Zelenskyy announces launch of new institution to ensure strong global Ukrainian unity
Ukraine is preparing to launch a new institution that will ensure the protection of common interests of Ukrainians abroad, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
"There are our people in all parts of the world, in most states. [...] Therefore, we should modernize our state institutions so that they meet the modern task of uniting all Ukrainians around Ukraine, around the protection of Ukraine, around strengthening our positions in the world. I believe that for this purpose we must strengthen our institutional presence in partner countries," he said at a meeting with the heads of Ukraine's foreign diplomatic institutions on Monday.
According to the President, Ukraine can strengthen its institutional presence in partner countries in two ways: it has been decided to open new consulates of Ukraine abroad, in particular in Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and France.
“Along with this, and along with the usual work through the system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, we have discussed this with the Prime Minister, we are preparing to launch a new institution that will ensure sufficient strength of global Ukrainian unity,” Zelenskyy stated.
He explained that the responsibility of the new institution will be to protect the common interests of Ukrainians as a nation. “Basically, it should be the Ministry of Ukrainian Unity and Countering Russian Influence on Ukrainians. First of all, abroad,” the President added.
The Head of the Ukrainian state stressed that the Russian Federation uses a huge propaganda resource abroad, as well as its own church structures for intelligence work and sowing schisms among Ukrainians.
“We also recognize that the educational, cultural, and informational needs of Ukrainians in other countries require greater activity from our state. And this is a fundamentally new task for Ukraine – we have never before had such a large part of our nation abroad,” Zelenskyy said.
The President believes that only one system of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is not able to cope with this, since we are talking about millions of Ukrainians, it would also be wrong to simply expect the implementation of relevant tasks from various ministries and departments.
“We need an institution that will lead other state institutions towards these defined goals. We will present all the details in the near future,” Zelenskyy said.