Ukraine’s ambassador to SA: Diplomacy is about building bridges, not destroying them

Security at the Ukraine embassy remains tight with guards resembling combat soldiers opening the gate to let visitors inside the building, which is decorated with sunflowers and paintings of sunflowers everywhere.

Dressed in colourful, traditional vyshyvanka, Ukrainian ambassador Liubov Abravitova said she was not only her country’s first female ambassador in South Africa, but also Ukraine’s only female ambassador in Africa.

“I have a huge collection of vyshyvankas. For important occasions, I always wear them,” she said.

A vyshyvanka is a traditional, embroidered handmade dress made by a mother for her daughter when she turns 18 as a blessing and protection. “Some people call my work vyshyvanka diplomacy,” she said.

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Abravitova was appointed as ambassador in 2020 after President Volodymyr Zelensky won the elections in 2019.

“It was unprecedented in the history of Ukrainian diplomacy that a counsellor would be upgraded to the ambassador,” she said.

Before that Abravitova worked as the chargé d’affaires of Ukraine in SA, a counsellor at the embassy in Pretoria, counsellor of the Middle East and Africa department of the ministry of foreign affairs of Ukraine, the press attaché for the ministry of foreign affairs and represented her country in Ottawa, Canada, Brussels in Belgium and Geneva in Switzerland.

‘I wanted to represent my country’

“Diplomacy is about building bridges, not destroying them,” she said.

Abravitova was born and raised in Odessa in Ukraine and received a BA in international relations from Odessa National University and a master of advanced studies (European security issues) at the University of Geneva.

“Becoming a diplomat has been a dream since I was 16 years old. I wanted to represent my country,” she said. Abravitova said she has always been interested in diplomatic protocols and ceremonies.

“I thought I could be developing that bridge if I became a diplomat. So I started preparing myself by learning one oriental language, Arabic, and English as my second foreign language,” she said.

She also speaks French fluently. “You either like new challenges, meeting new people and adapting to new countries, or you don’t,” she added.

While studying European security issues in 2015, Abravitova discovered her love for the African continent.

“It made me realise how underdeveloped the relations were between Ukraine and the African continent. They were right, once in Africa, forever in Africa,” she added.

After her studies, Abravitova was appointed as a counsellor at the department of Middle East and Africa which made her responsible for relations in West Africa. Then she joined the Ukraine embassy in South Africa and is now responsible for 10 countries in the region.

South Africans very friendly

Abravitova said she loves the people in South Africa.

“I think they are the biggest treasure this country has. The people here are very friendly, although they went through so much pain in the past and they still try to reconcile and live in a democratic country,” she said. She also loves travelling in the country.

“I like the ocean and bush. I want to go to the Karoo. I find it to be a very energetic place,” she said.

Abravitova is the single mother of two boys, aged nine and five, and a German pointer dog, named Pretoria.

“The children named the dog Pretoria. “People keep asking why we didn’t name her Jacaranda or Tshwane,” Abravitova said.

She said she was learning Sepedi with her sons and added that she had been given a Tshwana name.

“During a radio interview in Botswana, they asked the meaning of my name. My name means to love, so they named me Lerato because it also means love in Tswana, so it was like a transcription.”

She is also picking up Afrikaans and said she had a favourite word.

“I like how you pronounce, dis lekker. You can use it for everything from food to people. We pronounce R the same way as the Afrikaans does so it’s very easy to learn. Dis baie lekker,” she said.

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– marizkac@citizen.co.za