Stanislav Kukhtyk

Caitlin Morrissey 

Stan, what is the DNA of Kyiv from your point of view?

Stan Kukhtyk 

I think that the main DNA of Kyiv is our people, our citizens who live here, who stay here in these difficult times, so we are brave enough, and you know, we know how to resist, and peace and security is in our DNA. And you know this theme of fairness. So it's in our DNA, in the DNA of citizens of Kyiv and all over Ukraine. I think the people are the future of Kyiv.

Caitlin Morrissey 

And can you tell us a little bit about where those commitments to bravery and fairness, where they, in your view, where they emerged from, and how they have become bound into the people of Kyiv?

Stan Kukhtyk 

So, you know, I'm 36 years old and I'm originally from Kramatorsk. It's Donbas region closer to Russian border and I moved to Kyiv in 2012. Before that time, I stayed in UK in London, and I worked in France. When I came back, I said wouldn't leave. I love the city very much. And you can meet people from all over Ukraine, it’s the capital of our country. And what I would like to say that I remember the time of Orange Revolution that we had which was 2004, we know the time when it all started, people, citizens of Kyiv and citizens of Ukraine wanted to have a better life and we wanted to struggle for a better future. We didn't succeed too much that time, and in 2013 we had some bad politicians, you know, that wanted to join Russian Federation and students were beaten at that time. And we, the Kyiv citizens, wanted to have this, you know, like fair feeling, a sense of justice, that it is wrong, that is bad. And we went down the streets and we went to Independence Square and we wanted to make this justice rule the country and our city.

Caitlin Morrissey 

In your mind what makes Kyiv, Kyiv? How many different Kyivs are there? Is there just one? Or are there many?

Stan Kukhtyk

Oh there are very many Kyivs here in Kyiv. The very first time I arrived to Kyiv, I feel that, you know, green places and hills and the statue, the great Monument of the Motherland. And I was really surprised, you know, because for the time I travelled Europe and I've been to different countries, to London, Paris, Strasbourg. Other cities oh they're beautiful, but when you are in Kyiv, and you can feel this feeling of openness and green city and so relaxed. Sometimes it's difficult because we have huge traffic jams. And so when you're working, you realise that the people, you know, you can see all that real feel of the city. And you can be in the centre of Pechersk, with chestnuts, you know, it’s like the symbolic part of Kyiv. Afterwards, you come down the street and all the parks are downtown of Kyiv is great old buildings, and you can cross the Dnipro River, go to the islands. You can go to a left side, which is more like for living, yeah, and it’s totally different. Afterwards, you can feel the nightlife in Podil, in the centre of Kyiv, cultural activities, museums, so you can meet different people all over Ukraine, foreigners as well citizens of Kyiv and people, Ukrainians coming from other cities who are bringing their piece of culture, local culture, you know. And you can freely speak, or you can meet street musicians. You can meet, like buffets of street food, amazing street food from different regions of Ukraine and all that people who are youngsters and elderly people, they can freely speak with each other. And so it's like a great feeling to be here and to meet all these people and citizens of Ukraine, of Kyiv. And so you can just catch them up, freely speak and get some interesting conversation and exchange of ideas of talks and communication. So it's like a great feeling.

Caitlin Morrissey 

And just to highlight a key geographical feature that you just mentioned, the Dnipro River. Can you tell us about your view on the role of the river in Kyiv and in the DNA of the city?

Stan Kukhtyk

Yeah, sure. It's like the main river of Ukraine and of Kyiv as well. It divides Kyiv into two parts, left and right side, left and right banks. So the left side is more for living, and we have quite a big population of Kyiv of this side. It is a beautiful part of Kyiv with many parks. And the right side is also for living, but we have like the city centre there, the Monument of Motherland. And the right side, it's like political, business life is going on the right side of Kyiv. So where you enter the city centre, so you can feel businessmen and civil servants and NGO representatives, foreigners are working somewhere with each other and so on. And the views that we have here in Kyiv, so it's about like 100-200 metres above the river. So we have a great view, for example, when we are near the Monument of the Motherland and the Botanic Garden, and when you are crossing the bridge, we have four or five bridges here in Kyiv, and you can see Kiev Pechersk Lavra, all these churches on the hills with, you know, a shining sun. It’s like an amazing view, you know, when you are crossing the river.

Caitlin Morrissey 

And are there any other sort of infrastructural features or architectural features in Kyiv that really sort of shaped the character of the city?

