Diplomat Says Lack of National Elite Hampered Ukraine’s Early Development

At the beginning of its independence, Ukraine did not have established national elites, which prevented the formation of a clear and well-considered foreign and domestic policy. Oleh Shamshur, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States (2005-10) and France (2014-20), as well as Permanent Representative of Ukraine to UNESCO (2014-20), said this during discussions marking the anniversary of Ukraine’s independence.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “The point of no return was very difficult for us to reach. If we compare ourselves with our friends in the Baltic countries, we lacked two things that they had, which made their path less painful. At the time of the restoration of independence, they had a consensus among their elites on the priorities of foreign and domestic policy, and they had these elites. At the time of the restoration of independence, we essentially had no elites,” Oleh Shamshur says. In his view, this process accelerated significantly after 2014 and is still taking place today. Sergii Kostezh is a Kyiv Post Special Correspondent. He has worked for various Ukrainian TV channels as a reporter from the field and war zone.