At Autumn Agora Cagliari 2014 the Ukrainian local AEGEE-Kyïv was announced as the organiser of the Autumn Agora 2015. The dates have already been announced, the team is organisers is full of enthusiasm and soon AEGEEans will be able to apply, so it’s time to find out a bit more about this local and the upcoming Agora! We spoke to main organiser Anna Pykhtina, also known as Smailikova, to learn everything you want to know.

Main organiser Anna Pykhtina (Smailikova)

The AEGEEan: First of all, can you tell us a bit more about your local?

Anna: AEGEE- Kyïv was founded twenty years ago and celebrated its anniversary in February. We already organised an Autumn Agora in 2009 and at the moment we have 120 members. In my opinion, our super active and friendly members that always keep a positive attitude make us unique. AEGEE-Kyïv is for many a place where they can find something special. Not to forget the friendship of many generations of our members! People who were active 7-8 years ago not only stay friends while living in different parts of the world, but also advise the new generation on everything we ask for. I believe that human relations is one of the most important things in our life and that’s why AEGEE-Kyïv is special.

And can you tell us a bit more about yourself? Who are you, when did you join AEGEE and what is your role in the core team?

I’m AEGEE-Kyïv’s president and I joined AEGEE three years ago to go on a Summer University in Salerno (an awesome one). I became active in 2013 when I was chosen as the main organiser of Travel Summer University by AEGEE-Kyïv, and I think I’ve tried quite a lot of things in AEGEE, from organising events to writing articles. I’ve been board member, SUCT member, Academy trainer, SUPS organiser and the most difficult so far: Autumn Agora Kyïv’s main organiser.  My role is coordinating, supporting the teams and making sure that this event will happen.

Anna’s speech after the Agora host announcement at Autumn Agora Cagliari 2014

Why did AEGEE-Kyïv decide to organise an Agora?

It was and still is a challenging time for our country. Ukraine is young. We became independent only 23 years ago and the democratic and active civil society is still building. Everything that happened in Kyïv from November 2013 up to now is shaping a new generation of Ukrainians.

We felt that it is the right time to invite AEGEEans from all over the network and what’s more to unite with other locals situated in Ukraine, Russia and other neighbors countries. Moreover, it’s been a while since Agora took place in this part of Europe so there was no doubt that it’s the right idea.

What was your first reaction when you heard Kyïv was chosen to organise it?

Oh, I remember it perfectly. I read the e-mail, closed the laptop, opened it again, read the e-mail, closed the laptop and thought something like “You must be kidding me/Oh My God/No way/Is it a joke?” Better was to see the reaction of the Network when it was announced on stage in Autumn Agora Cagliari – that was a moment to remember!

How are the preparations for the Agora going so far?

It goes according to the plan. Until April, most of the work was done by the core team and in May the teams were formed. Now each team has work to do, strict deadlines and meetings. The busy time will start in August when everyone will come back from our TSU Across the UAniverse and the ones they attend as participants.

Apart from the Agora itself, AEGEE-Kyïv is organising a conference together with the Eastern Partnership project. It will take place one day before the Agora, on 13^th of October and will engage every attendee in a dynamic process, which will include a keynote address by specially invited speakers and three panel discussions to be followed afterwards. Democracy and Security, Economy and Business and Civil Society and Youth Organization are three dimensions that will be discussed. We are inviting not only AEGEEans but also Ukraine’s youth to take part. The team of the conference will update the Network with more information closer to the August when the application period will start, so save one day before the Agora!

How many organisers and helpers do you have right now?

Few of the organisers of Autumn Agora Kyïv 2015

The team is huge now! Thanks to our amazing HR-Responsible, Hanna Poli, we had more than 150 applicants who she personally talked to and together we divided them into teams according to their experience and preferences. Now we have around 100 people, all of them organizers, not helpers. Of course the number will change. The strongest and the most responsible will stay until the time of Agora, which is quite typical for any event, especially with volunteering work.

You have a very diverse team with people from different locals and even countries. Do you have a lot of support from other locals around the Network?

Yes, our team is super international and I love it! Moreover, some organizers are my good friends and I worked with them so it’s a lot easier. 40% of all organisers are not from AEGEE-Kyïv, but from AEGEE-Kharkiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odessa, Moskva, Voronezh, Minsk, Sankt-Petersburg, Dresden, Bergamo, Catania, Groningen, Zaragoza and Valencia. In my view, it makes this Agora very special as not only participants will learn more about the country, traditions, culture, and Ukrainians, but organisers too.

The location of the Agora

Can you tell us a bit more about the locations we will be using during the Agora?