Stan Kukhtyk

As I mentioned, we have bridges, quite long bridges between two banks of the River Dnipro. We have many cathedrals and churches on the hills and near centre as well. A church system, the figures of different styles, like Orthodox, we also have Arabic, and a Jewish church. What else? We have some skyscrapers, not so big, tall enough thar you can see it from different parts of Kyiv. And, of course, like the downtown, the Podil, which is amazing where you can find different museums, different public spaces, old buildings. So it's like the real feeling of old Kyiv, where you can find it.

Caitlin Morrissey 

How would you summarise some of the sort of differences in old Kyiv and new Kyiv, in the way that those places are experienced?

Stan Kukhtyk

So for example, city centre Khreshchatyk, it's more modern with some old buildings also from Soviet-era. But when you go down from Khreshchatyk, it's like five minutes walk to Podil. It's like totally another city. So it's like five minutes of your time, you know, and you are in different locations with the urban history. So Kyiv is more than 1,000 years old, and here you can feel really old Kyiv. And afterwards, in a city centre, you can meet Kyiv from Soviet era, you can meet modern Kyiv. So I wouldn't say that it's totally harmonised because I would love to see some changes in architecture, in urban planning and green parts, and especially in the city centre. But we have good NGO leaders, you know, who are struggling to have like general Kyiv development. So we are trying to make it better and to solidify its architectural buildings which have their own history of Kyiv.

Greg Clark 

What extent is Kyiv a Ukrainian city? And also, how is Kyiv similar or different to other cities in Ukraine?

Stan Kukhtyk 

So what I think Kyiv is totally Ukrainian. Because of Kyiv has more than 1,000 years of history, and for the whole of this time more than 1,000 years, we've been under pressure from our neighbours, you know, starting from Mongolian Empire, the Latvian Empire, Hungarian Empire, afterwards Soviet Union. We wanted to have our own self-determination, you know? And Kyiv gathered all people from Ukraine, which is really diverse city because you can meet people who live in Kyiv from western part of Ukraine, and you can meet people living in Kyiv from the Crimea, from eastern part of Ukraine. It's like different. I mean, we are all in one country but we have slight different cultures, you know, attitudes, relations, but we are all Ukrainians. How we are united is by this, I think, this feeling of fairness and justice because we struggle for the whole of our history and we want to be free, independent. And Kyiv is the capital of Ukraine. Many, many smart people trying to be here because we have the centre of political and business life, social life, cultural life here in Kyiv. So I think that we are bit different here in Kyiv, but we are united by our influence and sense of justice.

Caitlin Morrissey 

And how is Kyiv different to other Ukrainian cities, and what is the role of Kyiv within Ukraine?

Stan Kukhtyk 

The main feature is why we are different because we are the capital of Ukraine and, as I mentioned, all that activities, political, business, cultural, sport activities, many of them are happened here in Ukraine. It's like Kyiv for the centre where hard decisions are made by our politicians, our business leaders as well, companies. So Kyiv is centre of innovations in Ukraine. We have many accelerators. We have many universities, great universities and all students from whole of Ukraine are coming to Kyiv to apply to study at these universities. And we have great people, great engineers, technicians, writers, sportsmen and other people. It's like the centre of Ukraine. And many people would like to be here and get these opportunities to develop.

Caitlin Morrissey 

And so this, I suppose, relates to what you were just talking about in terms of Kyiv being sort of a knowledge centre and an innovation centre for Ukraine. And so what-- can you tell us a little bit about the culture of innovation in the city and how culture is sort of fostered and supported, recognising its sort of dense collection of universities, knowledge centres and innovation centres? What does it mean to innovate in Kyiv?

Stan Kukhtyk

So as for innovation and entrepreneurship culture that we are developing right now. So we started maybe eight years ago like accelerated this process of bringing this culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. We started to create different hubs and centres. For example, we have UNIT.City. It's like a great, great district where many innovation are given and many international companies have offices there. And we also have Ukrainian Startup Fund, which launched the program for entrepreneurship and innovation. And currently we have more than 300 universities who launched the study courses. And we have great, great people.

I think it is from Soviet-era, you know, we had great engineers and technicians and IT specialists and we are trying to keep going in all these technologies and all these innovations. For example, we are probably first place in the world who launch autonomous vehicles here with computer vision. So it's like our necessity. We need to develop it and we invest quite a lot. And I'm worried that not only just usual people, citizens of Kyiv, but Ukrainian businessmen investing money, but also our government and politicians, they provide this platform for young researchers to test, to develop, like testing of new technologies because it's our necessity.

