what nature and
world poetry created her as: beautiful and
mysterious, feminine and attractive, passionate
and desirable, a diamond in need of
a setting... The artist generously created
that charming ‘setting’ in which each of
them lives in unrealized dreams...”
● “THE ECOLOGY
OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT”
“To cover the work of Zaretsky in a
brief description is very difficult, since his
achievements were too rich and diverse,
and his legacy is perceived as one impressive
whole. It can be depicted as several
lines developed in parallel, which are one
way or another interconnected and firmly
intertwined,” Avramenko continued. “The
master’s numerous shelves hold a lot of
works still unknown to the public. The fact
that we have not seen them, as well as many
works by other masters, has distorted the
development of culture and our ideas
about art. The ecology of the human spirit
can be seen as one of the leading themes
of his works...
“Zaretsky was one of the first Ukrainian
modernists and postmodernists, the
creator of the Ukrainian neo-Secession
based on the traditions of Ukrainian folk
and decorative and applied arts. He taught
many people who are famous painters
nowadays. The master was posthumously
awarded the Shevchenko Prize. Zaretsky’s
works are now centerpieces of museums
and private collections. For instance,
20 paintings by the artist were sold
at the Christie’s auction in 1990. They included
the magnificent Portrait of Raisa
Nedashkivska in a Golden Cape and the Art
triptych. Nowadays, Zaretsky’s paintings
are treasures for which famous world collectors
compete...
“The artist’s creative nature was wide
open to all the diversity of culture, both
past and present, and free in its usage of
artistic styles, systems, techniques, and
means of expression, as it reflected and reimagined
all of this in original and highly
individual ways.
“Spiritual strength and faithfulness to
the cause are important attributes of true
talent and exalted fate. And when we
needed to look back at the path we had gone
down, to ‘gather stones,’ it turned out that
tragic losses and suffering had not broken
his personality, but had actually benefited
him.”
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