After a successful cooperation with Taras Shevchenko Kyïv National University during the Night of 7 Antennae event in April it was decided that Agora will take place in the buildings of the university. The place for conference will be in the city center, 15 minutes walking from the Independence Square, and the Agora itself in Kyïv Institute of International Relations. The participants will sleep in the university gym and taken by bus every day to the plenaries.

What about your city? What makes Kyïv special?

Everything is special in Kyïv. It’s a big city with a population of more than 4.5 million people. It is a place you will easily fall in love with and that will break a lots of existing stereotypes! Especially if you have not been to this part of Europe before, it will be an absolutely new experience. It has two UNESCO heritage sites (St.Sofia Cathedral and Kyïv Pechersk Lavra Monastery). The architecture is eclectic and shows all the historical periods the country went through, there are a lot of unique places and of course, typical Ukrainian and Kyïv dishes – you just can’t miss the chance to visit it! I love the city I was born in and each time when participants are coming here it makes me feel proud! I advise everyone to not only come to the conference but also stay for more days for the post-event and visit all the famous Kyïv places!

The location of the conference taking place before the Agora

Why should AEGEEans join you in Kyïv for the Autumn Agora?

Autumn Agora Kyïv 2015 is not only a statutory event. It provides the chance to hundreds of AEGEEans to see and to show that things in Kyïv are fine, that Ukraine is not a war field. Together with the conference that takes place on the 13th of October, it will be a good starting point to making our Agorae something more meaningful than just a simple general assembly.

Some of the current organisers were helpers during Spring AgorAsturias. How did you experience this, and what lessons did you learn for your own Agora?

Yes, me, Viktoria (External Communication team) and Hanna Poli (HR-responsible) were helping in Asturias and it was a great experience, we have tried different types of work and saw Agora from another side. A good thing when you organise the next one! I guess the main lesson for me is that people will find something to complain about, not only during the Agora but at any kind of events, so the most important is to fulfill the basic needs.

You are doing a lot of challenges on your Facebook page. What challenges and other surprises do you have upcoming for AEGEEans following?

Yes, the PR-team is working really good together and promoting the event very good so far. I am proud of the way they are taking care of their tasks and the result we have. I cannot tell a lot since they prepare much more than challenges, so follow the page to get to know more!

One of the various succesful PR actions: the Kyïv t-shirt that spread all over Europe

Would you encourage other locals to apply for hosting the next Agora? Why? What should they first take care of?

Apart from the fact that the local will be hosting the biggest and for sure, the best event in AEGEE, which is a huge honor for all your members, it is a huge experience for the whole team that will change their life. It’s a challenge that is really difficult to accomplish but it’s worth it! And how else can you make all your friends to come to your city and country? (laughs)

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Yesterday marked the bloodiest day so far since the protests started in Ukraine. In one single day in Kyiv alone, more than 100 people have been killed and more than 500 people have been hospitalized according to the Maidan medical service coordinator.

People were found on the streets with single gunshot wounds in the neck, head or heart. So they aren’t being shot by police officers with the reason to disperse the crowd. These are no fascist radicals who are out to murder police officers. They are just people who try to protest against Yanukovych’s regime and protect their fellow countrymen from harm, and for this they are being murdered in cold blood. For those still having a hard time to believe all this, watch this video of an innocent grandmother being shot out of nowhere (take care! this video has very graphic contents) in the city of Khmelnytskyi. For good reason, many Ukrainians feel their state has been captured by a corrupt elite, which uses the most extreme forms of violence against its own people and which cannot be dislodged by the usual democratic means.

To understand the current divide in Ukraine, one has to understand the history and geography of the country and what is going on elsewhere. The western part of the country used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was Polish territory between the two World Wars. While the eastern part and Crimea used to belong to the Russian Tsar. This, of course, left its mark on the different regions both culturally and economically. The west, north and center of Ukraine are primarily Ukrainian-speaking, while in the east and in Crimea, Russian is the dominant language. It’s in that part of the country where Yanukovych has his political base as well as where most of the rich oligarchs pulling strings behind the scenes, are from.

Of course, the real situation is far more complex than being described here. Almost all ethnic Ukrainians speak fluent Russian as well, and not everyone is so nationalistic that they hate everything Russian. In the east, recent events have surely eroded Yanukovych’s power base a bit and many people support him only because they don’t know what is happening right now in Kyiv (there is little or no information shared on the television/ radio) and because of the economic dependency on Russia. However, what is happening in Ukraine is about many other things than just a battle between closer ties with the European Union or with Russia. It’s about violence, corruption, lack of democracy and most of all accountability.

