Rostyslav Prokopiuk: “It is activists who generally are forced to defend the interests of the Ukrainian state in the Czech Republic”

How did you come up with the idea of working with Ukrainian military suffering from the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

— An ICTV journalist told me two years ago that this is a very serious problem in Ukraine. They asked me whether I could help. This was a challenge I took up. I’m trying to help not just the en- tire country abstractly, but specific people. The most important thing is to make sure that they feel that they are not forgotten. It is important to support the ghter spirit in them. We have arranged a concert with the Czech standup comedy band Na sto-jáka to collect money for rehabilitation in Kyiv for one of the boys. I am extremely lucky to be able to work with decent volunteers. They are sending receipts and showing what they spend the money they receive on. The Czechs support such initiatives because they know that their donations are not wasted.

I’ve also come up with an idea of a talk show where contributions are made with medicines. One Slovak donated a EUR 1,000-worth of medicines and told me: “If you asked me for money, I wouldn’t give any. But medicines – no problem. I’m sure that if you decide to eat up all the medicines I’ve bought, you will surely die.”

But this is still not enough. So I’ve decided to sell the paintings I make when I relax. My of ce is in a nice building, so I displayed them on the stairs. I’ve already sold two paintings – andthat’s an extra EUR 300 for a military hospital.

What is the most important thing that the Ukrainian community in the Czech Republic needs today?

— We need a new Ukrainian center. The Ukrainian Embassy hereis doing quite a lot within its nancial capacity. But it is activistswho generally are forced to defend the interests of the Ukrainian state in the Czech Republic. The incident around the exhumation of the remains of Oleksandr Oles illustrates this [In January 2017, a Ukrainian newspaper reported about forced exhumation of the remains of Oleksandr Oles, a famous Ukrainian diplomat and poet of the 20th century, and his wife Vira from a cemetery in Prague. This was done in accordance with the Czech laws whereby a rent of 20,000 krons should be paid every ten years for every burial site. The rent was paid by a Czech citizen of Ukrainian origin who died recently. His son decided to bury his father on the site, removing the remains of the poet and his wife for that purpose. The incident triggered prompt reaction from Ukraine’s President and MFA, and arrangements were made to move the remains to Ukraine. - Ed.].

That was a horrible situation. We had to urgently look for contacts with thetop of cials in Ukraine. Roman Skrypin [a Ukrainian journalist] had these contacts – he was in Prague at the time. I still workwith him on a number of programs.

Prague once hosted the Museum of Ukraine’s Liberation Struggle. A portion of the documents was destroyed by one ofthe three bombs thrown at the city in 1945. I have a beautiful collection of paintings and books by Ukrainian emigrants in my basement. I would like all of this to serve a purpose, to grow into something. So far, I have no results.

Generally, people don’t want to change anything. I can’t help those who don’t ask. This would be a violation of ethical rules in psychology. But once I’ve promised to do something, this is a train I can’t jump off.

According to a research by Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínění (Public Opinion Research Centre) from March 2014, 64% of the Czechs were intereed in the situation in Ukraine. Two years later, only a quarter were. How would you explain this dynamics?

— Some groups support Ukraine inexorably. They took it to the streets just a couple of days ago to remind people about Ukrainian political prisoners. They also screened a film about Oleh Sentsov. I thank them! We can’t underestimate this. But don’t blame the Czechs – they have their own problems. Their military were killed in Afghanistan just recently. There is a problem of refugees. There are elections and the government which has not been functioning for an awfully long time.

Why do you think they once again eleed the pro-Russian Milos Zeman?

— It is important to realize that many Czechs did not vote for the Zeman of today; they voted for the Zeman who established the Civic Forum and still had a clear mind. Another factor, with all of my deep respect for the Czechs, was jealousy. Zeman was elected by those who did not want success for academic Jiří Drahoš as president – and he did have a real chance to win. It’s some kind of suspicion about the accomplishments of others. “Hey, my neighbor has better tiles in his bathroom.Where did he get the money to buy it?” Human jealousy is the most fertile eld for populism. Sometimes it gets so strongthat people stop thinking about the consequences of their ac-tions here and now. This shortsightedness is very dangerous now.