Alyona Shkrum, a 34-year-old member of parliament, is one of the new Ukrainian leaders pushing their country towards a more Europe-centric future.
Franco Ordoñez / NPR
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Alyona Shkrum, a 34-year-old member of parliament, is one of the new Ukrainian leaders pushing their country towards a more Europe-centric future.
Franco Ordoñez / NPR
KYIV, UKRAINE – With the election of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a new generation of young leaders entered Ukrainian politics after mass protests toppled the pro-Russian president in 2014.
These young politicians have little memory of life under Soviet rule – and they say the war has fueled their efforts to forge a more Europe-focused future.
“As a country, we were really prepared for this kind of war psychologically,” said Alyona Shkrum, after ducking under a barbed wire checkpoint. in the government district. “Because we know very well why we are doing it and why we are defending our country.”
Stepping over sandbags and anti-tank barricades, the 34-year-old parliament member explained the moment was a continuation of what young people like her have fought since the Maidan revolution eight years ago toppled Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader, Viktor Yanukovych.
Like Zelenskyy, Shkrum was elected without much political experience. But she already has international experience.
She went to graduate school in France and worked in international law in Paris and London. She speaks French and English easily.
Yarema Dukh, a veteran political adviser to previous Ukrainian administrations, called Shkrum “one of the representatives of the new Ukrainian politics.”
He said that new leaders like Shkrum can not only interact with Western heads of state in their own language but also understand their culture, their own style.
“They’ve seen the world and they understand what we need to fix in Ukraine here,” Dukh said.
Yevheniia Kravchuk, 36, a member of Zelenskyy’s party, says the hunger for new ideas in Ukraine is so great that her party, in 2019, blocked anyone from participating in parliament before. there.
“New people, new thoughts,” she said. “It’s like a big elevator for people to become politicians, to become leaders.”
And she says the war has focused Ukrainians, young and old, on this vision for a more democratic Ukraine, which is being championed by young leaders.
A recent poll shows that since the beginning of the war 91% record Ukrainians now want their country to join the European Union.
“It’s not that we’re happy that the war has cemented our path to the European Union, Kravchuk said, but it does make everything black and white.
Charles Kupchan, who worked on European affairs in Obama’s White House, says Putin miscalculated. He thinks of Ukraine as a country that “wants to be Russian,” Kupchan said.
“It couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Kupchan, who now works at the Council on Foreign Relations. “And it was this young generation that really pulled Ukraine westward and made it impossible for Ukraine to return to its native Russia.”
Back in Kyiv, Alyona Shkrum stopped in front of a restaurant that was one of the very few that remained open during the early days of the war.
She said that the scene inside came straight out of the movie Casablanca.
“You’ll see a table of soldiers needing to eat somewhere,” she said, “a table of Kyiv’s local defenders, like territorial defense units, people armed, people armed, a The table of members of Congress is here. ”
Alyona Shkrum, a 34-year-old member of parliament, is part of a new generation of Ukrainian politicians.
Franco Ordoñez / NPR
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Franco Ordoñez / NPR
Alyona Shkrum, a 34-year-old member of parliament, is part of a new generation of Ukrainian politicians.
Franco Ordoñez / NPR
Nearly two months later, half the restaurant is filled with soldiers, their machine guns and sniper rifles lying on their feet or tucked away in corners.
It is here, over bowls of traditional chicken soup and egg dishes, that these young leaders will strategize – and split roles.
“And so we created this kind of women’s battalion for members of parliament who are women, people who speak foreign languages, people who have relationships, who have this international audience,” said Shkrum. speak.
She and three other battalion members met with European ministers. They met French President Emmanuel Macron. They met British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who shortly after sitting down with members made a surprise visit to Kyiv.
“We’re going to have a list of what we need to do in terms of weapons supplies, medical supplies, humanitarian aid,” she said.
Yevheniia Kravchuk traveled with another group to the United States to meet with top members of Congress and top officials at the State Department and the Pentagon last month.
Shkrum says everyone has a role.
“This is a fight for our lives. Like me, as a congressman, being on the red list must be killed or arrested,” she said. So obviously it’s a battle to survive, but it’s also a battle to choose our own future. It’s that simple.”
