Trip to Ukraine
I was fortunate to travel to Ukraine as part of a Government team in 2005. Our mission was to assess the management of the assistance we were providing to the Ukrainian border guards in preventing smuggling operations, particularly of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The US had provided technical assistance and equipment for the detection of smugglers and certain types of materials and we were there to conduct a program review.
The recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia really reminded me of this trip since I had been to some of the locales now being devastated–especially Kyiv and Odessa. We were in Kyiv at the time of the “Orange Revolution” when Ukrainians were fighting for democracy and literally camped out in the main square in Kyiv, known as Independence Square. I still have a couple of souvenirs of that “revolution.”
I wish I had taken more pictures but, as I recall, we had a pretty tight schedule and there was not much time for sightseing. Plus the weather in Kyiv was terrible–snowing off and on and very dismal. I am really sorry I didn’t get any shots of Odessa, where the weather was more cooperative. I was able to visit the famous steps in Odessa (from the film “The Battleship Potemkin”) and today’s scenes of smoke and bodies bring to mind those steps and that famous scene.
We flew from Kyiv to Odessa and it was a memorable flight on a Soviet-era aircraft (one should never look at the tires I was told and I quickly found out why!). An interesting custom is that when you arrive, the passengers sit and wait until the flight crew leave the aircraft. Only then do the passengers deplane. Another. interesting difference between US and Ukrainian airlines is that Ukrainian pilots taxied the aircraft at what felt like just under takeoff speed. No dilly-dallying on the taxiways for them! We were running a little late in leaving the border station we were visiting outside of Odessa and were given a police escort back to the airport. It was a somewhat harrowing ride, made all the more so by watching our escort car nearly run people off the road.
In any case, these pictures are not all that great and I wish I had had another chance to visit Ukraine, take some better pictures, and spend more time sightseeing. The people I met were universally hospitable and friendly and the food was fantastic. It is a shame to watch what the Ukrainians are being subjected to now.
