Nation commonly associated with hot women, Chornobyl and Orange Revolution.
Despite 20 years as a state, the world still doesn’t seem to know much about Ukraine, judging from its image abroad.
Have the world’s stereotypes and superficial understanding advanced beyond the label of vodka-drinking, ex-Soviet farmland where the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded in 1986?
Unfortunately, not much, although Ukraine commands a lot of new attention in the following areas: Orange Revolution, sports icons, Euro 2012 soccer championship and girls, girls, girls – either ideal femmes or money-grubbing Internet brides and prostitutes.
The Kyiv Post compiled its unscientific top 10 list of things the world knows about Ukraine:
Nothing
That’s right. Most of the world knows nothing. Vasyl Myroshnychenko, partner at CFC Consulting Group, said his company conducted a poll on Ukraine’s image abroad at the government’s request. The results: 64 percent of people questioned are not familiar with Ukraine or could recite only a few facts from the news.
As Kim Oksanen, a 41-year old Finnish civil engineer said: “People know only that Ukraine is close to Russia.”
Nuclear disaster
“I associate Ukraine with Eastern Europe, nuclear power and the Chornobyl thing of course,” said Anna Antoniou, a Ph.D. student from Cyprus, born a year after the 1986 catastrophe. It’s not all bad, however, especially when nations such as Japan want Ukraine’s expertise in responding to such disasters.
An elderly couple in a village near Chornobyl enjoy a meal and homemade vodka, wine and beer during a dinner. Unfortunately, the international image of Ukraine is still dominated by unpleasant facts of life: the high-rate of alcoholism and the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion that contaminated much of Europe with radiation. (AFP PHOTO/ Sergei SUPINSKY)
Soviet past, present
The communist past is still with Ukraine.
Kenneth Wong, 29, a civil servant from Hong Kong who has never been to Ukraine, has the image of “an ex-Communist state with a Communist landscape in architecture and culture.”
Finish citizen Fabio Ferrari notes a Soviet hangover in the people: “I’m associating Ukraine with the Soviet Union. I saw it a lot, too, in the customer service. The waitresses and people working at stores might not smile and be so nice. I have seen the same kind of behavior in other ex-communist countries.”
Is it part of Russia?
“After 20 years in the region, I am still confronted with surprise, in the United Kingdom, when it is announced ‘are you still working in Russia… Kyiv isn’t it?” says David Payne, director of a Kyiv marketing agency, adding that even original Ukrainian borsch and Cossacks are considered Russian for many people.
Vodka diet
When asked about Ukrainian cuisine, most foreigners are likely to say: vodka and meat. They may have a point. According to the recent World Health Organization report, Ukrainians are the world’s fifth heaviest drinkers. “My image of Ukrainian/Russian trains is that everybody is drinking vodka. Ukrainians have a reputation as hard vodka drinkers,” says Fabio Ferrari from Finland.
Beautiful women
An Internet search for Ukraine will bring up tons of dating agencies and sex-tour advertisements. Every man seems to be charmed by the image of incredibly beautiful, feminine and good-tempered Ukrainian women.
They are thought to be always overdressed, wearing high heels and exotic hairstyles.
“Ukrainian brides” are also known to be money-seeking and illogically attracted to men from abroad. Some foreigners, like Aina Adebayo, a student from Nigeria, add that they are “easy to get,” unlike women from back home. In fact, “a Ukrainian girl in some countries is a pseudonym for call girl,” said Paula Walker of Texas.
At least people aren’t indifferent about Ukrainian women.
Sports: Boxing, soccer
The most famous Ukrainians in the world are not politicians or artists, but athletes. According to the CFC poll, the top Ukrainian celebrity is football player Andrey Shevchenko (26 percent know him), closely followed by the Klitschko boxing brothers, Vitali and Wladimir, with 24 percent and Olympic champion Sergey Bubka (7 percent).
Ukrainian-born Hollywood actress Mila Jovovich, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yanukovych are lesser-known.
The association with sports is even more likely to grow as the Euro 2012 football championship nears.
Orange Revolution
Whatever else the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution gave Ukrainians, it gave the country its first 15 minutes of fame on the world stage. Ukrainians stood up for freedom, honest elections and democracy – that is what the world remembers, even if the details are fuzzy.
The world did not take much notice when, in 2010, voters elected the same guy they protested against during the Orange Revolution.
The breadbasket
Ukraine is viewed as a traditional agricultural economy, stuck somewhere in the early 20th century. Not so many people know about the large steel production or its impressive aviation, weapons and space industries.
“Ukraine produces wheat, potatoes, wine (grapes) … especially in Yalta,” said Michael Sturgeon, 53, a professor of education in the American state of Tennessee.
Tymoshenko and hair
Yulia Tymoshenko, the two-time prime minister now facing criminal charges, is a strong icon – for her leadership of the Orange Revolution, her shady past with another ex-Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko (now serving a prison sentence in California on a money laundering conviction in U.S. federal court).
There are more reasons: her glamorous good looks, her ability to give fiery speeches and, of course, her braided hair.