We are in a state of war, and we need to defend ourselves and the lives of our people. So, I mean, it's a real difficult time right now for Ukraine, but it's also a time for great opportunities for our people for citizens of Kyiv to move forward and to make great innovations which will help save our lives and help other people. It also relates to rehabilitation, to medical system. We have-- you might know that we have the Minister of Digital Transformation. There are great people working on different IT services, and they put the level of public services on a new level. Currently, even other countries would like to try our D-application to integrate in their countries. So we are on the same level as Estonia, or even higher, so. And it’s really great that Ukrainian universities join this mission, you know, to provide new opportunities for pupils, for students to develop, to innovate and to move forward.

Caitlin Morrissey 

Is there a culture of sort of institutions working together at the moment, or even historically, to jointly innovate on the very pressing issues that Kyiv is facing? Are you seeing collaborations between universities, or are you seeing civic leaders and universities and businesses coming together? Is there much of a culture of that? And is there an historic culture that the present moment is building upon?

Stan Kukhtyk 

I think that we had this historic culture previously like, I don't know, 100 years ago when Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was established and different public leaders at the time joined the academy and provided their services and financial help. We can see, currently, we also can see this cooperation between business leaders, business companies, civil society as well, other specialists, our public authorities because as I mentioned it is our necessity. We need to provide as much opportunities, as much technologies for young people, for academicians who are currently working at universities and research institutes. Because we want peace and to be safe for sharing Kyiv and all of Ukraine. I mean, one of the most defended probably city in the world with all that assistance from our western partners. But for example, if you look to Kharkiv, it's like, I don't know, we are here in Kyiv, quite resistant people, but in Kharkiv, they are like reinforced concrete. So we know how to defend. We develop new technologies, military tech technologies, defence tech technologies, rehabilitation technologies, and everyone in Kyiv and in Ukraine are involved in this process, like our funds use western money, they cooperate with universities and research labs. So we are moving forward with big, huge steps.

Caitlin Morrissey 

Thank you so much, Stan for explaining that. I have a question now about Kyiv's most influential leaders, and these can be from any sphere, whether that's cultural, literary, political, sports, culinary, and from any point in time. So who, in your view, are Kyiv's most influential leaders?

Stan Kukhtyk 

Yeah, thank you for your question, Caitlin. I made some research, you know, and started to think about it. If we going back to 1,000 years ago, we had great leaders like Vladimir the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, Princess of Kyiv Olga as well. If we went back to Soviet-era, where we had great aviation pioneers. We have aviation developers. We have engineers like Paton. We have great, of course, one of the greatest leaders right now in Ukraine is our President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. So he's like a really brave President who faces unfair operation from Russian Federation and stayed here in Kyiv and now he's the most greatest leader for us, for Ukrainians.

Of course, we do have many problems that we need to solve in Kyiv, in Ukraine, but we are moving forward. We have good sportsman right now on the Olympic Games in France, we have Valeriy Lobanovskyi. We have the other leaders, I would like to mention is Fedorov, the Minister of the Digital Translation of Ukraine because it's like level up for public services. For communication of people in Ukraine and business leaders as well, who are struggling during these difficult times like Inna Popereshniuk from probably one of the best new financial institution in the world, Nova Poshta, co-founders of Nova Poshta, who provide logistical services for our armed forces, for our citizens. We have civil leaders who are here. They are all based in Kyiv, because Kyiv is the centre of decision-making and civil society, even all that people who repair our grid system, you know, people who save lives when missiles come into our cities like the last case that was this, Okhmatdyt Hospital. And all our people are heroes, you know, and leaders, because we have this cohesion and assistance to each other. Because when the missile attack happened to Okhmatdyt Hospital, I don't know how half of Kyiv citizens went there just trying to help bring in water, food and trying to put all that for rubbish, you know, from destroyed hospital and find safe people who were under lying the building. So all our people are heroes and leaders during this difficult time.

Greg Clark 

Stan, it sounds like you're already talking about the question I wanted to ask you, which is not so much, how have the people of Kyiv and the Ukrainian people responded to this year and a half of attacks and violence and everything else. But how do you notice the underlying social connection between people? How do you notice how people are responding to this very unusual, very difficult situation? Is it changing the way the people of Kyiv think, or the way they behave, or the way they respond to each other at the very personal level, not so much the leaders, but the people of Kyiv, how is this experience having a collective impact on them?

Stan Kukhtyk    

Yes, I would like to mention that this volunteering feelings that we have in Kyiv and in Ukraine, especially when something is wrong, something is bad, and when it relates to our young people, our children, you know, many of them were killed by Russians. And it's really unfair because we have like rules of war and you should stick to them. But on the other hand, Russians don't care about that. And when it relates to our children, especially to our children, we can help each other and struggle defending our land, our people. And what I saw during the first days of invasion was in Kyiv that all people supported each other and wanted to defend and lead the Russian forces back to the border. So it's like it was really unusual, you know, because everyone, like millions of people in Kyiv and in Ukraine. So we have that great feeling of cohesion and assistance to each other, supporting each other. It's like a phenomena, you know, I think that during some years, other social scientists will research this phenomena.

