My Take | Ukraine comes back with a diplomatic rebuttal
- My new pen pal, a senior diplomat, puts yours truly in his place with a history lesson and on how to spell the Ukrainian capital correctly
Last month, I wrote what may be perceived as a pro-Russian column about Ukraine and Taiwan. A Ukrainian diplomat in Beijing, who prefers not to be named, has replied with a gentle rebuttal. He is definitely not of the “wolf warrior” school of diplomacy.
I find it highly educational for myself, and I hope for some readers, too. First, my bad. I wrote “Kiev” when I should have known better.
The diplomat from the Embassy of Ukraine wrote: “The name of my capital in English is Kyiv. You may meet this name worldwide, in publications … and even on all the Lester B. Pearson International Airport’s boards and screens in Toronto.
“‘Kiev’ was widely mistakenly used until 2018, but now almost the whole globe uses the right spelling – Kyiv.”
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He didn’t disagree with everything I wrote, such as: “The ties that bind Russia and Ukraine run deep into historical times”. But he likes to elaborate further: “As you mentioned, ‘medieval Kievan Rus marked the origin of Russia and its empire’. That’s the truth!