One of the largest and most active Ukrainian expat communities lives in the United States of America. Many former citizens of our country stay in close contact with Ukraine despite everyday business. Valeriy Lobanovskyi memorial tournament is being held in New York for many years already. Several years ago Dynamo legends Andriy Biba and Volodymyr Muntian came to the city together with vice-president of the club Olexiy Semenenko to pay the White-Blues famous skipper Viktor Kanevskyi a visit.
Who are the people that stay in touch with Ukraine, help our country with what they can and keep supporting FC Dynamo Kyiv? First of all ex-Kyivans Mark Schneider, Alec Teitel and Joseph Tartakovskyi should be mentioned. The same can be said about Pavlo Makovskyi, the head of Association of Ukrainians in the USA.
Recently he came to Kyiv to bring humanitarian help gathered by his family for wounded Ukrainian soldiers. Pavlo also had some appointments with representatives of our government. He’s told FC Dynamo Kyiv official web site about his public activity.
- Ukrainians, who live in the United States of America, care about what’s going on in our native country. Many people consider that it’s their duty to help Ukraine in time of need. On behalf of the Association I’m in charge of I came to Kyiv to establish contact with Ukrainian politicians and businessmen. I also brought some stuff for wounded soldiers. I was impressed by courage of these guys. They are true heroes.
- Considering the USA authority in the world, can Ukrainian expat community make our allies be more active?
- That’s what we actually do. We try to lobby interests of Ukraine in media and society. It was the main aim of my visit to Kyiv to understand how we can help Ukraine.
- You’ve been living in America for almost twenty years already. Do you still follow FC Dynamo Kyiv?
- People, who were born and raised in Kyiv, will always remain faithful to this team. Modern technologies let me follow Dynamo matches.
* photos by A. Lukatskyi
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