Greg Clark 

Yes, it's terrible that such violence and hostility is there, but it also produces a response in the people which you're describing. Stan, which is very important, very rich and very deep.

Caitlin Morrissey 

We began to talk about innovation cultures in Kyiv and the way that the city innovates, but we didn't talk yet about the stories or myths that people tell about Kyiv, and Stan, we'd love to hear about those from you. Are there any that come to mind?

Stan Kukhtyk

Yeah, I think the most recent is the defence of Kyiv. The story that we can share and speak about many times because we have good commanders, or warriors from our armed forces, not only warriors, but like the usual standard people, you know? Many IT guys joined armed forces or provided their services in order to provide all that technical resistance from technical side. And I think the most important and recent stories is from the first days and weeks of the war, how we defended our capital and we succeeded. So I think it's like the most prominent stories which are circulating in the western press, media and here in Ukraine.

Greg Clark 

I'm interested whether there are stories that are back in the longer history. You know, one of the questions we like to ask that people, Stan, I know it's difficult to think beyond February 2022 at the moment, but when you think back to the longer history of Kyiv, are there stories or myths or ideas about the city that are very popular or are well-known people?

Stan Kukhtyk

So I think just to think about stories. So the first one is how Kyiv was founded by three brothers Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv and their sister. We also have a monument of the founders of Kyiv on the side of Dnipro River, a quite popular and green relaxing place. Yeah. What else? We do have Kyiv cakes. Yes. So everyone who is coming to Kyiv, they would like to get this Kyiv cakes.

Greg Clark 

Tell us about the Kyiv cakes, please.

Stan Kukhtyk

Yeah. I mean, like, it's the main cakes that are produced here in Kyiv by different companies. And everyone, I mean, even for my parents and parents of my wife, when they come into Kyiv from other regions of Ukraine they would like to get this piece of cake on the railway station. You have all these buses, you know, where you can find it.

Greg Clark 

Is it made from particular ingredients? Does it have certain flavours? What makes a Kyiv cake, a Kyiv cake?

Stan Kukhtyk

It's difficult for me to translate it into English, yeah, but it's different from other cakes. So it's like flavour and all the nuts that we have, all that process of production of these cakes. It also produced by ROSHEN company, like a big company owned by our previous President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. So yeah, it's Kyiv cakes are quite popular and Kyiv chestnuts, Pechersk chestnuts, also like a story that many people would like to hear how they appeared, why chestnuts and so on. It's like a long history. There are several versions of how they appeared in Kyiv, starting from the Russian Empire and another version stating that it was the chestnuts appeared in Kyiv after the Second World War. And we have like days, on Saturdays when all citizens of Kyiv went down the streets to clean the streets and to make all these green trees and so on. And I don't know why, but many of them use chestnuts. So we have it everywhere in Kyiv.

Greg Clark 

It's really nice to hear that. And of course, we don't want to be superficial because we know the context that you're in at the moment. But reaching back into some of the cultural history of the city is very important because we have to know what we're defending, what you're defending. I was interested, Stan, that you said earlier on, when I could hear, that there are many different churches, temples, places of religion, synagogues in Kyiv. Can you just say a little bit more about the religious life of the city, historically and today? It seems like it's a multi faith, multi religious city. Why and how is that?

Stan Kukhtyk

I'm not sure why. Well, so it's like, you know, all relates to diversity. For example, when being in London, London is really diverse city. Kyiv as well. Not so much, not so much diverse as other western cities, you know. But we have all the synagogues and temples and churches. Churches are mainly Orthodox because the Prince Volodymyr the Great who brought this culture to Ukraine, to Kyiv at the time. And we have, I mean, even now we have people who are serving in the armed forces of Ukraine from different regions from Chechnya, from Abkhazia, from Russia, from Baltic countries, you know, and we have this diversity here in Kyiv. And you know what? Many, especially younger generation, many people in Kyiv, they've been to western countries, and they know what diversity means and how to respect other culture and tradition. And what we're doing here in the universities as well, we try to teach our students to be respectful to other nations, to other cultures and traditions. And we have many foreigners here in Kyiv, and you can freely speak with them and exchange your ideas, you know your experience. So that's why, truly, Kyiv is so diversified.

Greg Clark 

And it's interesting, Stan, that both the President and the Prime Minister, if I'm correct, are both men of Jewish background. What's the story of Jewish people in Kyiv?