But all of this is still important as background information, if one is to look at the events happening outside of Kyiv. Even if the main Ukrainian TV station is still playing soap operas, the events in Kyiv are actually quite well covered in the European media. But there is a lot happening elsewhere as well, which isn’t getting the media coverage it deserves. Take the beautiful baroque city of Lviv in the western part of the country – the heartland of Ukrainian nationalism. There as well, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest. The offices of Yanukovych administration in Lviv were seized, as well as the prosecutors’ office. People forced the surrender of the police of the Interior ministry making officers come out with their hands up. Train traffic from Lviv to Kyiv was halted by the government because it is afraid that more people will be joining the protest there, while the people of Lviv themselves blocked a border crossing with Poland. Also in other western cities like Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Uzhorod, the people were able to capture local government offices.

The situation in Lviv might easily be as chaotic as in Kyiv, described Maryana Semenyak. “At this moment we don’t have any police at all in Lviv, so for the second day in a row it is the people who are patrolling the streets and protecting each other and making sure nobody robs banks or shops. There are always stupid people who want to make use of the situation. I’ve also seen with my own eyes titushki (street hooligans sponsored by the government) being out there to provoke people, destroying everything and trying to rob stores, only to pretend later that we are the terrorists and are to be blamed for this. I saw one yesterday who managed to convince people to destroy one huge shop, but thankfully normal people managed to stop them. All the boys that I know are around the city patrolling to make it safe.”

In Lviv there is a Maidan (large square ed.) as well, where protesters gather and where a lot is happening. “A few hours ago a guy was suddenly shooting with a gun, but no one got hurt as many people were around and were quickly able to stop him.” While the regional assembly in Lviv issued a statement condemning the Yanukovych regime for its violence on demonstrators in Kiev and declaring it took executive power locally for itself, people in the streets are actively building up barricades in front of the captured buildings and around the Maidan, making sure people stay safe from government violence and waiting for events to come. For anyone who watched the events in Kyiv unfold this must be an all too familiar sight, and one that an be seen all over western and central Ukraine now.

Building barricades in front of the Ministry of Interior.

It’s a whole different situation in Crimea, the peninsula stretching into the Black Sea in the south of Ukraine. This is the only region in Ukraine where ethnic Russians have a majority, comprising approximately 60 percent of its population of 2 million. Just 60 years ago the peninsula was transferred to Ukraine by the Russian President Khrushchev (reportedly while he was drunk).

Most of the titushki and berkut (Ukrainian special police) and other police forces in Kyiv are come from regions like Crimea and believe they are actually fighting against some kind of fascist rebellion which is out to threaten their Russian culture. When news got out through pro-Yanukovych TV channels that “far-right nationalist groups in Western Ukraine are arming themselves and creating havoc”, the reply of people here was to arm themselves and organize patrols to defend themselves from a supposed danger to come.

You can therefore also be sure that news about the Lviv regional assembly’s declaration to take the executive power in their own hands, will stir up a lot of emotions here. A majority of people here feel that their history, culture, ethnicity and most importantly their language rights are being threatened by the increasing strength of the anti-government movement.

During the last week, a Russian presidential adviser and leading Kremlin idealist: Surkov made a trip to Crimea to meet local political leaders, suddenly roads all over Crimea had thousands of billboards simply saying: “Stop Maidan”. This mysterious but lavishly funded organisation also managed to hire dozens of people as titushki and sent them to Kyiv and other cities. With a population here at odds with Maidan and with big Russian interests in the peninsula at stake (mostly concerning its naval base in Sevastopol) it no longer requires much imagination to see Ukraine tear up along ethic, linguistic, cultural and historical fault lines.

Even though today an agreement between the opposition and Yanukovych is being signed under auspices of European negotiators and early elections are being called, there is still a lot of mutual distrust, special interests and provocateurs trying to stir up emotions. The democratic gains of the 2004 Orange Revolution quickly evaporated when the victors failed to reach out to the Russophone southeast, énd made the same mistakes as their predecessors: a complete lack of transparency in governance.

Yanukovych failed himself as he also repeated the mistake of supporting the interests of a few oligarchs. He went against the direct wishes of the majority of the people and then ruthlessly destroyed all dissent in a dictatorial manner. It is clear that whatever will happen, he has discredited himself and cannot have a future role in Ukrainian politics.

One can only hope that after early elections, whoever comes out as winner will have the brains and power tp create a national reconciliation and calm down regional fears. There is no reason why people in Crimea couldn’t support Euromaidan. Moving closer to the EU means that Ukraine has to protect minorities and regional languages, which for them paradoxically may actually be what they want most. It will also mean better welfare standards on top of obvious benefits like the rule of law, a proper democracy and political freedom.

Also the European Union (EU) should learn from the past. Only a truly meant effort to win over the whole of Ukraine and seriously counter the destabilizing Russian influences will succeed. This includes financially protecting the country from Russian blackmail with gas and import tariffs, and protecting aging industries in the east of the country that are not ready yet to compete in the EU’s open market.

