News item | 30-05-2022 | 13:29
The Dutch embassy in Ukraine has recently started working again with a small team from Kyiv. The random Russian missile attacks, the lack of fuel, among other things, and the unclear security situation make work here difficult and stressful. The Dutch are strongly advised not to travel to Ukraine at the moment, says Dutch ambassador Jennes de Mol. “The travel advice is still red and for good reason.”
Almost all EU countries have now reopened their embassies in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. Russia has withdrawn from the city, but is carrying out daily air strikes on various parts of the country. The Dutch ambassador Jennes de Mol, who has been back in Kyiv with a small team since the end of April, regularly spends hours in an air raid shelter. The embassy staff in Kyiv maintains political contacts with the Ukrainian government and the international community and assesses the security situation. Other embassy personnel work from Germany, western Ukraine and The Hague.
The return of the Dutch embassy is also a gesture to give political support to Ukraine, says De Mol. In addition, the embassy is involved in humanitarian aid, trade and the economy and reconstruction activities in which the Netherlands is involved.
‘Don’t come to Ukraine. It’s not for nothing that the travel advice is red’.
Since the return to Kyiv, the embassy has noticed that Dutch people regularly return to Ukraine. Sometimes they come to visit relatives, sometimes they return to their company or farm in Ukraine. A single entrepreneur with an interest in doing business also reports in Kyiv.
‘We somewhat expected aid organizations to approach the embassy’, says Ambassador de Mol. “But for everyone else we want to emphasize that it is not yet safe in Ukraine. The travel advice for Ukraine is therefore still red for a reason. The consular section of the embassy in Kyiv is temporarily closed. That means that we can only provide minimal help to Dutch people who get into trouble in Ukraine.’
bomb shelter
Ambassador De Mol and his team are experiencing firsthand that the situation in Kyiv is dangerous. The air raid sirens go off several times a day in the capital. The ambassador occasionally spends several hours in the bomb shelter. Working from the embassy building is not yet safe. There is also hardly any fuel available.
There are many government leaders who are now visiting Kyiv. Recently, Minister Hoekstra of Foreign Affairs also visited the Ukrainian capital. De Mol: ‘These visits can be seen extensively in the media. As a result, people in the Netherlands may think that they can come too. I want to say to them again: don’t come. The situation in western Ukraine is also unpredictable, dangerous and it is completely impossible to estimate the course of the war in the east and south. We just don’t know what the coming weeks and months will look like.’
Rotation System
Should things calm down in Kyiv and the general security situation in Ukraine improve, the travel advice will be adjusted. And in that case, more embassy personnel will certainly return, says De Mol. ‘As colleagues, we now live in different realities. We are now looking at a rotation system for the colleagues who work from Kyiv. It’s stressful and exhausting to work here now.’