Stan Kukhtyk

I'm not a big expert in Jewish people in history. All I know that we have a synagogue in the centre of Kyiv, and I'm not sure how Jewish people appeared on our land. But I know Golda Meir, for example, she was born in Kyiv and she was a Prime Minister of Israel and she had a prominent role in the development of Israel. I don't know. Maybe it's due to our openness and struggle. So as I told you, for thousands of years we've been struggling for our independence and self-determination. And I think that we are succeeding and moving forward. So it's like, currently Ukraine, and I think during that time of difficult times of war and invasions, we have great opportunities for different peoples being here and innovate, launch their businesses, helping our people as well and doing a great job in peace and security. And I think that our country in the nearest future will play also a prominent role in providing this peace in security all over the world because it's like in our DNA, and we know that good is good and what is bad, and how should we fare, you know, for other people all over the world.

Greg Clark

What’s your experience of Kyiv at different times of the year? Could you talk a little bit about that, Stan?

Stan Kukhtyk

Yeah, it's amazing times, summer and winter. For example, before the full-scale invasion, yeah, you could meet people driving a car and snowboarders on the back, you know, on the roads. So it was amazing, yeah, so I saw a couple of times. And so we have, during the winter, we have snow and Kyiv is amazing with all the lights, you know, shining on the snow on the streets. Yeah, usually we have problems with traffic and cleaning the streets, but it's okay for us because we are used to overcome all these barriers, you know, in Kyiv. And during the summer, so it's amazing to be on the Dnipro River, to be on the islands in the middle of the Dnipro River because it's great places where people can lie on the beach, you know, swim, relaxing, all the parks without cars, mainly without cars, you know, sports activities and this whole socialisation and communication between people. So just imagine you are in the centre of a big city, and you can relax as you are, like in wild nature, so it's really great.

Greg Clark 

And the hottest temperature in the summer and the coldest temperature in the winter?

Stan Kukhtyk

So this summer, a couple of weeks ago, we had around 40-42 degrees. And yeah, unfortunately, all this climate change is really dangerous because I'm currently personally responsible for running a couple of climate neutrality projects here in Ukraine, together with European partners. And as for winter, I remember, you know, we had great winters when I was a young boy around, like 20/25, years ago when we had, like, snow coverage of one metre. Unfortunately, we don't have it right now. But, yeah, it's snowing from time to time. And it's also a great, great time for children, for adults to relax and to feel winter and snow. Because I remember when I've been to London, it's quite rare you can see the snow. Yeah, but we do have these changes of tones there.

Caitlin Morrissey

Well, that sort of leads me into a question about the misconceptions that people have about Kyiv that you encounter. I think one of them is that it's maybe a perpetually cold city, and people might not know that it does reach temperatures of 30 to 40 degrees in the summer. But are there any other misconceptions that you encounter about Kyiv, for instance, when you were in London or in France, that you just thought, no, you have got it wrong here about the city?

Stan Kukhtyk

You know what I also thought about this question, but I don't-- like, for example, in France, in Paris, there are some stories misconceptions what French people like or don't like. I'm not sure that we, I can't remember any misconceptions you know that we have here in Kyiv, unfortunately.

Caitlin Morrissey 

No, no, it’s a good thing. It's a well-understood city then, as far as you see it?

Stan Kukhtyk

Yeah, many might say that, you know, we are going to political side and like that Ukrainians and Kyiv citizens especially like public servants and politicians are corrupted. Yes, we do have problems with this issue but it's not like all over Ukraine or Kyiv, and we have a strong civil society which try to control all these unfairness actions from politicians and public authorities.

Caitlin Morrissey 

What does the future hold for Kyiv and how will its DNA and everything that we've spoken about shape that future?

Stan Kukhtyk 

I would like to say that in the nearest future, Kyiv will be the centre of military tech innovations, strong civil society, new approaches in volunteerism and cohesion, resilience. And I think that in the nearest future, Kyiv will be one of the first decarbonised city in the world because it's also our problem and our necessity. Many of our generation facilities are destroyed, and we are trying to build this diversified green system. So probably, yeah, in the nearest future, Kyiv will be one of the most decarbonised cities in the world.

Caitlin Morrissey 

Thank you, Stan. And then the final question to ask you is, do you feel that you've been able to say everything that you wanted to say about the DNA of Kyiv in this conversation? Was there anything else you would have wanted to add if we'd have asked a different question?

Stan Kukhtyk

All what I've said is my thoughts, my feelings, you know? My experience of living in Kyiv and being here talking with different peoples, being at my university, and speaking with young generations from all over Ukraine who are coming here to get all these opportunities that our capital of Ukraine provides to them.