If Yanukovych is finally forced out of power and cooler heads in Ukraine and the EU persevere, after the rocky start it had as an independent nation since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Ukraine could get on the right track again. Otherwise, the events of the last weeks might only be a warning for more violence and destruction to come. The brave people of Ukraine who are risking their lives on the streets these days, deserve a nation with an accountable government which respects their civil rights and which will never repeat the horrific violence that was used against its own people the last few days.

Written by Koen Berghuis, AEGEE-Cluj-Napoca. Pictures by Maryana Semenyak, AEGEE-Lviv.

With a pack of printed out article of the AEGEEan, a nervous look and tired eyes after cycling on the hills of Kyiv, I got to meet a candidate for the Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) – Anna Pyhktina from AEGEE-Kyiv. Most may know her as Smailikova, but do not be fooled. Her read last name is Pykhtina.

AEGEEan: We heard you are applying for SUCT at the upcoming AGORA. Why don’t we start with you telling us a bit about yourself?

Anna: Shortly, I’m 21. I have just finished my bachelors degree in Public Relations and Advertising. Because of an unacceptable gap year I decided to dedicate the year to self-improvement and AEGEE. Next year is still a mystery to me and I don’t want to know about it. I’m taking it one month at a time. I’m also biking, snowboarding, painting, doing stupid things that I don’t regret. I love my city and at the same time, I’m a crazy traveler. Now I’m looking for way to make my dreams come true.

How long have you been in AEGEE? What have you done so far?

I have been member of AEGEE-Kyiv from the 8^th of March, 2010. As you know, it is national Woman’s Day here in post-soviet countries. This was a great present for me. I became a bit active after my summer university in Salerno last year and my real AEGEE life started with the position of coordinator of the “Big Kyiv Theory” Summer University. After that I was involved in every single step there together with my best friend Maria, who was incoming respoinsible, Olia Yushenko, who was president at the time and Anna Kotovich, who was then secretary.

I have recently become PR responsible of the board of AEGEE-Kyiv and am also an AEGEE representative of the EduCoach program. There are also some plans for the AGORA, but I don’t want to reveal all my secrets just yet.

Tell me about SUCT. Why did you decide to apply?

I was thinking of ways to become active on the European level. So I read a lot about different working groups and since I was involved on an SU for half a year, I decided this could be a great way to improve other SUs and help them. I understood that organizing and creating something is my passion. For me, this is the place where I can help someone doing what I love.

You’ve just talked about your PR position in the board. You have also recently been accepted as a journalist for the AEGEEan. Welcome! Apart from that, you’ve just talked about EduCoach and I also know you work! How are you planning to juggle all of that?

I don’t know. Maybe I won’t sleep. I love coffee, I love to drink it. Maybe it will work. That is not all. I also work part time teaching Russian to foreign students. DLA Piper is a law firm I recently working at.  It is somewhat difficult because I work with lawyers and do not always get their jokes. Nevertheless, it’s great to have something new in your life. For me, every new place is a place I can learn something in this life.

As for my position in the AEGEEan, I feel like I have something to say. I like to write and make catchy headings. I want to improve this skill in order to apply for a master’s degree abroad. It’s all about the future.

What inspires you as a person?

Things that inspire me are all around me. My friends know that I’m crazy in love with my city – Kyiv. I’ve also ended up in crazy situations because of my love for music. With me singing when I think that nobody is there and then the elevator door opens and… yeah… really strange. This even happened in my new job at the law firm… awkward, awkward… I adore cycling in Kyiv even though it’s a bit difficult because this is a city on seven hills. Of course I love my friends and family. I always do a lot of hand-made things. If you could see my room, you’d see I have a lot of flags there, postcards, a map of the world, some photos, some paintings, a bit messy, but it’s a crazy mess that inspires me.

Do you have a moto that you try to follow in life?

Perhaps my moto is – “it’s all in our hands and it all depends on us”. There is another moto that I should listen to but don’t. It is – never put off for tomorrow what you can do today. But I’m really great at that.

And now some questions from our readers.

Are you sure you can handle travelling through lots of SUs for checking all the activities as you are from non-EU country and have to have visa to travel?

I planning to get married soon. But seriously, I think that nowadays, you don’t have to be present at every meeting thanks to the technology. With skype and everything, you know how it works. If I do need to travel around the EU, I think that with my past visas I’ll be able to get a visa. The funny thing is that I do have so much experience with dealing with embassies, German, Italian, Spanish and others, that I can write a book about it. I think that as an official member of the future SUCT team with my great desire to see how other SUs are working, I think embassies will be glad to give me visas.

Will you keep your position as subcommissioner of Network Commission, if you are elected?